From: Jeff Layton Subject: [PATCH 0/6] Intro: convert lockd to kthread and fix use-after-free (try #6) Date: Tue, 8 Jan 2008 14:33:12 -0500 Message-ID: <1199820798-5289-1-git-send-email-jlayton@redhat.com> Cc: linux-nfs@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org To: akpm@linux-foundation.org, neilb@suse.de Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:36822 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757912AbYAHTeI (ORCPT ); Tue, 8 Jan 2008 14:34:08 -0500 Sender: linux-nfs-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: This is the sixth patchset to fix the use-after-free problem in lockd which we originally discussed back in October. The main problem is detailed in the last patch of the series. Along the way, Christoph Hellwig mentioned that it would be advantageous to convert lockd to use the kthread API. This patch set first makes that change and then patches it to actually fix the use after free problem. It also fixes a couple of minor bugs in the current lockd implementation. Most of the changes from the last patchset were ones suggested by Neil Brown and are: + fix a preexisting bug that would cause a NULL pointer dereference if the later kmallocs failed in svc_prepare_thread + additional comments to explain the rationale behind nlmsvc_ref increments and decrements + removed module_get/put from lockd(). It should no longer be necessary and isn't safe + sanity checks in lockd_down have been changed to BUG() calls. They should never happen and if they do, then something is very wrong. I've done some basic testing and everything seems to work as expected. I've also tested this against the reproducer that I have for the use-after-free problem and this does fix it. I've tried to make this cleanly bisectable, but have only really tested the final result. Many thanks to Trond Myklebust, Chuck Lever, Neil Brown and Christoph Hellwig for their guidance on this. Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton