Re: [PATCH 10/33] readahead: support functions

[Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>]

Wu Fengguang <wfg@mail.ustc.edu.cn> wrote:
>
> +/*
> + * The nature of read-ahead allows false tests to occur occasionally.
> + * Here we just do not bother to call get_page(), it's meaningless anyway.
> + */
> +static inline struct page *__find_page(struct address_space *mapping,
> +							pgoff_t offset)
> +{
> +	return radix_tree_lookup(&mapping->page_tree, offset);
> +}
> +
> +static inline struct page *find_page(struct address_space *mapping,
> +							pgoff_t offset)
> +{
> +	struct page *page;
> +
> +	read_lock_irq(&mapping->tree_lock);
> +	page = __find_page(mapping, offset);
> +	read_unlock_irq(&mapping->tree_lock);
> +	return page;
> +}

Would much prefer that this be called probe_page() and that it return 0 or
1, so nobody is tempted to dereference `page'.

> +/*
> + * Move pages in danger (of thrashing) to the head of inactive_list.
> + * Not expected to happen frequently.
> + */
> +static unsigned long rescue_pages(struct page *page, unsigned long nr_pages)
> +{
> +	int pgrescue;
> +	pgoff_t index;
> +	struct zone *zone;
> +	struct address_space *mapping;
> +
> +	BUG_ON(!nr_pages || !page);
> +	pgrescue = 0;
> +	index = page_index(page);
> +	mapping = page_mapping(page);
> +
> +	dprintk("rescue_pages(ino=%lu, index=%lu nr=%lu)\n",
> +			mapping->host->i_ino, index, nr_pages);
> +
> +	for(;;) {
> +		zone = page_zone(page);
> +		spin_lock_irq(&zone->lru_lock);
> +
> +		if (!PageLRU(page))
> +			goto out_unlock;
> +
> +		while (page_mapping(page) == mapping &&
> +				page_index(page) == index) {
> +			struct page *the_page = page;
> +			page = next_page(page);
> +			if (!PageActive(the_page) &&
> +					!PageLocked(the_page) &&
> +					page_count(the_page) == 1) {
> +				list_move(&the_page->lru, &zone->inactive_list);
> +				pgrescue++;
> +			}
> +			index++;
> +			if (!--nr_pages)
> +				goto out_unlock;
> +		}
> +
> +		spin_unlock_irq(&zone->lru_lock);
> +
> +		cond_resched();
> +		page = find_page(mapping, index);
> +		if (!page)
> +			goto out;

Yikes!  We do not have a reference on this page.  Now, it happens that
page_zone() on a random freed page will work OK.  At present.  I think. 
Depends on things like memory hot-remove, balloon drivers and heaven knows
what.

But it's not at all clear that the combination

		spin_lock_irq(&zone->lru_lock);

		if (!PageLRU(page))
			goto out_unlock;

is is a safe thing to do against a freed page, or against a freed and
reused-for-we-dont-know-what page.  It probably _is_ safe, as we're
probably setting and clearing PG_lru inside lru_lock in other places.  But
it's not obvious that these things will be true for all time and Nick keeps
on trying to diddle with that stuff.  There's quite a bit of subtle
dependency being introduced here.

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