From f7e6ced4061da509f737541ca4dbd44d83a6e82f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:44:23 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] allow delayed freeing of ctl_table_header Refcount the sucker; instead of freeing it by the end of unregistration just drop the refcount and free only when it hits zero. Make sure that we _always_ make ->unregistering non-NULL in start_unregistering(). That allows anybody to get a reference to such puppy, preventing its freeing and reuse. It does *not* block unregistration. Anybody who holds such a reference can * try to grab a "use" reference (ctl_head_grab()); that will succeeds if and only if it hadn't entered unregistration yet. If it succeeds, we can use it in all normal ways until we release the "use" reference (with ctl_head_finish()). Note that this relies on having ->unregistering become non-NULL in all cases when one starts to unregister the sucker. * keep pointers to ctl_table entries; they *can* be freed if the entire thing is unregistered. However, if ctl_head_grab() succeeds, we know that unregistration had not happened (and will not happen until ctl_head_finish()) and such pointers can be used safely. IOW, now we can have inodes under /proc/sys keep references to ctl_table entries, protecting them with references to ctl_table_header and grabbing the latter for the duration of operations that require access to ctl_table. That won't cause deadlocks, since unregistration will not be stopped by mere keeping a reference to ctl_table_header. Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> --- include/linux/sysctl.h | 6 ++++++ 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+) (limited to 'include') diff --git a/include/linux/sysctl.h b/include/linux/sysctl.h index c1e0cf408af..956264d09ba 100644 --- a/include/linux/sysctl.h +++ b/include/linux/sysctl.h @@ -957,6 +957,11 @@ extern void setup_sysctl_set(struct ctl_table_set *p, struct ctl_table_set *parent, int (*is_seen)(struct ctl_table_set *)); +struct ctl_table_header; + +extern void sysctl_head_get(struct ctl_table_header *); +extern void sysctl_head_put(struct ctl_table_header *); +extern struct ctl_table_header *sysctl_head_grab(struct ctl_table_header *); extern struct ctl_table_header *sysctl_head_next(struct ctl_table_header *prev); extern struct ctl_table_header *__sysctl_head_next(struct nsproxy *namespaces, struct ctl_table_header *prev); @@ -1073,6 +1078,7 @@ struct ctl_table_header struct ctl_table *ctl_table; struct list_head ctl_entry; int used; + int count; struct completion *unregistering; struct ctl_table *ctl_table_arg; struct ctl_table_root *root; -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2