From: Richard Gooch <rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca> To: Alexander Viro <viro@math.psu.edu> Subject: Re: [PATCH] one of $BIGNUM devfs races Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2001 17:50:46 -0600 Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>, Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Alexander Viro writes: > OK, folks - that's it. By all reasonable standards a year > _is_ sufficient time to fix an obvious race. One in > devfs/base.c::create_entry() had been described to Richard more than > a year ago. While I respect the "I'll do it myself, don't spoil the > fun" stance, it's clearly over the bleedin' top. Patch for that one > is in the end of posting. Linus, see if it looks sane for you. Linus: please don't apply. Alan: I notice you've put Al's patch into 2.4.7-ac8. Please remove it. This patch has the following ugly construct: > + /* Ensure table size is enough */ > + while (fs_info.num_inodes >= fs_info.table_size) { Putting the allocation inside a while loop is horrible, and isn't a perfect solution anyway. I'm fixing this (and other races) with proper locking. If you went to the trouble to start patching, why at least didn't you do it cleanly with a lock? Furthermore, the patch makes gratuitous formatting changes (which made it harder to see what it actually *changed*). Regards, Richard.... Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au Current: rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/