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authorMiklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>2005-03-25 12:19:43 +0000
committerMiklos Szeredi <miklos@szeredi.hu>2005-03-25 12:19:43 +0000
commit407e6a7297a7e126182934c53946eac44fe6b54b (patch)
tree75af6c054875f666e39d6cc0acfa23ecfc4a722e /doc
parent4283ee7760e3fd5146750fc6f039c7db1504e742 (diff)
downloadfuse-407e6a7297a7e126182934c53946eac44fe6b54b.tar.gz
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+The following diagram shows how a filesystem operation (in this
+example unlink) is performed in FUSE.
+
+NOTE: everything in this description is greatly simplified
+
+ | "rm /mnt/fuse/file" | FUSE filesystem daemon
+ | |
+ | | >sys_read()
+ | | >fuse_dev_read()
+ | | >request_wait()
+ | | [sleep on fc->waitq]
+ | |
+ | >sys_unlink() |
+ | >fuse_unlink() |
+ | [get request from |
+ | fc->unused_list] |
+ | >request_send() |
+ | [queue req on fc->pending] |
+ | [wake up fc->waitq] | [woken up]
+ | >request_wait_answer() |
+ | [sleep on req->waitq] |
+ | | <request_wait()
+ | | [remove req from fc->pending]
+ | | [copy req to read buffer]
+ | | [add req to fc->processing]
+ | | <fuse_dev_read()
+ | | <sys_read()
+ | |
+ | | [perform unlink]
+ | |
+ | | >sys_write()
+ | | >fuse_dev_write()
+ | | [look up req in fc->processing]
+ | | [remove from fc->processing]
+ | | [copy write buffer to req]
+ | [woken up] | [wake up req->waitq]
+ | | <fuse_dev_write()
+ | | <sys_write()
+ | <request_wait_answer() |
+ | <request_send() |
+ | [add request to |
+ | fc->unused_list] |
+ | <fuse_unlink() |
+ | <sys_unlink() |
+
+There are a couple of ways in which to deadlock a FUSE filesystem.
+Since we are talking about unprivileged userspace programs,
+something must be done about these.
+
+Scenario 1 - Simple deadlock
+-----------------------------
+
+ | "rm /mnt/fuse/file" | FUSE filesystem daemon
+ | |
+ | >sys_unlink("/mnt/fuse/file") |
+ | [acquire inode semaphore |
+ | for "file"] |
+ | >fuse_unlink() |
+ | [sleep on req->waitq] |
+ | | <sys_read()
+ | | >sys_unlink("/mnt/fuse/file")
+ | | [acquire inode semaphore
+ | | for "file"]
+ | | *DEADLOCK*
+
+The solution for this is to allow requests to be interrupted while
+they are in userspace:
+
+ | [interrupted by signal] |
+ | <fuse_unlink() |
+ | [release semaphore] | [semaphore acquired]
+ | <sys_unlink() |
+ | | >fuse_unlink()
+ | | [queue req on fc->pending]
+ | | [wake up fc->waitq]
+ | | [sleep on req->waitq]
+
+If the filesystem daemon was single threaded, this will stop here,
+since there's no other thread to dequeue and execute the request.
+In this case the solution is to kill the FUSE daemon as well. If
+there are multiple serving threads, you just have to kill them as
+long as any remain.
+
+Moral: a filesystem which deadlocks, can soon find itself dead.
+
+Scenario 2 - Tricky deadlock
+----------------------------
+
+This one needs a carefully crafted filesystem. It's a variation on
+the above, only the call back to the filesystem is not explicit,
+but is caused by a pagefault.
+
+ | Kamikaze filesystem thread 1 | Kamikaze filesystem thread 2
+ | |
+ | [fd = open("/mnt/fuse/file")] | [request served normally]
+ | [mmap fd to 'addr'] |
+ | [close fd] | [FLUSH triggers 'magic' flag]
+ | [read a byte from addr] |
+ | >do_page_fault() |
+ | [find or create page] |
+ | [lock page] |
+ | >fuse_readpage() |
+ | [queue READ request] |
+ | [sleep on req->waitq] |
+ | | [read request to buffer]
+ | | [create reply header before addr]
+ | | >sys_write(addr - headerlength)
+ | | >fuse_dev_write()
+ | | [look up req in fc->processing]
+ | | [remove from fc->processing]
+ | | [copy write buffer to req]
+ | | >do_page_fault()
+ | | [find or create page]
+ | | [lock page]
+ | | * DEADLOCK *
+
+Solution is again to let the the request be interrupted (not
+elaborated further).
+
+An additional problem is that while the write buffer is being
+copied to the request, the request must not be interrupted. This
+is because the destination address of the copy may not be valid
+after the request is interrupted.
+
+This is solved with doing the copy atomically, and allowing
+interruption while the page(s) belonging to the write buffer are
+faulted with get_user_pages(). The 'req->locked' flag indicates
+when the copy is taking place, and interruption is delayed until
+this flag is unset.
+