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Elena Reshetova ec1d281923 sched/core: Convert task_struct.usage to refcount_t
atomic_t variables are currently used to implement reference
counters with the following properties:

 - counter is initialized to 1 using atomic_set()
 - a resource is freed upon counter reaching zero
 - once counter reaches zero, its further
   increments aren't allowed
 - counter schema uses basic atomic operations
   (set, inc, inc_not_zero, dec_and_test, etc.)

Such atomic variables should be converted to a newly provided
refcount_t type and API that prevents accidental counter overflows
and underflows. This is important since overflows and underflows
can lead to use-after-free situation and be exploitable.

The variable task_struct.usage is used as pure reference counter.
Convert it to refcount_t and fix up the operations.

** Important note for maintainers:

Some functions from refcount_t API defined in lib/refcount.c
have different memory ordering guarantees than their atomic
counterparts.

The full comparison can be seen in
https://lkml.org/lkml/2017/11/15/57 and it is hopefully soon
in state to be merged to the documentation tree.

Normally the differences should not matter since refcount_t provides
enough guarantees to satisfy the refcounting use cases, but in
some rare cases it might matter.

Please double check that you don't have some undocumented
memory guarantees for this variable usage.

For the task_struct.usage it might make a difference
in following places:

 - put_task_struct(): decrement in refcount_dec_and_test() only
   provides RELEASE ordering and control dependency on success
   vs. fully ordered atomic counterpart

Suggested-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Signed-off-by: Elena Reshetova <elena.reshetova@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: David Windsor <dwindsor@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Hans Liljestrand <ishkamiel@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Andrea Parri <andrea.parri@amarulasolutions.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Cc: viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/1547814450-18902-5-git-send-email-elena.reshetova@intel.com
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
2019-02-04 08:53:55 +01:00
Documentation sched/doc: Document Energy Aware Scheduling 2019-01-27 12:29:37 +01:00
LICENSES This is a fairly typical cycle for documentation. There's some welcome 2018-10-24 18:01:11 +01:00
arch x86: uaccess: Inhibit speculation past access_ok() in user_access_begin() 2019-01-20 15:33:22 +12:00
block block: Cleanup license notice 2019-01-17 21:21:40 -07:00
certs kbuild: remove redundant target cleaning on failure 2019-01-06 09:46:51 +09:00
crypto crypto: sm3 - fix undefined shift by >= width of value 2019-01-10 21:37:32 +08:00
drivers Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net 2019-01-21 12:52:31 +13:00
firmware kbuild: change filechk to surround the given command with { } 2019-01-06 09:46:51 +09:00
fs sched/core: Convert sighand_struct.count to refcount_t 2019-02-04 08:53:52 +01:00
include sched/core: Convert task_struct.usage to refcount_t 2019-02-04 08:53:55 +01:00
init sched/core: Convert task_struct.usage to refcount_t 2019-02-04 08:53:55 +01:00
ipc ipc: IPCMNI limit check for semmni 2018-10-31 08:54:14 -07:00
kernel sched/core: Convert task_struct.usage to refcount_t 2019-02-04 08:53:55 +01:00
lib fix int_sqrt64() for very large numbers 2019-01-21 07:20:18 +13:00
mm mm/mmu_notifier: mm/rmap.c: Fix a mmu_notifier range bug in try_to_unmap_one 2019-01-10 02:58:21 -08:00
net Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net 2019-01-21 12:52:31 +13:00
samples samples/bpf: workaround clang asm goto compilation errors 2019-01-15 20:57:30 +01:00
scripts Bug fixes for gcc-plugins 2019-01-21 13:07:03 +13:00
security Merge branch 'fixes-v5.0-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jmorris/linux-security 2019-01-17 16:54:58 +12:00
sound remove dma_zalloc_coherent 2019-01-12 10:52:40 -08:00
tools Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net 2019-01-21 12:52:31 +13:00
usr user/Makefile: Fix typo and capitalization in comment section 2018-12-11 00:18:03 +09:00
virt KVM: validate userspace input in kvm_clear_dirty_log_protect() 2019-01-11 18:38:07 +01:00
.clang-format clang-format: Update .clang-format with the latest for_each macro list 2019-01-19 19:26:06 +01:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.get_maintainer.ignore
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set git diff driver for C source code files 2016-10-07 18:46:30 -07:00
.gitignore kbuild: Add support for DT binding schema checks 2018-12-13 09:41:32 -06:00
.mailmap A few early MIPS fixes for 4.21: 2019-01-05 12:48:25 -08:00
COPYING COPYING: use the new text with points to the license files 2018-03-23 12:41:45 -06:00
CREDITS Add CREDITS entry for Shaohua Li 2019-01-04 14:27:09 -07:00
Kbuild kbuild: use assignment instead of define ... endef for filechk_* rules 2019-01-06 10:22:35 +09:00
Kconfig kconfig: move the "Executable file formats" menu to fs/Kconfig.binfmt 2018-08-02 08:06:55 +09:00
MAINTAINERS MAINTAINERS, sched: Drop PREEMPTIBLE KERNEL section entry 2019-01-27 12:29:37 +01:00
Makefile Linux 5.0-rc3 2019-01-21 13:14:44 +13:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

README

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.