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* 2.4.10pre VM changes: Potential race condition on swap code
@ 2001-09-11 22:40 Marcelo Tosatti
  2001-09-11  0:14 ` Hugh Dickins
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 21+ messages in thread
From: Marcelo Tosatti @ 2001-09-11 22:40 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Linus Torvalds, Hugh Dickins; +Cc: Rik van Riel, lkml


Hi, 

It seems there is a potential race caused by swap changes. The reason is
that we do not increase the swap entry on swapin readahead. The comment on
top of swap_duplicate() in read_swap_cache_async() says:

        /*
         * Make sure the swap entry is still in use.  It could have gone
         * while caller waited for BKL, or while allocating page above,
         * or while allocating page in prior call via swapin_readahead.
         */
        if (!swap_duplicate(entry))     /* Account for the swap cache */
                goto out_free_page;

The BLK protects the logic against concurrent read_swap_cache_async()
calls, but it does not protect get_swap_page() in try_to_swap_out().

I do not see what protects us (increasing the swap map entry on
valid_swaphandles on older kernels used to be the protection) against the
following race:

- swapin_readahead() finds used entry on swap map. (valid_swaphandles)
- user of this entry deletes the swap map entry, so it becomes free. Then:

CPU0					CPU1
read_swap_cache_async()			try_to_swap_out()
Second __find_get_page() fails
					get_swap_page() returns swap
					entry which CPU0 is trying to read
					from.
swap_duplicate() for the entry
succeeds: CPU1 just allocated it.
					
add_to_swap_cache()			add_to_swap_cache()


Now we got two pages on the hash tables for the "same" data. From this
point on there is no guarantee _which_ data will be returned when searched
via pagecache lookup.

Linus, Hugh ?


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 21+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2001-09-22  9:19 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 21+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2001-09-11 22:40 2.4.10pre VM changes: Potential race condition on swap code Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-11  0:14 ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-13  1:35   ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-13  7:15     ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-13 19:34       ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-13 20:31         ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-13 20:36           ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-13 22:04             ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-13 22:29               ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-14 13:14                 ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-14 11:45               ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-14 18:05                 ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-14 19:44                   ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-14 21:55                   ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-14 21:10                     ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-15  0:12                       ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-15  6:29                         ` Hugh Dickins
2001-09-15 11:39                       ` [PATCH] Re: 2.4.10pre VM changes: Potential race Hugh Dickins
2001-09-17 18:49                         ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-18  4:00                         ` Marcelo Tosatti
2001-09-22  9:19                     ` 2.4.10pre VM changes: Potential race condition on swap code Andrea Arcangeli

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