The race was introduced while development of linux-3.11 by
e8437d7ecb and
e9975fdec0.
Originally it was found and reproduced on linux-3.12.15 and
linux-3.12.15-rt25, by sending 500 byte blocks with 115kbaud to the
target uart in a loop with 100 milliseconds delay.
In short:
1. The consumer flush_to_ldisc is on to remove the head tty_buffer.
2. The producer adds a number of bytes, so that a new tty_buffer must
be allocated and added by __tty_buffer_request_room.
3. The consumer removes the head tty_buffer element, without handling
newly committed data.
Detailed example:
* Initial buffer:
* Head, Tail -> 0: used=250; commit=250; read=240; next=NULL
* Consumer: ''flush_to_ldisc''
* consumed 10 Byte
* buffer:
* Head, Tail -> 0: used=250; commit=250; read=250; next=NULL
{{{
count = head->commit - head->read; // count = 0
if (!count) { // enter
// INTERRUPTED BY PRODUCER ->
if (head->next == NULL)
break;
buf->head = head->next;
tty_buffer_free(port, head);
continue;
}
}}}
* Producer: tty_insert_flip_... 10 bytes + tty_flip_buffer_push
* buffer:
* Head, Tail -> 0: used=250; commit=250; read=250; next=NULL
* added 6 bytes: head-element filled to maximum.
* buffer:
* Head, Tail -> 0: used=256; commit=250; read=250; next=NULL
* added 4 bytes: __tty_buffer_request_room is called
* buffer:
* Head -> 0: used=256; commit=256; read=250; next=1
* Tail -> 1: used=4; commit=0; read=250 next=NULL
* push (tty_flip_buffer_push)
* buffer:
* Head -> 0: used=256; commit=256; read=250; next=1
* Tail -> 1: used=4; commit=4; read=250 next=NULL
* Consumer
{{{
count = head->commit - head->read;
if (!count) {
// INTERRUPTED BY PRODUCER <-
if (head->next == NULL) // -> no break
break;
buf->head = head->next;
tty_buffer_free(port, head);
// ERROR: tty_buffer head freed -> 6 bytes lost
continue;
}
}}}
This patch reintroduces a spin_lock to protect this case. Perhaps later
a lock-less solution could be found.
Signed-off-by: Manfred Schlaegl <manfred.schlaegl@gmx.at>
Cc: stable <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.11
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
6a20dbd6ca