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From:   ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman)
To:     Bernd Edlinger <bernd.edlinger@hotmail.de>
Cc:     Christian Brauner <christian.brauner@ubuntu.com>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>,
        Jann Horn <jannh@google.com>, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
        Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
        Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@gmail.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
        Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>,
        Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>,
        Andrei Vagin <avagin@gmail.com>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>,
        "Peter Zijlstra \(Intel\)" <peterz@infradead.org>,
        Yuyang Du <duyuyang@gmail.com>,
        David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>,
        Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@linutronix.de>,
        Anshuman Khandual <anshuman.khandual@arm.com>,
        David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>,
        James Morris <jamorris@linux.microsoft.com>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
        Shakeel Butt <shakeelb@google.com>,
        Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@ziepe.ca>,
        Christian Kellner <christian@kellner.me>,
        Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@redhat.com>,
        Aleksa Sarai <cyphar@cyphar.com>,
        "Dmitry V. Levin" <ldv@altlinux.org>,
        "linux-doc\@vger.kernel.org" <linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>,
        "linux-kernel\@vger.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        "linux-fsdevel\@vger.kernel.org" <linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org>,
        "linux-mm\@kvack.org" <linux-mm@kvack.org>,
        "stable\@vger.kernel.org" <stable@vger.kernel.org>,
        "linux-api\@vger.kernel.org" <linux-api@vger.kernel.org>
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        <87r1y12yc7.fsf@x220.int.ebiederm.org>
Date:   Mon, 09 Mar 2020 13:24:30 -0500
In-Reply-To: <87r1y12yc7.fsf@x220.int.ebiederm.org> (Eric W. Biederman's
        message of "Mon, 09 Mar 2020 13:10:48 -0500")
Message-ID: <87k13t2xpd.fsf@x220.int.ebiederm.org>
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Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 5/5] exec: Add a exec_update_mutex to replace cred_guard_mutex
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
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ebiederm@xmission.com (Eric W. Biederman) writes:

> Bernd Edlinger <bernd.edlinger@hotmail.de> writes:
>
>> On 3/9/20 6:40 PM, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>>> Bernd Edlinger <bernd.edlinger@hotmail.de> writes:
>>> 
>>>> On 3/8/20 10:38 PM, Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> The cred_guard_mutex is problematic.  The cred_guard_mutex is held
>>>>> over the userspace accesses as the arguments from userspace are read.
>>>>> The cred_guard_mutex is held of PTRACE_EVENT_EXIT as the the other
>>>                                 ^ over
>>>>
>>>> ... is held while waiting for the trace parent to handle PTRACE_EVENT_EXIT
>>>> or something?
>>> 
>>> Yes.  Let me see if I can phrase that better.
>>> 
>>>> I wonder if we also should mention that
>>>> it is held while waiting for the trace parent to
>>>> receive the exit code with "wait"?
>>> 
>>> I don't think we have to spell out the details of how it all works,
>>> unless that makes things clearer.  Kernel developers can be expected
>>> to figure out how the kernel works.  The critical thing is that it is
>>> an indefinite wait for userspace to take action.
>>> 
>>> But I will look.
>>> 
>>>>> threads are killed.  The cred_guard_mutex is held over
>>>>> "put_user(0, tsk->clear_child_tid)" in exit_mm().
>>>>>
>>>>> Any of those can result in deadlock, as the cred_guard_mutex is held
>>>>> over a possible indefinite userspace waits for userspace.
>>>>>
>>>>> Add exec_update_mutex that is only held over exec updating process
>>>>
>>>> Add ?
>>> 
>>> Yes.  That is what the change does: add exec_update_mutex.
>>> 
>>
>> I just kind of missed the "subject" in this sentence,
>> like "This patch adds an exec_update_mutex that is ..."
>> but english is a foreign language for me, so may be okay as is.
>
> English has a lot of options.  I think this is a stylistic difference.
>
> Instead of being an observer and describing what the change does:
> "This patch adds exec_update_mutex ..."  
>
> I was being there in the moment and saying/commading what is happening:
> "Add exec_update_mutex ..."
>
> Using the more immdediate form ends up with more concise and clearer
> sentences.
>
> Every one of my writing teachers in school emphasized that point
> and I see the who it works when I write things.  But writing is hard and
> I still tend toward long rambling sentences with many qualifiers that
> confuse and detract from the point rather than make it clear what is
> happening.

And reading through it all now I can see your confusion.  That
description of my changes was not well done.  Reworking it now.

Eric