From: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
To: Marcos Paulo de Souza <mpdesouza@suse.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, live-patching@vger.kernel.org,
jpoimboe@redhat.com, joe.lawrence@redhat.com, pmladek@suse.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 4/4] livepatch/shadow: Add garbage collection of shadow variables
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2022 18:03:27 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20221104010327.wa256pos75dczt4x@treble> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20221026194122.11761-5-mpdesouza@suse.com>
On Wed, Oct 26, 2022 at 04:41:22PM -0300, Marcos Paulo de Souza wrote:
> The life of shadow variables is not completely trivial to maintain.
> They might be used by more livepatches and more livepatched objects.
> They should stay as long as there is any user.
>
> In practice, it requires to implement reference counting in callbacks
> of all users. They should register all the user and remove the shadow
> variables only when there is no user left.
>
> This patch hides the reference counting into the klp_shadow API.
> The counter is connected with the shadow variable @id. It requires
> an API to take and release the reference. The release function also
> calls the related dtor() when defined.
>
> An easy solution would be to add some get_ref()/put_ref() API.
> But it would need to get called from pre()/post_un() callbacks.
> It might be easy to forget a callback and make it wrong.
>
> A more safe approach is to associate the klp_shadow_type with
> klp_objects that use the shadow variables. The livepatch core
> code might then handle the reference counters on background.
>
> The shadow variable type might then be added into a new @shadow_types
> member of struct klp_object. They will get then automatically registered
> and unregistered when the object is being livepatched. The registration
> increments the reference count. Unregistration decreases the reference
> count. All shadow variables of the given type are freed when the reference
> count reaches zero.
>
> All klp_shadow_alloc/get/free functions also checks whether the requested
> type is registered. It will help to catch missing registration and might
> also help to catch eventual races.
Is there a reason the shadow variable lifetime is tied to klp_object
rather than klp_patch?
I get the feeling the latter would be easier to implement (no reference
counting; also maybe can be auto-detected with THIS_MODULE?) and harder
for the patch author to mess up (by accidentally omitting an object
which uses it).
--
Josh
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2022-11-04 1:03 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 38+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2022-10-26 19:41 [PATCH v2 0/4] livepatch: Add garbage collection for shadow variables Marcos Paulo de Souza
2022-10-26 19:41 ` [PATCH v2 1/4] livepatch/shadow: Separate code to get or use pre-allocated shadow variable Marcos Paulo de Souza
2022-10-31 15:44 ` Petr Mladek
2022-10-26 19:41 ` [PATCH v2 2/4] livepatch/shadow: Separate code removing all shadow variables for a given id Marcos Paulo de Souza
2022-10-26 19:41 ` [PATCH v2 3/4] livepatch/shadow: Introduce klp_shadow_type structure Marcos Paulo de Souza
2022-10-31 16:02 ` Petr Mladek
2023-01-31 4:36 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2022-10-26 19:41 ` [PATCH v2 4/4] livepatch/shadow: Add garbage collection of shadow variables Marcos Paulo de Souza
2022-11-04 1:03 ` Josh Poimboeuf [this message]
2022-11-04 10:25 ` Petr Mladek
2022-11-08 1:32 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2022-11-08 9:14 ` Petr Mladek
2022-11-08 18:44 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2022-11-09 14:36 ` Petr Mladek
2023-02-04 23:59 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-02-17 16:22 ` Petr Mladek
2022-11-11 9:20 ` Nicolai Stange
2022-11-11 9:55 ` Petr Mladek
2022-11-13 18:51 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-01-17 15:01 ` Petr Mladek
2023-01-25 23:22 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-01-26 9:36 ` Petr Mladek
2023-02-04 19:34 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-01-31 4:40 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-01-31 14:23 ` Petr Mladek
2023-01-31 21:17 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-02-02 13:58 ` Petr Mladek
2023-02-01 0:18 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-02-02 10:14 ` Petr Mladek
2023-02-04 17:37 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2022-11-01 10:43 ` [PATCH v2 0/4] livepatch: Add garbage collection for " Petr Mladek
2023-01-23 17:33 ` Marcos Paulo de Souza
2023-01-24 15:51 ` Petr Mladek
2023-01-26 16:35 ` Petr Mladek
2023-01-26 17:05 ` Joe Lawrence
2023-01-26 18:30 ` Josh Poimboeuf
2023-01-27 10:51 ` Petr Mladek
2023-01-27 11:08 ` Marcos Paulo de Souza
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