To: cl@linux.com
Cc: glommer@parallels.com, penberg@kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [linux-next-20130422] Bug in SLAB?
From: Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp>
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	<0000013e5b56d067-7982dfa6-08a2-4c48-ad77-6888b5114c5f-000000@email.amazonses.com>
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Message-Id: <201305012114.AED78178.tFSHFQOOJLMOFV@I-love.SAKURA.ne.jp>
Date: Wed, 1 May 2013 21:14:23 +0900
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Christoph Lameter wrote:
> > "kmalloc() returning NULL for these allocations" is needed by "try kmalloc()
> > first, fallback to vmalloc()" allocation. There are kernel modules which expect
> > kmalloc() to return NULL rather than oops when the requested size is larger
> > than KMALLOC_MAX_SIZE bytes. If kmalloc() suddenly starts triggering oops, such
> > modules will break.
> 
> This behavior has been in there for years. Why try a kmalloc that
> always fails since the size is too big?
> 

This is nothing but a testcase. Size argument is sometimes unknown and/or
user-controlled. We expect that not only kmalloc() etc. but also kstrdup(),
kmemdup(), krealloc() etc. do not trigger oops. I think that checking the size
in SLAB/SLUB is the only safe way.

> > Anyway, there is a regression we want to fix : we won't be able to boot
> > Linux 3.10-rc1 for x86_32 built with CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB=y &&
> > CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK=y && CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC=y .
> > ("Fix off by one error in slab.h" did not fix the regression.)
> 
> Hmm... Where does this fail? In slab?
> 
It hangs (with CPU#0 spinning) immediately after printing

  Decompressing Linux... Parsing ELF... done.
  Booting the kernel.

lines. Today I heard that gdb can be used if I use qemu, but I doubt that I can
manage time to understand and find the exact location within a few days.

The culprit location is possibly in SLAB because the kernel boots if built with
CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB=n || CONFIG_DEBUG_SPINLOCK=n || CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC=n.
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