[PATCH] pty_chars_in_buffer oops fix

The idea of this patch is to lock both sides of a ptmx/pty pair during line
discipline changing.  This is needed to ensure that say a poll on one side of
the pty doesn't occur while the line discipline is actively being changed.
This resulted in an oops reported on lkml, see:

	http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=111342171410005&w=2

A 'hacky' approach was previously implmemented which served to eliminate the
poll vs.  line discipline changing race.  However, this patch takes a more
general approach to the issue.  The patch only adds locking on a less often
used path, the line-discipline changing path, as opposed to locking the
ptmx/pty pair on read/write/poll paths.

The patch below, takes both ldisc locks in either order b/c the locks are both
taken under the same spinlock().  I thought about locking the ptmx/pty
separately, such as master always first but that introduces a 3 way deadlock.
For example, process 1 does a blocking read on the slave side.  Then, process
2 does an ldisc change on the slave side, which acquires the master ldisc lock
but not the slave's.  Finally, process 3 does a write which blocks on the
process 2's ldisc reference.

This patch does introduce some changes in semantics.  For example, a line
discipline change on side 'a' of a ptmx/pty pair, will now wait for a
read/write to complete on the other side, or side 'b'.  The current behavior
is to simply wait for any read/writes on only side 'a', not both sides 'a' and
'b'.  I think this behavior makes sense, but I wanted to point it out.

I've tested the patch with a bunch of read/write/poll while changing the line
discipline out from underneath.

This patch obviates the need for the above "hide the problem" patch.

Signed-off-by: Jason Baron <jbaron@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 54 insertions, 25 deletions

diff --git a/drivers/char/tty_io.c b/drivers/char/tty_io.c
index 9d65712..6a56ae4 100644
--- a/drivers/char/tty_io.c
+++ b/drivers/char/tty_io.c
@@ -469,21 +469,19 @@ static void tty_ldisc_enable(struct tty_struct *tty)
  
 static int tty_set_ldisc(struct tty_struct *tty, int ldisc)
 {
-	int	retval = 0;
-	struct	tty_ldisc o_ldisc;
+	int retval = 0;
+	struct tty_ldisc o_ldisc;
 	char buf[64];
 	int work;
 	unsigned long flags;
 	struct tty_ldisc *ld;
+	struct tty_struct *o_tty;
 
 	if ((ldisc < N_TTY) || (ldisc >= NR_LDISCS))
 		return -EINVAL;
 
 restart:
 
-	if (tty->ldisc.num == ldisc)
-		return 0;	/* We are already in the desired discipline */
-	
 	ld = tty_ldisc_get(ldisc);
 	/* Eduardo Blanco <ejbs@cs.cs.com.uy> */
 	/* Cyrus Durgin <cider@speakeasy.org> */
@@ -494,45 +492,74 @@ restart:
 	if (ld == NULL)
 		return -EINVAL;
 
-	o_ldisc = tty->ldisc;
-
 	tty_wait_until_sent(tty, 0);
 
+	if (tty->ldisc.num == ldisc) {
+		tty_ldisc_put(ldisc);
+		return 0;
+	}
+
+	o_ldisc = tty->ldisc;
+	o_tty = tty->link;
+
 	/*
 	 *	Make sure we don't change while someone holds a
 	 *	reference to the line discipline. The TTY_LDISC bit
 	 *	prevents anyone taking a reference once it is clear.
 	 *	We need the lock to avoid racing reference takers.
 	 */
-	 
+
 	spin_lock_irqsave(&tty_ldisc_lock, flags);
-	if(tty->ldisc.refcount)
-	{
-		/* Free the new ldisc we grabbed. Must drop the lock
-		   first. */
+	if (tty->ldisc.refcount || (o_tty && o_tty->ldisc.refcount)) {
+		if(tty->ldisc.refcount) {
+			/* Free the new ldisc we grabbed. Must drop the lock
+			   first. */
+			spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tty_ldisc_lock, flags);
+			tty_ldisc_put(ldisc);
+			/*
+			 * There are several reasons we may be busy, including
+			 * random momentary I/O traffic. We must therefore
+			 * retry. We could distinguish between blocking ops
+			 * and retries if we made tty_ldisc_wait() smarter. That
+			 * is up for discussion.
+			 */
+			if (wait_event_interruptible(tty_ldisc_wait, tty->ldisc.refcount == 0) < 0)
+				return -ERESTARTSYS;
+			goto restart;
+		}
+		if(o_tty && o_tty->ldisc.refcount) {
+			spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tty_ldisc_lock, flags);
+			tty_ldisc_put(ldisc);
+			if (wait_event_interruptible(tty_ldisc_wait, o_tty->ldisc.refcount == 0) < 0)
+				return -ERESTARTSYS;
+			goto restart;
+		}
+	}
+
+	/* if the TTY_LDISC bit is set, then we are racing against another ldisc change */
+
+	if (!test_bit(TTY_LDISC, &tty->flags)) {
 		spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tty_ldisc_lock, flags);
 		tty_ldisc_put(ldisc);
-		/*
-		 * There are several reasons we may be busy, including
-		 * random momentary I/O traffic. We must therefore
-		 * retry. We could distinguish between blocking ops
-		 * and retries if we made tty_ldisc_wait() smarter. That
-		 * is up for discussion.
-		 */
-		if(wait_event_interruptible(tty_ldisc_wait, tty->ldisc.refcount == 0) < 0)
-			return -ERESTARTSYS;			
+		ld = tty_ldisc_ref_wait(tty);
+		tty_ldisc_deref(ld);
 		goto restart;
 	}
-	clear_bit(TTY_LDISC, &tty->flags);	
+
+	clear_bit(TTY_LDISC, &tty->flags);
 	clear_bit(TTY_DONT_FLIP, &tty->flags);
+	if (o_tty) {
+		clear_bit(TTY_LDISC, &o_tty->flags);
+		clear_bit(TTY_DONT_FLIP, &o_tty->flags);
+	}
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&tty_ldisc_lock, flags);
-	
+
 	/*
 	 *	From this point on we know nobody has an ldisc
 	 *	usage reference, nor can they obtain one until
 	 *	we say so later on.
 	 */
-	 
+
 	work = cancel_delayed_work(&tty->flip.work);
 	/*
 	 * Wait for ->hangup_work and ->flip.work handlers to terminate
@@ -583,10 +610,12 @@ restart:
 	 */
 	 
 	tty_ldisc_enable(tty);
+	if (o_tty)
+		tty_ldisc_enable(o_tty);
 	
 	/* Restart it in case no characters kick it off. Safe if
 	   already running */
-	if(work)
+	if (work)
 		schedule_delayed_work(&tty->flip.work, 1);
 	return retval;
 }