kernfs: restructure removal path to fix possible premature return

The recursive nature of kernfs_remove() means that, even if
kernfs_remove() is not allowed to be called multiple times on the same
node, there may be race conditions between removal of parent and its
descendants.  While we can claim that kernfs_remove() shouldn't be
called on one of the descendants while the removal of an ancestor is
in progress, such rule is unnecessarily restrictive and very difficult
to enforce.  It's better to simply allow invoking kernfs_remove() as
the caller sees fit as long as the caller ensures that the node is
accessible.

The current behavior in such situations is broken.  Whoever enters
removal path first takes the node off the hierarchy and then
deactivates.  Following removers either return as soon as it notices
that it's not the first one or can't even find the target node as it
has already been removed from the hierarchy.  In both cases, the
following removers may finish prematurely while the nodes which should
be removed and drained are still being processed by the first one.

This patch restructures so that multiple removers, whether through
recursion or direction invocation, always follow the following rules.

* When there are multiple concurrent removers, only one puts the base
  ref.

* Regardless of which one puts the base ref, all removers are blocked
  until the target node is fully deactivated and removed.

To achieve the above, removal path now first marks all descendants
including self REMOVED and then deactivates and unlinks leftmost
descendant one-by-one.  kernfs_deactivate() is called directly from
__kernfs_removal() and drops and regrabs kernfs_mutex for each
descendant to drain active refs.  As this means that multiple removers
can enter kernfs_deactivate() for the same node, the function is
updated so that it can handle multiple deactivators of the same node -
only one actually deactivates but all wait till drain completion.

The restructured removal path guarantees that a removed node gets
unlinked only after the node is deactivated and drained.  Combined
with proper multiple deactivator handling, this guarantees that any
invocation of kernfs_remove() returns only after the node itself and
all its descendants are deactivated, drained and removed.

v2: Draining separated into a separate loop (used to be in the same
    loop as unlink) and done from __kernfs_deactivate().  This is to
    allow exposing deactivation as a separate interface later.

    Root node removal was broken in v1 patch.  Fixed.

v3: Revert most of v2 except for root node removal fix and
    simplification of KERNFS_REMOVED setting loop.

v4: Refreshed on top of ("kernfs: make kernfs_deactivate() honor
    KERNFS_LOCKDEP flag").

Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>

0 files changed, 0 insertions, 0 deletions