Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]


Groups > linux.kernel > #1491657 > unrolled thread

Re: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks

Started byAl Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
First post2016-09-27 05:20 +0200
Last post2016-09-28 16:50 +0200
Articles 4 — 2 participants

Back to article view | Back to linux.kernel

This discussion starts older than the indexed window; earlier articles aren't shown. The article labeled Started by below is the oldest one visible, not the original post.


Contents

  Re: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk> - 2016-09-27 05:20 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2016-09-27 11:40 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk> - 2016-09-28 04:20 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2016-09-28 16:50 +0200

#1491657 — Re: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks

FromAl Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
Date2016-09-27 05:20 +0200
SubjectRe: [PATCH 00/17] clean up readlinks
Message-ID<slR61-4eM-13@gated-at.bofh.it>
On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 09:29:02PM +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote:
> The first patch is actually a bug fix, but I put it into this bunch for
> simplicity...
> 
> The rest are really cleanups as well as minor bugfixes that are byproducts
> of the cleanups.
> 
> This series builds on the fact that i_op.readlink is already set to
> generic_readlink() in 43/50 of the cases.  And of those 7 only 4 are doing
> something special.  So more than 90% of readlinks are/could actually just
> call back into get_link.
> 
> The interesting cases are:
> 
>  - AFS, which has readlink but not get_link
>  - proc, that allow jumping while following symlinks
> 
> The first is handled by setting IOP_NOFOLLOW on the inode by the fs.
> 
> The second one is handled by introducing is_following_link() which returns
> a bool depending on whether current->nameidata is NULL or not.  If it
> returns false ->get_link() should behave as ->readlink() did.  Otherwise it
> should behave as id did previously.
> 
> Builds and boots.  Can even read symlinks.

	I have no problem with "let's get rid of generic_readlink" - not that
it bought us much, but sure, if you want to have decision made based upon
the combination of flags, let's do it.  Just make NULL ->readlink + non-NULL
->get_link() mean generic_readlink(), and we are done.  Especially if you
do the usual "set the flag on inode the first time we need to check".
I also have no problem with overlayfs and ecryptfs assuming that we only deal
with normal symlinks.

	Overloading ->get_link() for procfs-style ones is just plain wrong,
though.  Your current->nameidata != NULL thing is bloody brittle - what
happens if some code triggers those readlinks when called by something
during pathname resolution?  Sure, right now existing callers won't.
But it doesn't take much to grow such a place _and_ have the implications
go unnoticed for quite a while.

[toc] | [next] | [standalone]


#1491778

FromMiklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>
Date2016-09-27 11:40 +0200
Message-ID<slX1L-7Mm-1@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1491657
On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 5:10 AM, Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 09:29:02PM +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote:
>> The first patch is actually a bug fix, but I put it into this bunch for
>> simplicity...
>>
>> The rest are really cleanups as well as minor bugfixes that are byproducts
>> of the cleanups.
>>
>> This series builds on the fact that i_op.readlink is already set to
>> generic_readlink() in 43/50 of the cases.  And of those 7 only 4 are doing
>> something special.  So more than 90% of readlinks are/could actually just
>> call back into get_link.
>>
>> The interesting cases are:
>>
>>  - AFS, which has readlink but not get_link
>>  - proc, that allow jumping while following symlinks
>>
>> The first is handled by setting IOP_NOFOLLOW on the inode by the fs.
>>
>> The second one is handled by introducing is_following_link() which returns
>> a bool depending on whether current->nameidata is NULL or not.  If it
>> returns false ->get_link() should behave as ->readlink() did.  Otherwise it
>> should behave as id did previously.
>>
>> Builds and boots.  Can even read symlinks.
>
>         I have no problem with "let's get rid of generic_readlink" - not that
> it bought us much, but sure, if you want to have decision made based upon
> the combination of flags, let's do it.  Just make NULL ->readlink + non-NULL
> ->get_link() mean generic_readlink(), and we are done.

Indeed.  Except it really should be the other way round:

- .get_link always returning the symlink body
- only proc setting .jump_link to do its thing
- RIP .readlink

But that's an extra branch in the symlink following.  I was worried
about that and hence gone for the unification of the two.

>
>         Overloading ->get_link() for procfs-style ones is just plain wrong,
> though.  Your current->nameidata != NULL thing is bloody brittle - what
> happens if some code triggers those readlinks when called by something
> during pathname resolution?  Sure, right now existing callers won't.
> But it doesn't take much to grow such a place _and_ have the implications
> go unnoticed for quite a while.

Yeah.  We can do your above suggestion, it's certainly less brittle.
But I think it's rather confusing, having ->get_link normally do
readlink, except for proc, where readlink is done by ->readlink.

Thanks,
Miklos

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#1492239

FromAl Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
Date2016-09-28 04:20 +0200
Message-ID<smcDv-M0-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1491778
On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 11:38:33AM +0200, Miklos Szeredi wrote:
> >         I have no problem with "let's get rid of generic_readlink" - not that
> > it bought us much, but sure, if you want to have decision made based upon
> > the combination of flags, let's do it.  Just make NULL ->readlink + non-NULL
> > ->get_link() mean generic_readlink(), and we are done.
> 
> Indeed.  Except it really should be the other way round:
> 
> - .get_link always returning the symlink body
> - only proc setting .jump_link to do its thing
> - RIP .readlink

> But that's an extra branch in the symlink following.  I was worried
> about that and hence gone for the unification of the two.

Symlink traversal is a much hotter path than readlink() would ever be.
What's more, we do have jumps on normal symlink traversal - after all,
absolute symlinks are exactly that; it's "jump to root, then traverse
the following sequence of components".  So having ->get_link() that
includes jumps is not that much of a stretch (note that it could both
jump and return a relative pathname to traverse after that; none of the
procfs-style ones do that, but there's no reason to prohibit that).

What I'd prefer is
	* it's a symlink iff it has ->get_link()
	* readlink(2) on a symlink is normally just using generic_readlink()
	* that can be overridden by supplying a ->readlink() method.
	* the first time readlink() hits a symlink it will check both
->get_link() and ->readlink() presence.  Then, if it's a normal symlink,
the inode will get marked as such and all subsequent calls will just call
generic_readlink().  IOW, I would go for
	if (unlikely(!marked)) {
		if ->readlink is present
			call ->readlink and return
		if ->get_link is absent
			fail
		mark
	}
	call generic_readlink

> Yeah.  We can do your above suggestion, it's certainly less brittle.
> But I think it's rather confusing, having ->get_link normally do
> readlink, except for proc, where readlink is done by ->readlink.

	->readlink() is just an override for the cases when readlink(2) wants
to fake something (or, as in case of AFS ugliness, is used on non-symlinks).
The primary function of symlinks is traversal, not readlink...

[toc] | [prev] | [next] | [standalone]


#1492631

FromMiklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>
Date2016-09-28 16:50 +0200
Message-ID<smolj-7YU-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
In reply to#1492239
On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 4:17 AM, Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> wrote:

> Symlink traversal is a much hotter path than readlink() would ever be.
> What's more, we do have jumps on normal symlink traversal - after all,
> absolute symlinks are exactly that; it's "jump to root, then traverse
> the following sequence of components".  So having ->get_link() that
> includes jumps is not that much of a stretch (note that it could both
> jump and return a relative pathname to traverse after that; none of the
> procfs-style ones do that, but there's no reason to prohibit that).
>
> What I'd prefer is
>         * it's a symlink iff it has ->get_link()
>         * readlink(2) on a symlink is normally just using generic_readlink()
>         * that can be overridden by supplying a ->readlink() method.
>         * the first time readlink() hits a symlink it will check both
> ->get_link() and ->readlink() presence.  Then, if it's a normal symlink,
> the inode will get marked as such and all subsequent calls will just call
> generic_readlink().  IOW, I would go for
>         if (unlikely(!marked)) {
>                 if ->readlink is present
>                         call ->readlink and return
>                 if ->get_link is absent
>                         fail
>                 mark
>         }
>         call generic_readlink

Redid patchset confirming to the above.

Also moved the overlayfs/ecryptfs fixes to the front of the queue, as
they are independent of the rest of the cleanups.

The last part is new: changing ->readlink signature to match that of
->get_link.  This moves the user buffer handling out of filesystems,
simplifying the implementation in the process.

Force pushed new set to:

  git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mszeredi/vfs.git #readlink

It's got a couple of trivial conflicts against #rename2 and
#overlayfs-next.  I can do the merge and send a big pull request if
you want.

Thanks,
Miklos

---
Miklos Szeredi (14):
      vfs: add vfs_get_link() helper
      ovl: use vfs_get_link()
      ecryptfs: use vfs_get_link()
      ovl: use generic_readlink
      proc/self: use generic_readlink
      bad_inode: use generic_readlink
      vfs: replace calling i_op->readlink with vfs_readlink()
      vfs: default to generic_readlink()
      vfs: remove ".readlink = generic_readlink" assignments
      vfs: make generic_readlink() static
      vfs: convert ->readlink to same signature as ->get_link
      vfs: remove page_readlink()
      vfs: make readlink_copy() static
      nsfs: clean up ns_get_name() interface

---
 Documentation/filesystems/Locking             |  6 +-
 Documentation/filesystems/porting             |  7 +++
 Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt             | 14 +++--
 drivers/staging/lustre/lustre/llite/symlink.c |  1 -
 fs/9p/vfs_inode.c                             |  1 -
 fs/9p/vfs_inode_dotl.c                        |  1 -
 fs/affs/symlink.c                             |  1 -
 fs/afs/mntpt.c                                |  2 +-
 fs/autofs4/symlink.c                          |  1 -
 fs/bad_inode.c                                |  7 ---
 fs/btrfs/inode.c                              |  1 -
 fs/ceph/inode.c                               |  1 -
 fs/cifs/cifsfs.c                              |  1 -
 fs/coda/cnode.c                               |  1 -
 fs/configfs/symlink.c                         |  1 -
 fs/ecryptfs/inode.c                           | 30 ++++------
 fs/ext2/symlink.c                             |  2 -
 fs/ext4/symlink.c                             |  3 -
 fs/f2fs/namei.c                               |  2 -
 fs/fuse/dir.c                                 |  1 -
 fs/gfs2/inode.c                               |  1 -
 fs/hostfs/hostfs_kern.c                       |  1 -
 fs/jffs2/symlink.c                            |  1 -
 fs/jfs/symlink.c                              |  2 -
 fs/kernfs/symlink.c                           |  1 -
 fs/libfs.c                                    |  1 -
 fs/minix/inode.c                              |  1 -
 fs/namei.c                                    | 83 +++++++++++++++++++--------
 fs/ncpfs/inode.c                              |  1 -
 fs/nfs/symlink.c                              |  1 -
 fs/nfsd/nfs4xdr.c                             |  8 +--
 fs/nfsd/vfs.c                                 |  6 +-
 fs/nilfs2/namei.c                             |  1 -
 fs/nsfs.c                                     | 17 ++++--
 fs/ocfs2/symlink.c                            |  1 -
 fs/orangefs/symlink.c                         |  1 -
 fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c                        | 46 ++-------------
 fs/overlayfs/inode.c                          | 30 +---------
 fs/proc/base.c                                | 57 +++++++-----------
 fs/proc/inode.c                               |  1 -
 fs/proc/namespaces.c                          | 15 +++--
 fs/proc/self.c                                | 13 -----
 fs/proc/thread_self.c                         | 14 -----
 fs/reiserfs/namei.c                           |  1 -
 fs/squashfs/symlink.c                         |  1 -
 fs/stat.c                                     |  8 ++-
 fs/sysv/inode.c                               |  1 -
 fs/ubifs/file.c                               |  1 -
 fs/xfs/xfs_ioctl.c                            |  4 +-
 fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c                             |  2 -
 include/linux/fs.h                            | 10 ++--
 include/linux/proc_ns.h                       |  4 +-
 mm/shmem.c                                    |  2 -
 53 files changed, 157 insertions(+), 264 deletions(-)

[toc] | [prev] | [standalone]


Back to top | Article view | linux.kernel


csiph-web