Thread (5 messages) 5 messages, 2 authors, 2015-09-17

Re: [PATCH] xfs: add missing ilock around dio write last extent alignment

From: Brian Foster <hidden>
Date: 2015-09-14 13:25:05

On Mon, Sep 14, 2015 at 09:58:35AM +1000, Dave Chinner wrote:
On Wed, Sep 09, 2015 at 10:43:32AM -0400, Brian Foster wrote:
quoted
The iomap codepath (via get_blocks()) acquires and release the inode
lock in the case of a direct write that requires block allocation. This
is because xfs_iomap_write_direct() allocates a transaction, which means
the ilock must be dropped and reacquired after the transaction is
allocated and reserved.

xfs_iomap_write_direct() invokes xfs_iomap_eof_align_last_fsb() before
the transaction is created and thus before the ilock is reacquired. This
can lead to calls to xfs_iread_extents() and reads of the in-core extent
list without any synchronization (via xfs_bmap_eof() and
xfs_bmap_last_extent()). xfs_iread_extents() assert fails if the ilock
is not held, but this is not currently seen in practice as the current
callers had already invoked xfs_bmapi_read().

What has been seen in practice are reports of crashes down in the
xfs_bmap_eof() codepath on direct writes due to seemingly bogus pointer
references from xfs_iext_get_ext(). While an explicit reproducer is not
currently available to confirm the cause of the problem, crash analysis
and code inspection from David Jeffrey had identified the insufficient
locking.

xfs_iomap_eof_align_last_fsb() is called from other contexts with the
inode lock already held. __xfs_get_blocks() acquires and drops the ilock
with variable flags. Therefore, take the simple approach to cycle ilock
around the last extent alignment call from xfs_iomap_write_direct().

Reported-by: David Jeffery <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Brian Foster <redacted>
---
 fs/xfs/xfs_iomap.c | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)
diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_iomap.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_iomap.c
index 1f86033..4d7534e 100644
--- a/fs/xfs/xfs_iomap.c
+++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_iomap.c
@@ -142,7 +142,9 @@ xfs_iomap_write_direct(
 	offset_fsb = XFS_B_TO_FSBT(mp, offset);
 	last_fsb = XFS_B_TO_FSB(mp, ((xfs_ufsize_t)(offset + count)));
 	if ((offset + count) > XFS_ISIZE(ip)) {
+		xfs_ilock(ip, XFS_ILOCK_EXCL);
 		error = xfs_iomap_eof_align_last_fsb(mp, ip, extsz, &last_fsb);
+		xfs_iunlock(ip, XFS_ILOCK_EXCL);
XFS_ILOCK_SHARED?
I suspect that is technically sufficient in this particular call path
given that we've called xfs_bmapi_read(). The problem is that there is a
call to xfs_iread_extents() buried a few calls deep in
xfs_bmap_last_extent(). My understanding is that we need the exclusive
lock because it's not safe for multiple threads to populate the in-core
extent list at the same time, so I don't really want to replace the
existing race with a landmine should the context happen to change in the
future.
Also, looking at __xfs_get_blocks(), we drop the ilock immediately
before calling xfs_iomap_write_direct(), which we already hold in
shared mode for the xfs_bmapi_read() for direct IO.

Can we push that lock dropping into xfs_iomap_write_direct() after
we've done the xfs_iomap_eof_align_last_fsb() call and before we do
transaction reservations so we don't need an extra lock round-trip
here? e.g. xfs_iomap_write_delay() is called under the lock context
held by __xfs_get_blocks()....
That was my initial thought when looking at this code... e.g., to just
carry the lock over and drop it prior to transaction setup. I didn't go
that route because __xfs_get_blocks() uses a variable locking mode and
it seemed ugly to pass along the lock mode to xfs_iomap_direct_write().
Further, given the above it also looked like we'd have to check and
cycle the ilock EXCL if it were ILOCK_SHARED. Finally,
xfs_iomap_direct_write() has a call to xfs_qm_dqattach() which itself
acquires ILOCK_EXCL. Looking at xfs_iomap_write_delay(), we do have a
dqattach_locked() variant but it also expects to have ILOCK_EXCL.

Hmm, so in the common case both the extent list and a quota are handled
once and thus the only notable lock cycle is the align_last_fsb() case.
I think we could do something like this:

- Create a shared lock safe variant of xfs_iomap_eof_align_last_fsb() to
  be called from xfs_iomap_write_direct().
- __xfs_get_blocks() continues to call xfs_ilock_data_map_shared(), but
  unconditionally demotes XFS_ILOCK_EXCL to XFS_ILOCK_SHARED before
  calling xfs_iomap_write_direct().
- xfs_iomap_write_direct() moves the xfs_qm_dqattach() call to
  immediately before the transaction allocation. E.g., it executes the
  existing align_last_fsb() bits and whatnot under XFS_ILOCK_SHARED, drops
  the lock, potentially attaches the quota and carries on as normal with
  the transaction.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the shared lock safe version of
xfs_iomap_eof_align_last_fsb(). The xfs_iread_extents() call is a few
calls deep and xfs_bmap_last_extent() is called from other contexts. I
suppose we could call it as is and pull up an assert to check for
XFS_IFEXTENTS such that the situation is explicitly documented in the
appropriate context (we do already have the assert in
xfs_iread_extents() if it were called). Also, I take it we can safely
assume the in-core extent list is still around if we still hold the lock
from the xfs_bmapi_read() call. Thoughts? I guess I'll float another
patch...

Brian
Cheers,

Dave.
-- 
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com

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