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From: Marco Elver <elver@google.com>
To: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>,
	 Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@i-love.sakura.ne.jp>,
	paulmck@kernel.org,
	 Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>,
	Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@google.com>,
	 syzbot <syzbot+b7c3ba8cdc2f6cf83c21@syzkaller.appspotmail.com>,
	 linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, syzkaller-bugs@googlegroups.com,
	 Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>,
	Arnd Bergmann <arnd@kernel.org>,
	Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] tty: tty_io: remove hung_up_tty_fops
Date: Thu, 2 May 2024 21:29:04 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <CANpmjNN0n9UkYheZyBCQykrLYM9EDsmkp41a=x4hbgYyKDPZxw@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20240502181444.GF2118490@ZenIV>

On Thu, 2 May 2024 at 20:14, Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Thu, May 02, 2024 at 10:29:52AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> > Yes, this is unusual. The *common* thing is to mark pointers as being
> > volatile. But this really is something entirely different from that.
>
> The common thing is to mark pointers are pointers to volatile;
> calling them "volatile pointers" is common and incorrect, and the only
> reason why that sloppy turn of phrase persists is that real "volatile
> pointers" are rare...
>
> Marco,

I think we agree on what we want. I misread the intention of Tetsuo in
[1], and provided incorrect feedback.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/CANpmjNPtoKf1ysbKd=E8o753JT0DzBanzFBP234VBsazfufVAQ@mail.gmail.com/T/#u

>         struct foo volatile *p;
> declares p as a (non-volatile) pointer to volatile struct foo.
>         struct foo * volatile p;
> declares p as volatile pointer to (non-volatile) struct foo.
>
> The former is a statement about the objects whose addresses might
> be stored in p; the latter is a statement about the object p itself.
>
> Replace volatile with const and it becomes easier to experiment with:
>         char const *p;
>         char s[] = "barf";
>         char * const q = s;
>         ...
>         p = "yuck";     - fine, p itself can be modified
>         *p = 'a';       - error *p can not be modified, it's an l-value of type const char
>         q = s + 1;      - error, can't modify q
>         *q = 'a';       - fine, *q is l-value of type char
>         p = q;          - fine, right-hand side of assignment loses the top
>                           qualifier, so q (const pointer to char as l-value)
>                           becomes a plain pointer to char, which can be
>                           converted to pointer to const char, and stored in
>                           p (l-value of type pointer to const char)
>         strlen(q);      - almost the same story, except that it's passing
>                           an argument rather than assignment; they act the
>                           same way.
>         strcpy(q, "s"); - almost the same, except that here the type of
>                           argument is pointer to char rather than pointer to
>                           const char (strlen() promises not to modify the
>                           string passed to it, strcpy() obviously doesn't)
>         strcpy(p, "s"); - error; pointer to char converts to a pointer
>                           to const char, but not the other way round.
>
> The situations where you want a const (or volatile) pointer (as opposed to
> pointer to const or volatile object) are rare, but this is exactly what
> you are asking for - you want to say that the value of 'f_op' member
> in any struct file can change at any time.  That value is an address of
> some instance of struct file_operations and what you want to express is
> the property of f_op member itself, not that of the objects whose addresses
> might end up stored there.
>
> So having a driver do
>         const struct file_operations *ops = file->f_op;
> is fine - it's basically "take the value of 'file'; it will be an address
> of some struct file instance.  Fetch 'f_op' from that instance, without
> any assumptions of the stability of that member.  Use whatever value
> you find there as initial value of 'ops'".
>
> That's fine, and since nobody is going to change 'ops' itself behind your
> back, you don't need any qualifiers on it.  The type of 'ops' here is
> "(unqualified) pointer to const struct file_operations".

Is this feedback for the __data_racy attribute patch [2], or a comment
for the patch "tty: tty_io: remove hung_up_tty_fops"? [ With the
former I can help, with the latter Tetsuo can help. ]

[2] https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240502141242.2765090-1-elver@google.com/

The __data_racy attribute should behave like any other type qualifier
(be it const, volatile), and what you point out above applies equally,
no doubt about it. But I think it's important to treat it as a
completely distinct type qualifier - volatile is an implementation
detail (in non-KCSAN kernels it's a no-op).

Thanks,
-- Marco

  reply	other threads:[~2024-05-02 19:29 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 59+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2023-04-21  8:18 [syzbot] [kernel?] KCSAN: data-race in __fput / __tty_hangup (4) syzbot
2023-04-21  8:21 ` Dmitry Vyukov
2023-04-21 15:12   ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-21 16:02     ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-23 23:34     ` Al Viro
2023-04-23 23:55       ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-24  0:44         ` Al Viro
2023-04-24  1:09           ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-25 14:47             ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-25 16:03               ` Al Viro
2023-04-25 22:09                 ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-26 11:05                   ` [PATCH] tty: tty_io: remove hung_up_tty_fops Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-28 16:27                     ` Nathan Chancellor
2023-04-28 16:41                       ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-28 17:11                         ` Al Viro
2023-04-29 10:43                           ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-28 17:31                         ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2023-04-29 15:21                           ` Guenter Roeck
2023-05-01 18:42                             ` Geert Uytterhoeven
2023-05-14  1:02                     ` [PATCH v2] " Tetsuo Handa
2023-05-30 10:44                       ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2023-05-30 11:57                         ` Tetsuo Handa
2023-05-30 12:51                           ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2024-04-27  6:20                             ` [PATCH v3] " Tetsuo Handa
2024-04-27 19:02                               ` Linus Torvalds
2024-04-28 10:19                                 ` Tetsuo Handa
2024-04-28 18:50                                   ` Linus Torvalds
2024-04-29 13:55                                     ` Marco Elver
2024-04-29 15:38                                       ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-01 18:45                                         ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-01 18:56                                           ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-01 19:02                                             ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-01 20:14                                               ` Marco Elver
2024-05-01 21:06                                                 ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-01 21:20                                                   ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-01 21:49                                                     ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-01 22:32                                                       ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-02 16:37                                                         ` Boqun Feng
2024-05-03 23:59                                                           ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-04  0:14                                                             ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-04  5:08                                                               ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-04 17:50                                                                 ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-04 18:18                                                                   ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-04 19:11                                                                     ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-04 19:25                                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-04 22:17                                                                         ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-04 22:04                                                                       ` Paul E. McKenney
2024-05-02 14:14                                                   ` Marco Elver
2024-05-02 16:42                                                     ` Tetsuo Handa
2024-05-02 17:20                                                       ` Marco Elver
2024-05-02 17:29                                                       ` Linus Torvalds
2024-05-02 18:14                                                         ` Al Viro
2024-05-02 19:29                                                           ` Marco Elver [this message]
2024-05-02 23:54                                                         ` Tetsuo Handa
2024-05-03  1:12                                                           ` Linus Torvalds
2023-04-23 13:28   ` [syzbot] [kernel?] KCSAN: data-race in __fput / __tty_hangup (4) Tetsuo Handa
2023-04-23 14:00     ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2023-04-23 14:03     ` Greg Kroah-Hartman
2023-04-23 14:17       ` Tetsuo Handa

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