From a80a6b85b428e6ce12a8363bb1f08d44c50f3252 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Andrew Morton Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2012 15:53:35 -0800 Subject: revert "epoll: support for disabling items, and a self-test app" Revert commit 03a7beb55b9f ("epoll: support for disabling items, and a self-test app") pending resolution of the issues identified by Michael Kerrisk, copied below. We'll revisit this for 3.8. : I've taken a look at this patch as it currently stands in 3.7-rc1, and : done a bit of testing. (By the way, the test program : tools/testing/selftests/epoll/test_epoll.c does not compile...) : : There are one or two places where the behavior seems a little strange, : so I have a question or two at the end of this mail. But other than : that, I want to check my understanding so that the interface can be : correctly documented. : : Just to go though my understanding, the problem is the following : scenario in a multithreaded application: : : 1. Multiple threads are performing epoll_wait() operations, : and maintaining a user-space cache that contains information : corresponding to each file descriptor being monitored by : epoll_wait(). : : 2. At some point, a thread wants to delete (EPOLL_CTL_DEL) : a file descriptor from the epoll interest list, and : delete the corresponding record from the user-space cache. : : 3. The problem with (2) is that some other thread may have : previously done an epoll_wait() that retrieved information : about the fd in question, and may be in the middle of using : information in the cache that relates to that fd. Thus, : there is a potential race. : : 4. The race can't solved purely in user space, because doing : so would require applying a mutex across the epoll_wait() : call, which would of course blow thread concurrency. : : Right? : : Your solution is the EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE operation. I want to : confirm my understanding about how to use this flag, since : the description that has accompanied the patches so far : has been a bit sparse : : 0. In the scenario you're concerned about, deleting a file : descriptor means (safely) doing the following: : (a) Deleting the file descriptor from the epoll interest list : using EPOLL_CTL_DEL : (b) Deleting the corresponding record in the user-space cache : : 1. It's only meaningful to use this EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE in : conjunction with EPOLLONESHOT. : : 2. Using EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE without using EPOLLONESHOT in : conjunction is a logical error. : : 3. The correct way to code multithreaded applications using : EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE and EPOLLONESHOT is as follows: : : a. All EPOLL_CTL_ADD and EPOLL_CTL_MOD operations should : should EPOLLONESHOT. : : b. When a thread wants to delete a file descriptor, it : should do the following: : : [1] Call epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE) : [2] If the return status from epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE) : was zero, then the file descriptor can be safely : deleted by the thread that made this call. : [3] If the epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE) fails with EBUSY, : then the descriptor is in use. In this case, the calling : thread should set a flag in the user-space cache to : indicate that the thread that is using the descriptor : should perform the deletion operation. : : Is all of the above correct? : : The implementation depends on checking on whether : (events & ~EP_PRIVATE_BITS) == 0 : This replies on the fact that EPOLL_CTL_AD and EPOLL_CTL_MOD always : set EPOLLHUP and EPOLLERR in the 'events' mask, and EPOLLONESHOT : causes those flags (as well as all others in ~EP_PRIVATE_BITS) to be : cleared. : : A corollary to the previous paragraph is that using EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE : is only useful in conjunction with EPOLLONESHOT. However, as things : stand, one can use EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE on a file descriptor that does : not have EPOLLONESHOT set in 'events' This results in the following : (slightly surprising) behavior: : : (a) The first call to epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE) returns 0 : (the indicator that the file descriptor can be safely deleted). : (b) The next call to epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE) fails with EBUSY. : : This doesn't seem particularly useful, and in fact is probably an : indication that the user made a logic error: they should only be using : epoll_ctl(EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE) on a file descriptor for which : EPOLLONESHOT was set in 'events'. If that is correct, then would it : not make sense to return an error to user space for this case? Cc: Michael Kerrisk Cc: "Paton J. Lewis" Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds --- fs/eventpoll.c | 38 +++----------------------------------- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-) (limited to 'fs') diff --git a/fs/eventpoll.c b/fs/eventpoll.c index da72250ddc1c..cd96649bfe62 100644 --- a/fs/eventpoll.c +++ b/fs/eventpoll.c @@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ static inline struct epitem *ep_item_from_epqueue(poll_table *p) /* Tells if the epoll_ctl(2) operation needs an event copy from userspace */ static inline int ep_op_has_event(int op) { - return op == EPOLL_CTL_ADD || op == EPOLL_CTL_MOD; + return op != EPOLL_CTL_DEL; } /* Initialize the poll safe wake up structure */ @@ -676,34 +676,6 @@ static int ep_remove(struct eventpoll *ep, struct epitem *epi) return 0; } -/* - * Disables a "struct epitem" in the eventpoll set. Returns -EBUSY if the item - * had no event flags set, indicating that another thread may be currently - * handling that item's events (in the case that EPOLLONESHOT was being - * used). Otherwise a zero result indicates that the item has been disabled - * from receiving events. A disabled item may be re-enabled via - * EPOLL_CTL_MOD. Must be called with "mtx" held. - */ -static int ep_disable(struct eventpoll *ep, struct epitem *epi) -{ - int result = 0; - unsigned long flags; - - spin_lock_irqsave(&ep->lock, flags); - if (epi->event.events & ~EP_PRIVATE_BITS) { - if (ep_is_linked(&epi->rdllink)) - list_del_init(&epi->rdllink); - /* Ensure ep_poll_callback will not add epi back onto ready - list: */ - epi->event.events &= EP_PRIVATE_BITS; - } - else - result = -EBUSY; - spin_unlock_irqrestore(&ep->lock, flags); - - return result; -} - static void ep_free(struct eventpoll *ep) { struct rb_node *rbp; @@ -1048,6 +1020,8 @@ static void ep_rbtree_insert(struct eventpoll *ep, struct epitem *epi) rb_insert_color(&epi->rbn, &ep->rbr); } + + #define PATH_ARR_SIZE 5 /* * These are the number paths of length 1 to 5, that we are allowing to emanate @@ -1813,12 +1787,6 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE4(epoll_ctl, int, epfd, int, op, int, fd, } else error = -ENOENT; break; - case EPOLL_CTL_DISABLE: - if (epi) - error = ep_disable(ep, epi); - else - error = -ENOENT; - break; } mutex_unlock(&ep->mtx); -- cgit v1.2.3