Return-path: Received: from mail-gg0-f174.google.com ([209.85.161.174]:34251 "EHLO mail-gg0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1752694Ab2GIJPr (ORCPT ); Mon, 9 Jul 2012 05:15:47 -0400 Received: by gglu4 with SMTP id u4so9842519ggl.19 for ; Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:15:47 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <1341825002.4455.10.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> References: <1341608733-7503-1-git-send-email-johannes@sipsolutions.net> <1341608733-7503-2-git-send-email-johannes@sipsolutions.net> <1341820743.4455.1.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> <1341825002.4455.10.camel@jlt3.sipsolutions.net> From: Arik Nemtsov Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2012 12:15:31 +0300 Message-ID: (sfid-20120709_111551_246776_B678C35D) Subject: Re: [RFC 1/3] mac80211: make scan_sdata pointer usable with RCU To: Johannes Berg Cc: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 12:10 PM, Johannes Berg wrote: > On Mon, 2012-07-09 at 11:48 +0300, Arik Nemtsov wrote: >> On Mon, Jul 9, 2012 at 10:59 AM, Johannes Berg >> wrote: >> > On Sun, 2012-07-08 at 19:27 +0300, Arik Nemtsov wrote: >> >> On Sat, Jul 7, 2012 at 12:05 AM, Johannes Berg >> >> wrote: >> >> > From: Johannes Berg >> >> > >> >> > Making the scan_sdata pointer usable with RCU makes >> >> > it possible to dereference it in the RX path to see >> >> > if a received frame actually matches the interface >> >> > that is scanning. This is just preparations, making >> >> > the pointer __rcu. >> >> >> >> I noticed no synchronize_rcu() in the start/stop scan calls. Good/bad idea? >> > >> > Well, start() certainly wouldn't need it since you'd only get NULL :-) >> > >> > stop() in theory could use it, but it doesn't actually matter because as >> > long as the interface still exists the pointer is valid. We don't free >> > the interface in scan stop, so we don't need to make sure that the >> > pointer is cleared before we continue. And in the case that we *do* in >> > fact clear the interface (when it's going down) we have synchronize_rcu >> > already in those code paths due to say the interface list with RCU >> > protection. >> >> I meant protecting these (in patch 2/3): >> >> - local->sched_scanning, >> + rcu_dereference_protected(local->sched_scan_sdata, >> + lockdep_is_held(&local->mtx)), >> >> The check is obviously racy here, but it was racy before as well I guess. >> I'm not sure why something line test_bit(SCHED_SCANNING) wasn't used >> in these places. > > I don't think I understand what you're trying to say ... why is this > racy? We hold the mutex that we always hold when we assign the pointer. I mean this check in ieee80211_rx_h_passive_scan(): if (test_bit(SCAN_HW_SCANNING, &local->scanning) || test_bit(SCAN_SW_SCANNING, &local->scanning) || test_bit(SCAN_ONCHANNEL_SCANNING, &local->scanning) || local->sched_scanning) return ieee80211_scan_rx(rx->sdata, skb); since this is RCU, the pointer might be there a while longer after the scan finished..