linux.git/fs/proc/proc_sysctl.c, branch v6.18.21

Merge tag 'pull-dcache' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs

2025-07-28T16:17:57+00:00

Pull dentry d_flags updates from Al Viro:
 "The current exclusion rules for dentry->d_flags stores are rather
  unpleasant. The basic rules are simple:

   - stores to dentry->d_flags are OK under dentry->d_lock

   - stores to dentry->d_flags are OK in the dentry constructor, before
     becomes potentially visible to other threads

  Unfortunately, there's a couple of exceptions to that, and that's
  where the headache comes from.

  The main PITA comes from d_set_d_op(); that primitive sets ->d_op of
  dentry and adjusts the flags that correspond to presence of individual
  methods. It's very easy to misuse; existing uses _are_ safe, but proof
  of correctness is brittle.

  Use in __d_alloc() is safe (we are within a constructor), but we might
  as well precalculate the initial value of 'd_flags' when we set the
  default ->d_op for given superblock and set 'd_flags' directly instead
  of messing with that helper.

  The reasons why other uses are safe are bloody convoluted; I'm not
  going to reproduce it here. See [1] for gory details, if you care. The
  critical part is using d_set_d_op() only just prior to
  d_splice_alias(), which makes a combination of d_splice_alias() with
  setting ->d_op, etc a natural replacement primitive.

  Better yet, if we go that way, it's easy to take setting ->d_op and
  modifying 'd_flags' under ->d_lock, which eliminates the headache as
  far as 'd_flags' exclusion rules are concerned. Other exceptions are
  minor and easy to deal with.

  What this series does:

   - d_set_d_op() is no longer available; instead a new primitive
     (d_splice_alias_ops()) is provided, equivalent to combination of
     d_set_d_op() and d_splice_alias().

   - new field of struct super_block - 's_d_flags'. This sets the
     default value of 'd_flags' to be used when allocating dentries on
     this filesystem.

   - new primitive for setting 's_d_op': set_default_d_op(). This
     replaces stores to 's_d_op' at mount time.

     All in-tree filesystems converted; out-of-tree ones will get caught
     by the compiler ('s_d_op' is renamed, so stores to it will be
     caught). 's_d_flags' is set by the same primitive to match the
     's_d_op'.

   - a lot of filesystems had sb->s_d_op->d_delete equal to
     always_delete_dentry; that is equivalent to setting
     DCACHE_DONTCACHE in 'd_flags', so such filesystems can bloody well
     set that bit in 's_d_flags' and drop 'd_delete()' from
     dentry_operations.

     In quite a few cases that results in empty dentry_operations, which
     means that we can get rid of those.

   - kill simple_dentry_operations - not needed anymore

   - massage d_alloc_parallel() to get rid of the other exception wrt
     'd_flags' stores - we can set DCACHE_PAR_LOOKUP as soon as we
     allocate the new dentry; no need to delay that until we commit to
     using the sucker.

  As the result, 'd_flags' stores are all either under ->d_lock or done
  before the dentry becomes visible in any shared data structures"

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250224010624.GT1977892@ZenIV/ [1]

* tag 'pull-dcache' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs: (21 commits)
  configfs: use DCACHE_DONTCACHE
  debugfs: use DCACHE_DONTCACHE
  efivarfs: use DCACHE_DONTCACHE instead of always_delete_dentry()
  9p: don't bother with always_delete_dentry
  ramfs, hugetlbfs, mqueue: set DCACHE_DONTCACHE
  kill simple_dentry_operations
  devpts, sunrpc, hostfs: don't bother with ->d_op
  shmem: no dentry retention past the refcount reaching zero
  d_alloc_parallel(): set DCACHE_PAR_LOOKUP earlier
  make d_set_d_op() static
  simple_lookup(): just set DCACHE_DONTCACHE
  tracefs: Add d_delete to remove negative dentries
  set_default_d_op(): calculate the matching value for ->d_flags
  correct the set of flags forbidden at d_set_d_op() time
  split d_flags calculation out of d_set_d_op()
  new helper: set_default_d_op()
  fuse: no need for special dentry_operations for root dentry
  switch procfs from d_set_d_op() to d_splice_alias_ops()
  new helper: d_splice_alias_ops()
  procfs: kill ->proc_dops
  ...

fix proc_sys_compare() handling of in-lookup dentries

2025-07-04T00:59:09+00:00

There's one case where ->d_compare() can be called for an in-lookup
dentry; usually that's nothing special from ->d_compare() point of
view, but... proc_sys_compare() is weird.

The thing is, /proc/sys subdirectories can look differently for
different processes.  Up to and including having the same name
resolve to different dentries - all of them hashed.

The way it's done is ->d_compare() refusing to admit a match unless
this dentry is supposed to be visible to this caller.  The information
needed to discriminate between them is stored in inode; it is set
during proc_sys_lookup() and until it's done d_splice_alias() we really
can't tell who should that dentry be visible for.

Normally there's no negative dentries in /proc/sys; we can run into
a dying dentry in RCU dcache lookup, but those can be safely rejected.

However, ->d_compare() is also called for in-lookup dentries, before
they get positive - or hashed, for that matter.  In case of match
we will wait until dentry leaves in-lookup state and repeat ->d_compare()
afterwards.  In other words, the right behaviour is to treat the
name match as sufficient for in-lookup dentries; if dentry is not
for us, we'll see that when we recheck once proc_sys_lookup() is
done with it.

While we are at it, fix the misspelled READ_ONCE and WRITE_ONCE there.

Fixes: d9171b934526 ("parallel lookups machinery, part 4 (and last)")
Reported-by: NeilBrown 
Reviewed-by: Christian Brauner 
Reviewed-by: NeilBrown 
Signed-off-by: Al Viro

switch procfs from d_set_d_op() to d_splice_alias_ops()

2025-06-11T02:13:52+00:00

Reviewed-by: Christian Brauner 
Signed-off-by: Al Viro

Pass parent directory inode and expected name to ->d_revalidate()

2025-01-28T00:25:23+00:00

->d_revalidate() often needs to access dentry parent and name; that has
to be done carefully, since the locking environment varies from caller
to caller.  We are not guaranteed that dentry in question will not be
moved right under us - not unless the filesystem is such that nothing
on it ever gets renamed.

It can be dealt with, but that results in boilerplate code that isn't
even needed - the callers normally have just found the dentry via dcache
lookup and want to verify that it's in the right place; they already
have the values of ->d_parent and ->d_name stable.  There is a couple
of exceptions (overlayfs and, to less extent, ecryptfs), but for the
majority of calls that song and dance is not needed at all.

It's easier to make ecryptfs and overlayfs find and pass those values if
there's a ->d_revalidate() instance to be called, rather than doing that
in the instances.

This commit only changes the calling conventions; making use of supplied
values is left to followups.

NOTE: some instances need more than just the parent - things like CIFS
may need to build an entire path from filesystem root, so they need
more precautions than the usual boilerplate.  This series doesn't
do anything to that need - these filesystems have to keep their locking
mechanisms (rename_lock loops, use of dentry_path_raw(), private rwsem
a-la v9fs).

One thing to keep in mind when using name is that name->name will normally
point into the pathname being resolved; the filename in question occupies
name->len bytes starting at name->name, and there is NUL somewhere after it,
but it the next byte might very well be '/' rather than '\0'.  Do not
ignore name->len.

Reviewed-by: Jeff Layton 
Reviewed-by: Gabriel Krisman Bertazi 
Signed-off-by: Al Viro

sysctl: Reduce dput(child) calls in proc_sys_fill_cache()

2024-10-31T10:39:55+00:00

Replace two dput(child) calls with one that occurs immediately before
the IS_ERR evaluation. This transformation can be performed because
dput() gets called regardless of the value returned by IS_ERR(res).

This issue was transformed by using a script for the
semantic patch language like the following.

@extended_adjustment@
expression e, f != { mutex_unlock }, x, y;
@@
+f(e);
 if (...)
 {
 <+... when != \( e = x \| y(..., &e, ...) \)
-   f(e);
 ...+>
 }
-f(e);


Signed-off-by: Markus Elfring 
Reviewed-by: Joel Granados 
Signed-off-by: Joel Granados

sysctl: Convert locking comments to lockdep assertions

2024-10-10T19:01:17+00:00

The assertions work as well as the comment to inform developers about
locking expectations.
Additionally they are validated by lockdep at runtime, making sure the
expectations are met.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh 
Signed-off-by: Joel Granados

sysctl: make internal ctl_tables const

2024-10-09T11:39:11+00:00

Now that the sysctl core can handle registration of
"const struct ctl_table" constify the sysctl internal tables.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh 
Signed-off-by: Joel Granados

sysctl: allow registration of const struct ctl_table

2024-10-09T11:39:11+00:00

Putting structure, especially those containing function pointers,
into read-only memory makes the safer and easier to reason about.
Change the sysctl registration APIs to allow registration of
"const struct ctl_table".

Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh 
Acked-by: Kees Cook 
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook  # security/*
Signed-off-by: Joel Granados

sysctl: move internal interfaces to const struct ctl_table

2024-10-09T11:39:11+00:00

As a preparation to make all the core sysctl code work with const struct
ctl_table switch over the internal function to use the const variant.

Some pointers to "struct ctl_table" need to stay non-const as they are
newly allocated and modified before registration.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh 
Signed-off-by: Joel Granados

sysctl: avoid spurious permanent empty tables

2024-09-02T08:37:37+00:00

The test if a table is a permanently empty one, inspects the address of
the registered ctl_table argument.
However as sysctl_mount_point is an empty array and does not occupy and
space it can end up sharing an address with another object in memory.
If that other object itself is a "struct ctl_table" then registering
that table will fail as it's incorrectly recognized as permanently empty.

Avoid this issue by adding a dummy element to the array so that is not
empty anymore.
Explicitly register the table with zero elements as otherwise the dummy
element would be recognized as a sentinel element which would lead to a
runtime warning from the sysctl core.

While the issue seems not being encountered at this time, this seems
mostly to be due to luck.
Also a future change, constifying sysctl_mount_point and root_table, can
reliably trigger this issue on clang 18.

Given that empty arrays are non-standard in the first place it seems
prudent to avoid them if possible.

Fixes: 4a7b29f65094 ("sysctl: move sysctl type to ctl_table_header")
Fixes: a35dd3a786f5 ("sysctl: drop now unnecessary out-of-bounds check")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh 
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/oe-lkp/202408051453.f638857e-lkp@intel.com
Signed-off-by: Joel Granados