sched/api: Introduce task_rcu_dereference() and try_get_task_struct()

Generally task_struct is only protected by RCU if it was found on a
RCU protected list (say, for_each_process() or find_task_by_vpid()).

As Kirill pointed out rq->curr isn't protected by RCU, the scheduler
drops the (potentially) last reference without RCU gp, this means
that we need to fix the code which uses foreign_rq->curr under
rcu_read_lock().

Add a new helper which can be used to dereference rq->curr or any
other pointer to task_struct assuming that it should be cleared or
updated before the final put_task_struct(). It returns non-NULL
only if this task can't go away before rcu_read_unlock().

( Also add try_get_task_struct() to make it easier to use this API
  correctly. )

Suggested-by: Kirill Tkhai <ktkhai@parallels.com>
Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
[ Updated comments; added try_get_task_struct()]
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@ezchip.com>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux.com>
Cc: Kirill Tkhai <tkhai@yandex.ru>
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: Vladimir Davydov <vdavydov@parallels.com>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20160518170218.GY3192@twins.programming.kicks-ass.net
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

2 files changed, 79 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/sched.h b/include/linux/sched.h
index 6e42ada26345..dee41bf59e6b 100644
--- a/include/linux/sched.h
+++ b/include/linux/sched.h
@@ -2139,6 +2139,9 @@ static inline void put_task_struct(struct task_struct *t)
                 __put_task_struct(t);
 }
 
+struct task_struct *task_rcu_dereference(struct task_struct **ptask);
+struct task_struct *try_get_task_struct(struct task_struct **ptask);
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_VIRT_CPU_ACCOUNTING_GEN
 extern void task_cputime(struct task_struct *t,
                          cputime_t *utime, cputime_t *stime);
diff --git a/kernel/exit.c b/kernel/exit.c
index 9e6e1356e6bb..2fb4d44c51b1 100644
--- a/kernel/exit.c
+++ b/kernel/exit.c
@@ -211,6 +211,82 @@ repeat:
 }
 
 /*
+ * Note that if this function returns a valid task_struct pointer (!NULL)
+ * task->usage must remain >0 for the duration of the RCU critical section.
+ */
+struct task_struct *task_rcu_dereference(struct task_struct **ptask)
+{
+        struct sighand_struct *sighand;
+        struct task_struct *task;
+
+        /*
+         * We need to verify that release_task() was not called and thus
+         * delayed_put_task_struct() can't run and drop the last reference
+         * before rcu_read_unlock(). We check task->sighand != NULL,
+         * but we can read the already freed and reused memory.
+         */
+retry:
+        task = rcu_dereference(*ptask);
+        if (!task)
+                return NULL;
+
+        probe_kernel_address(&task->sighand, sighand);
+
+        /*
+         * Pairs with atomic_dec_and_test() in put_task_struct(). If this task
+         * was already freed we can not miss the preceding update of this
+         * pointer.
+         */
+        smp_rmb();
+        if (unlikely(task != READ_ONCE(*ptask)))
+                goto retry;
+
+        /*
+         * We've re-checked that "task == *ptask", now we have two different
+         * cases:
+         *
+         * 1. This is actually the same task/task_struct. In this case
+         *    sighand != NULL tells us it is still alive.
+         *
+         * 2. This is another task which got the same memory for task_struct.
+         *    We can't know this of course, and we can not trust
+         *    sighand != NULL.
+         *
+         *    In this case we actually return a random value, but this is
+         *    correct.
+         *
+         *    If we return NULL - we can pretend that we actually noticed that
+         *    *ptask was updated when the previous task has exited. Or pretend
+         *    that probe_slab_address(&sighand) reads NULL.
+         *
+         *    If we return the new task (because sighand is not NULL for any
+         *    reason) - this is fine too. This (new) task can't go away before
+         *    another gp pass.
+         *
+         *    And note: We could even eliminate the false positive if re-read
+         *    task->sighand once again to avoid the falsely NULL. But this case
+         *    is very unlikely so we don't care.
+         */
+        if (!sighand)
+                return NULL;
+
+        return task;
+}
+
+struct task_struct *try_get_task_struct(struct task_struct **ptask)
+{
+        struct task_struct *task;
+
+        rcu_read_lock();
+        task = task_rcu_dereference(ptask);
+        if (task)
+                get_task_struct(task);
+        rcu_read_unlock();
+
+        return task;
+}
+
+/*
  * Determine if a process group is "orphaned", according to the POSIX
  * definition in 2.2.2.52.  Orphaned process groups are not to be affected
  * by terminal-generated stop signals.  Newly orphaned process groups are