GitLab

Patch series "permit write-sealed memfd read-only shared mappings", v4.

The man page for fcntl() describing memfd file seals states the following
about F_SEAL_WRITE:-

    Furthermore, trying to create new shared, writable memory-mappings via
    mmap(2) will also fail with EPERM.

With emphasis on 'writable'.  In turns out in fact that currently the
kernel simply disallows all new shared memory mappings for a memfd with
F_SEAL_WRITE applied, rendering this documentation inaccurate.

This matters because users are therefore unable to obtain a shared mapping
to a memfd after write sealing altogether, which limits their usefulness. 
This was reported in the discussion thread [1] originating from a bug
report [2].

This is a product of both using the struct address_space->i_mmap_writable
atomic counter to determine whether writing may be permitted, and the
kernel adjusting this counter when any VM_SHARED mapping is performed and
more generally i...