Move FASYNC bit handling to f_op->fasync()

Removing the BKL from FASYNC handling ran into the challenge of keeping the
setting of the FASYNC bit in filp->f_flags atomic with regard to calls to
the underlying fasync() function.  Andi Kleen suggested moving the handling
of that bit into fasync(); this patch does exactly that.  As a result, we
have a couple of internal API changes: fasync() must now manage the FASYNC
bit, and it will be called without the BKL held.

As it happens, every fasync() implementation in the kernel with one
exception calls fasync_helper().  So, if we make fasync_helper() set the
FASYNC bit, we can avoid making any changes to the other fasync()
functions - as long as those functions, themselves, have proper locking.
Most fasync() implementations do nothing but call fasync_helper() - which
has its own lock - so they are easily verified as correct.  The BKL had
already been pushed down into the rest.

The networking code has its own version of fasync_helper(), so that code
has been augmented with explicit FASYNC bit handling.

Cc: Al Viro <viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk>
Cc: David Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 12 deletions

diff --git a/fs/ioctl.c b/fs/ioctl.c
index 421aab465da..e8e89edba57 100644
--- a/fs/ioctl.c
+++ b/fs/ioctl.c
@@ -427,19 +427,11 @@ static int ioctl_fioasync(unsigned int fd, struct file *filp,
         /* Did FASYNC state change ? */
         if ((flag ^ filp->f_flags) & FASYNC) {
                 if (filp->f_op && filp->f_op->fasync)
+                        /* fasync() adjusts filp->f_flags */
                         error = filp->f_op->fasync(fd, filp, on);
                 else
                         error = -ENOTTY;
         }
-        if (error)
-                return error;
-
-        spin_lock(&filp->f_lock);
-        if (on)
-                filp->f_flags |= FASYNC;
-        else
-                filp->f_flags &= ~FASYNC;
-        spin_unlock(&filp->f_lock);
         return error;
 }
 
@@ -507,10 +499,7 @@ int do_vfs_ioctl(struct file *filp, unsigned int fd, unsigned int cmd,
                 break;
 
         case FIOASYNC:
-                /* BKL needed to avoid races tweaking f_flags */
-                lock_kernel();
                 error = ioctl_fioasync(fd, filp, argp);
-                unlock_kernel();
                 break;
 
         case FIOQSIZE: