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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/files.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/files.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/files.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..8c206f4e0250 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/files.txt @@ -0,0 +1,123 @@ +File management in the Linux kernel +----------------------------------- + +This document describes how locking for files (struct file) +and file descriptor table (struct files) works. + +Up until 2.6.12, the file descriptor table has been protected +with a lock (files->file_lock) and reference count (files->count). +->file_lock protected accesses to all the file related fields +of the table. ->count was used for sharing the file descriptor +table between tasks cloned with CLONE_FILES flag. Typically +this would be the case for posix threads. As with the common +refcounting model in the kernel, the last task doing +a put_files_struct() frees the file descriptor (fd) table. +The files (struct file) themselves are protected using +reference count (->f_count). + +In the new lock-free model of file descriptor management, +the reference counting is similar, but the locking is +based on RCU. The file descriptor table contains multiple +elements - the fd sets (open_fds and close_on_exec, the +array of file pointers, the sizes of the sets and the array +etc.). In order for the updates to appear atomic to +a lock-free reader, all the elements of the file descriptor +table are in a separate structure - struct fdtable. +files_struct contains a pointer to struct fdtable through +which the actual fd table is accessed. Initially the +fdtable is embedded in files_struct itself. On a subsequent +expansion of fdtable, a new fdtable structure is allocated +and files->fdtab points to the new structure. The fdtable +structure is freed with RCU and lock-free readers either +see the old fdtable or the new fdtable making the update +appear atomic. Here are the locking rules for +the fdtable structure - + +1. All references to the fdtable must be done through + the files_fdtable() macro : + + struct fdtable *fdt; + + rcu_read_lock(); + + fdt = files_fdtable(files); + .... + if (n <= fdt->max_fds) + .... + ... + rcu_read_unlock(); + + files_fdtable() uses rcu_dereference() macro which takes care of + the memory barrier requirements for lock-free dereference. + The fdtable pointer must be read within the read-side + critical section. + +2. Reading of the fdtable as described above must be protected + by rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock(). + +3. For any update to the the fd table, files->file_lock must + be held. + +4. To look up the file structure given an fd, a reader + must use either fcheck() or fcheck_files() APIs. These + take care of barrier requirements due to lock-free lookup. + An example : + + struct file *file; + + rcu_read_lock(); + file = fcheck(fd); + if (file) { + ... + } + .... + rcu_read_unlock(); + +5. Handling of the file structures is special. Since the look-up + of the fd (fget()/fget_light()) are lock-free, it is possible + that look-up may race with the last put() operation on the + file structure. This is avoided using the rcuref APIs + on ->f_count : + + rcu_read_lock(); + file = fcheck_files(files, fd); + if (file) { + if (rcuref_inc_lf(&file->f_count)) + *fput_needed = 1; + else + /* Didn't get the reference, someone's freed */ + file = NULL; + } + rcu_read_unlock(); + .... + return file; + + rcuref_inc_lf() detects if refcounts is already zero or + goes to zero during increment. If it does, we fail + fget()/fget_light(). + +6. Since both fdtable and file structures can be looked up + lock-free, they must be installed using rcu_assign_pointer() + API. If they are looked up lock-free, rcu_dereference() + must be used. However it is advisable to use files_fdtable() + and fcheck()/fcheck_files() which take care of these issues. + +7. While updating, the fdtable pointer must be looked up while + holding files->file_lock. If ->file_lock is dropped, then + another thread expand the files thereby creating a new + fdtable and making the earlier fdtable pointer stale. + For example : + + spin_lock(&files->file_lock); + fd = locate_fd(files, file, start); + if (fd >= 0) { + /* locate_fd() may have expanded fdtable, load the ptr */ + fdt = files_fdtable(files); + FD_SET(fd, fdt->open_fds); + FD_CLR(fd, fdt->close_on_exec); + spin_unlock(&files->file_lock); + ..... + + Since locate_fd() can drop ->file_lock (and reacquire ->file_lock), + the fdtable pointer (fdt) must be loaded after locate_fd(). + |