| From: |
| Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org> |
| To: |
| linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com,
ebiederm@xmission.com |
| Subject: |
| [PATCH] [0/11] SYSCTL: Use RCU to avoid races with string sysctls |
| Date: |
| Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:20:21 +0100 (CET) |
| Message-ID: |
| <20091221220.243954235@firstfloor.org> |
| Archive-link: |
| Article, Thread
|
With BKL-less sysctls most of the writable string sysctls are racy. There
is no locking on the reader side, so a reader could see an inconsistent
string or worse miss the terminating null and walk of beyond it.
This patch kit adds a new "rcu string" variant to avoid these
problems and convers the racy users. One the writer side the strings are
always copied to new memory and the readers use rcu_read_lock()
to get a stable view. For readers who access the string over
sleeps the reader copies the string.
This is all hidden in a new generic "rcu_string" ADT which can be also
used for other purposes.
This finally implements all the letters in RCU, most other users
leave out the 'C'.
I also fixed the zone order list sysctl to use a mutex to avoid
racing with itself.
I left some obscure users in architectures (sparc, mips) alone and audited
all of the others. The sparc reboot_cmd one has references to asm files
which I didn't want to touch and the mips variant seemd just too obscure.
All the others are not racy.
-Andi
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