The exclusion of complex operations in sem_lock() is insufficient: after
acquiring the per-semaphore lock, a simple op must first check that
sem_perm.lock is not locked and only after that test check
complex_count. The current code does it the other way around - and that
creates a race. Details are below.
The patch is a complete rewrite of sem_lock(), based in part on the code
from Mike Galbraith. It removes all gotos and all loops and thus the
risk of livelocks.
I have tested the patch (together with the next one) on my i3 laptop and
it didn't cause any problems.
The bug is probably also present in 3.10 and 3.11, but for these kernels
it might be simpler just to move the test of sma->complex_count after
the spin_is_locked() test.
Details of the bug:
Assume:
- sma->complex_count = 0.
- Thread 1: semtimedop(complex op that must sleep)
- Thread 2: semtimedop(simple op).
Pseudo-Trace:
Thread 1: sem_lock(): acquire sem_perm.lock
Thread 1: sem_lock(): check for ongoing simple ops
Nothing ongoing, thread 2 is still before sem_lock().
Thread 1: try_atomic_semop()
<<< preempted.
Thread 2: sem_lock():
static inline int sem_lock(struct sem_array *sma, struct sembuf *sops,
int nsops)
{
int locknum;
again:
if (nsops == 1 && !sma->complex_count) {
struct sem *sem = sma->sem_base + sops->sem_num;
/* Lock just the semaphore we are interested in. */
spin_lock(&sem->lock);
/*
* If sma->complex_count was set while we were spinning,
* we may need to look at things we did not lock here.
*/
if (unlikely(sma->complex_count)) {
spin_unlock(&sem->lock);
goto lock_array;
}
<<<<<<<<<
<<< complex_count is still 0.
<<<
<<< Here it is preempted
<<<<<<<<<
Thread 1: try_atomic_semop() returns, notices that it must sleep.
Thread 1: increases sma->complex_count.
Thread 1: drops sem_perm.lock
Thread 2:
/*
* Another process is holding the global lock on the
* sem_array; we cannot enter our critical section,
* but have to wait for the global lock to be released.
*/
if (unlikely(spin_is_locked(&sma->sem_perm.lock))) {
spin_unlock(&sem->lock);
spin_unlock_wait(&sma->sem_perm.lock);
goto again;
}
<<< sem_perm.lock already dropped, thus no "goto again;"
locknum = sops->sem_num;
Signed-off-by: Manfred Spraul <manfred@colorfullife.com> Cc: Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@online.de> Cc: Rik van Riel <riel@redhat.com> Cc: Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr.bueso@hp.com> Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> [3.10+] Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>