ext4: Fix buffer head reference leak in no-journal mode

We found a problem with buffer head reference leaks when using an ext4
partition without a journal.  In particular, calls to ext4_forget() would
not to a brelse() on the input buffer head, which will cause pages they
belong to to not be reclaimable.

Further investigation showed that all places where ext4_journal_forget() and
ext4_journal_revoke() are called are subject to the same problem.  The patch
below changes __ext4_journal_forget/__ext4_journal_revoke to do an explicit
release of the buffer head when the journal handle isn't valid.

Signed-off-by: Curt Wohlgemuth <curtw@google.com>
Signed-off-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 4 deletions

diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
index c98e3afea30a..f9c642b22efa 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
@@ -78,16 +78,14 @@ static int ext4_inode_is_fast_symlink(struct inode *inode)
  * but there may still be a record of it in the journal, and that record
  * still needs to be revoked.
  *
- * If the handle isn't valid we're not journaling so there's nothing to do.
+ * If the handle isn't valid we're not journaling, but we still need to
+ * call into ext4_journal_revoke() to put the buffer head.
  */
 int ext4_forget(handle_t *handle, int is_metadata, struct inode *inode,
 		struct buffer_head *bh, ext4_fsblk_t blocknr)
 {
 	int err;
 
-	if (!ext4_handle_valid(handle))
-		return 0;
-
 	might_sleep();
 
 	BUFFER_TRACE(bh, "enter");