The kernel's implementation of notifier chains is unsafe. There is no
protection against entries being added to or removed from a chain while the
chain is in use. The issues were discussed in this thread:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=113018709002036&w=2
We noticed that notifier chains in the kernel fall into two basic usage
classes:
"Blocking" chains are always called from a process context
and the callout routines are allowed to sleep;
"Atomic" chains can be called from an atomic context and
the callout routines are not allowed to sleep.
We decided to codify this distinction and make it part of the API. Therefore
this set of patches introduces three new, parallel APIs: one for blocking
notifiers, one for atomic notifiers, and one for "raw" notifiers (which is
really just the old API under a new name). New kinds of data structures are
used for the heads of the chains, and new routines are defined for
registration, unregistration, and calling a chain. The three APIs are
explained in include/linux/notifier.h and their implementation is in
kernel/sys.c.
With atomic and blocking chains, the implementation guarantees that the chain
links will not be corrupted and that chain callers will not get messed up by
entries being added or removed. For raw chains the implementation provides no
guarantees at all; users of this API must provide their own protections. (The
idea was that situations may come up where the assumptions of the atomic and
blocking APIs are not appropriate, so it should be possible for users to
handle these things in their own way.)
There are some limitations, which should not be too hard to live with. For
atomic/blocking chains, registration and unregistration must always be done in
a process context since the chain is protected by a mutex/rwsem. Also, a
callout routine for a non-raw chain must not try to register or unregister
entries on its own chain. (This did happen in a couple of places and the code
had to be changed to avoid it.)
Since atomic chains may be called from within an NMI handler, they cannot use
spinlocks for synchronization. Instead we use RCU. The overhead falls almost
entirely in the unregister routine, which is okay since unregistration is much
less frequent that calling a chain.
Here is the list of chains that we adjusted and their classifications. None
of them use the raw API, so for the moment it is only a placeholder.
ATOMIC CHAINS
-------------
arch/i386/kernel/traps.c: i386die_chain
arch/ia64/kernel/traps.c: ia64die_chain
arch/powerpc/kernel/traps.c: powerpc_die_chain
arch/sparc64/kernel/traps.c: sparc64die_chain
arch/x86_64/kernel/traps.c: die_chain
drivers/char/ipmi/ipmi_si_intf.c: xaction_notifier_list
kernel/panic.c: panic_notifier_list
kernel/profile.c: task_free_notifier
net/bluetooth/hci_core.c: hci_notifier
net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_core.c: ip_conntrack_chain
net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_conntrack_core.c: ip_conntrack_expect_chain
net/ipv6/addrconf.c: inet6addr_chain
net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c: nf_conntrack_chain
net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_core.c: nf_conntrack_expect_chain
net/netlink/af_netlink.c: netlink_chain
BLOCKING CHAINS
---------------
arch/powerpc/platforms/pseries/reconfig.c: pSeries_reconfig_chain
arch/s390/kernel/process.c: idle_chain
arch/x86_64/kernel/process.c idle_notifier
drivers/base/memory.c: memory_chain
drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c cpufreq_policy_notifier_list
drivers/cpufreq/cpufreq.c cpufreq_transition_notifier_list
drivers/macintosh/adb.c: adb_client_list
drivers/macintosh/via-pmu.c sleep_notifier_list
drivers/macintosh/via-pmu68k.c sleep_notifier_list
drivers/macintosh/windfarm_core.c wf_client_list
drivers/usb/core/notify.c usb_notifier_list
drivers/video/fbmem.c fb_notifier_list
kernel/cpu.c cpu_chain
kernel/module.c module_notify_list
kernel/profile.c munmap_notifier
kernel/profile.c task_exit_notifier
kernel/sys.c reboot_notifier_list
net/core/dev.c netdev_chain
net/decnet/dn_dev.c: dnaddr_chain
net/ipv4/devinet.c: inetaddr_chain
It's possible that some of these classifications are wrong. If they are,
please let us know or submit a patch to fix them. Note that any chain that
gets called very frequently should be atomic, because the rwsem read-locking
used for blocking chains is very likely to incur cache misses on SMP systems.
(However, if the chain's callout routines may sleep then the chain cannot be
atomic.)
The patch set was written by Alan Stern and Chandra Seetharaman, incorporating
material written by Keith Owens and suggestions from Paul McKenney and Andrew
Morton.
[jes@sgi.com: restructure the notifier chain initialization macros]
Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Signed-off-by: Chandra Seetharaman <sekharan@us.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Jes Sorensen <jes@sgi.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
include/linux/platform.h contained nothing that was actually used except
the default_idle() prototype, and is therefore removed by this patch.
This patch does the following with the platform specific default_idle()
functions on different architectures:
- remove the unused function:
- parisc
- sparc64
- make the needlessly global function static:
- arm
- h8300
- m68k
- m68knommu
- s390
- v850
- x86_64
- add a prototype in asm/system.h:
- cris
- i386
- ia64
Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Acked-by: Patrick Mochel <mochel@digitalimplant.org>
Acked-by: Kyle McMartin <kyle@parisc-linux.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Set preempt_count of idle_thread to zero before switching off cpu. Otherwise
the preempt_count will be wrong if the cpu is switched on again since the
thread will be reused.
Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
The show_task function walks the kernel stack backchain of processes assuming
that the processes are not running. Since this assumption is not correct
walking the backchain can lead to an addressing exception and therefore to a
kernel hang. So prevent the kernel hang (you still get incorrect results)
verity that all read accesses are within the bounds of the kernel stack before
performing them.
Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
)
From: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
- create one common dump_thread() prototype in kernel.h
- dump_thread() is only used in fs/binfmt_aout.c and can therefore be
removed on all architectures where CONFIG_BINFMT_AOUT is not
available
Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Sanitize some s390 Kconfig options. We have ARCH_S390, ARCH_S390X,
ARCH_S390_31, 64BIT, S390_SUPPORT and COMPAT. Replace these 6 options by
S390, 64BIT and COMPAT.
Signed-off-by: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Make some changes to the NEED_RESCHED and POLLING_NRFLAG to reduce
confusion, and make their semantics rigid. Improves efficiency of
resched_task and some cpu_idle routines.
* In resched_task:
- TIF_NEED_RESCHED is only cleared with the task's runqueue lock held,
and as we hold it during resched_task, then there is no need for an
atomic test and set there. The only other time this should be set is
when the task's quantum expires, in the timer interrupt - this is
protected against because the rq lock is irq-safe.
- If TIF_NEED_RESCHED is set, then we don't need to do anything. It
won't get unset until the task get's schedule()d off.
- If we are running on the same CPU as the task we resched, then set
TIF_NEED_RESCHED and no further action is required.
- If we are running on another CPU, and TIF_POLLING_NRFLAG is *not* set
after TIF_NEED_RESCHED has been set, then we need to send an IPI.
Using these rules, we are able to remove the test and set operation in
resched_task, and make clear the previously vague semantics of
POLLING_NRFLAG.
* In idle routines:
- Enter cpu_idle with preempt disabled. When the need_resched() condition
becomes true, explicitly call schedule(). This makes things a bit clearer
(IMO), but haven't updated all architectures yet.
- Many do a test and clear of TIF_NEED_RESCHED for some reason. According
to the resched_task rules, this isn't needed (and actually breaks the
assumption that TIF_NEED_RESCHED is only cleared with the runqueue lock
held). So remove that. Generally one less locked memory op when switching
to the idle thread.
- Many idle routines clear TIF_POLLING_NRFLAG, and only set it in the inner
most polling idle loops. The above resched_task semantics allow it to be
set until before the last time need_resched() is checked before going into
a halt requiring interrupt wakeup.
Many idle routines simply never enter such a halt, and so POLLING_NRFLAG
can be always left set, completely eliminating resched IPIs when rescheduling
the idle task.
POLLING_NRFLAG width can be increased, to reduce the chance of resched IPIs.
Signed-off-by: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Cc: Con Kolivas <kernel@kolivas.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Run idle threads with preempt disabled.
Also corrected a bugs in arm26's cpu_idle (make it actually call schedule()).
How did it ever work before?
Might fix the CPU hotplugging hang which Nigel Cunningham noted.
We think the bug hits if the idle thread is preempted after checking
need_resched() and before going to sleep, then the CPU offlined.
After calling stop_machine_run, the CPU eventually returns from preemption and
into the idle thread and goes to sleep. The CPU will continue executing
previous idle and have no chance to call play_dead.
By disabling preemption until we are ready to explicitly schedule, this bug is
fixed and the idle threads generally become more robust.
From: alexs <ashepard@u.washington.edu>
PPC build fix
From: Yoichi Yuasa <yuasa@hh.iij4u.or.jp>
MIPS build fix
Signed-off-by: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
Signed-off-by: Yoichi Yuasa <yuasa@hh.iij4u.or.jp>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Improved machine check handling. Kernel is now able to receive machine checks
while in kernel mode (system call, interrupt and program check handling).
Also register validation is now performed.
Signed-off-by: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Initial git repository build. I'm not bothering with the full history,
even though we have it. We can create a separate "historical" git
archive of that later if we want to, and in the meantime it's about
3.2GB when imported into git - space that would just make the early
git days unnecessarily complicated, when we don't have a lot of good
infrastructure for it.
Let it rip!
Alan Stern