On Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 03:01:51PM -0300, Carlos Maiolino wrote:

While xfs_buftarg_shrink() is freeing buffers from the dispose list (filled with
buffers from lru list), there is a possibility to have xfs_buf_stale() racing
with it, and removing buffers from dispose list before xfs_buftarg_shrink() does
it.

This happens because xfs_buftarg_shrink() handle the dispose list without
locking and the test condition in xfs_buf_stale() checks for the buffer being in
*any* list:

if (!list_empty(&bp->b_lru)

If the buffer happens to be on dispose list, this causes the buffer counter of
lru list (btp->bt_lru_nr) to be decremented twice (once in xfs_buftarg_shrink()
and another in xfs_buf_stale()) causing a wrong account usage of the lru list.

This may cause xfs_buftarg_shrink() to return a wrong value to the memory
shrinker shrink_slab(), and such account error may also cause an underflowed
value to be returned; since the counter is lower than the current number of
items in the lru list, a decrement may happen when the counter is 0, causing
an underflow on the counter.

The fix uses a new flag field (and a new buffer flag) to serialize buffer
handling during the shrink process. The new flag field has been designed to use
btp->bt_lru_lock/unlock instead of xfs_buf_lock/unlock mechanism.

dchinner, sandeen, aquini and aris also deserve credits for this.

Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino <redacted>

Looks good.

Reviewed-by: Dave Chinner <redacted>

-- 
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com

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