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Date:   Wed, 7 Nov 2018 09:16:44 -0800
From:   Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
To:     Mike Rapoport <rppt@linux.ibm.com>
Cc:     Daniel Colascione <dancol@google.com>,
        linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, timmurray@google.com,
        joelaf@google.com, surenb@google.com,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        Roman Gushchin <guro@fb.com>, Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>,
        "Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@linux.intel.com>,
        "Dennis Zhou (Facebook)" <dennisszhou@gmail.com>,
        Prashant Dhamdhere <pdhamdhe@redhat.com>,
        "open list:DOCUMENTATION" <linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] Document /proc/pid PID reuse behavior
Message-ID: <20181107171644.GK3074@bombadil.infradead.org>
References: <20181031150625.147369-1-dancol@google.com>
 <20181105132205.138695-1-dancol@google.com>
 <20181106060113.GA4499@rapoport-lnx>
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On Tue, Nov 06, 2018 at 08:01:13AM +0200, Mike Rapoport wrote:
> > diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
> > index 12a5e6e693b6..0b14460f721d 100644
> > --- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
> > +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
> > @@ -125,6 +125,13 @@ process running on the system, which is named after the process ID (PID).
> >  The link  self  points  to  the  process reading the file system. Each process
> >  subdirectory has the entries listed in Table 1-1.
> >  
> > +Note that an open a file descriptor to /proc/<pid> or to any of its

"open file descriptor" (the "a" is unnecessary)

> > +contained files or subdirectories does not prevent <pid> being reused
> > +for some other process in the event that <pid> exits. Operations on
> > +open /proc/<pid> file descriptors corresponding to dead processes
> > +never act on any new process that the kernel may, through chance, have
> > +also assigned the process ID <pid>. Instead, operations on these FDs
> > +usually fail with ESRCH.

The paragraph is a bit wordy.  More pithy:

An open file descriptor for /proc/<pid> (or any of the files or
subdirectories in it) does not prevent <pid> from being reused after
the process exits.  Operations on a file descriptor referring to a dead
process usually return ESRCH.  They do not act on any new process which
has been assigned the same <pid>.