vfs: remove unneeded permission check from path_init

When path_init is called with a valid dfd, that code checks permissions
on the open directory fd and returns an error if the check fails. This
permission check is redundant, however.

Both callers of path_init immediately call link_path_walk afterward. The
first thing that link_path_walk does for pathnames that do not consist
only of slashes is to check for exec permissions at the starting point of
the path walk.  And this check in path_init() is on the path taken only
when *name != '/' && *name != '\0'.

In most cases, these checks are very quick, but when the dfd is for a
file on a NFS mount with the actimeo=0, each permission check goes
out onto the wire. The result is 2 identical ACCESS calls.

Given that these codepaths are fairly "hot", I think it makes sense to
eliminate the permission check in path_init and simply assume that the
caller will eventually check the permissions before proceeding.

Reported-by: Dave Wysochanski <dwysocha@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index 5f4cdf3ad91..e245d88b4d6 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -1903,6 +1903,7 @@ static int path_init(int dfd, const char *name, unsigned int flags,
                         get_fs_pwd(current->fs, &nd->path);
                 }
         } else {
+                /* Caller must check execute permissions on the starting path component */
                 struct fd f = fdget_raw(dfd);
                 struct dentry *dentry;
 
@@ -1916,12 +1917,6 @@ static int path_init(int dfd, const char *name, unsigned int flags,
                                 fdput(f);
                                 return -ENOTDIR;
                         }
-
-                        retval = inode_permission(dentry->d_inode, MAY_EXEC);
-                        if (retval) {
-                                fdput(f);
-                                return retval;
-                        }
                 }
 
                 nd->path = f.file->f_path;