xfs: fix race while discarding buffers [V4]
While xfs_buftarg_shrink() is freeing buffers from the dispose list (filled with buffers from lru list), there is a possibility to have xfs_buf_stale() racing with it, and removing buffers from dispose list before xfs_buftarg_shrink() does it. This happens because xfs_buftarg_shrink() handle the dispose list without locking and the test condition in xfs_buf_stale() checks for the buffer being in *any* list: if (!list_empty(&bp->b_lru)) If the buffer happens to be on dispose list, this causes the buffer counter of lru list (btp->bt_lru_nr) to be decremented twice (once in xfs_buftarg_shrink() and another in xfs_buf_stale()) causing a wrong account usage of the lru list. This may cause xfs_buftarg_shrink() to return a wrong value to the memory shrinker shrink_slab(), and such account error may also cause an underflowed value to be returned; since the counter is lower than the current number of items in the lru list, a decrement may happen when the counter is 0, causing an underflow on the counter. The fix uses a new flag field (and a new buffer flag) to serialize buffer handling during the shrink process. The new flag field has been designed to use btp->bt_lru_lock/unlock instead of xfs_buf_lock/unlock mechanism. dchinner, sandeen, aquini and aris also deserve credits for this. Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino <cmaiolino@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Ben Myers <bpm@sgi.com> Reviewed-by: Dave Chinner <dchinner@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Ben Myers <bpm@sgi.com>
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