Re: Issue in count_mm_mlocked_page_nr() with commit afcf76df48f9 ("mm/mlock: use vma iterator and maple state instead of vma linked list")

[Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@oracle.com>]

* Lukas Bulwahn <lukas.bulwahn@gmail.com> [220614 07:33]:
> Dear Matthew, dear Liam,
> 
> The commit afcf76df48f9 ("mm/mlock: use vma iterator and maple state instead
> of vma linked list") refactors the function count_mm_mlocked_page_nr() in
> mm/mlock.c, such that the special case:
> 
>         if (mm == NULL)
>                 mm = current->mm;
> 
> is now dead code. Before the refactoring, after this if statement, the variable
> mm was used further in vma = find_vma(mm, start) in the following line, but now,
> with the introduction of VMA_ITERATOR(vmi, mm, start) before the if statement,
> the assignment within the if statement is simply ignored.
> 
> I assume that:
> - If the semantics of this function shall be preserved, the VMA_ITERATOR macro
> needs to move after the if statement.
> 
> - or, if the consideration of the special case on mm == NULL is actually
> obsolete with this refactoring, it could be simply deleted.

I think this code was never necessary.  This statement was added in the
same commit that added the only user of the function [1], which passes
in current->mm as the argument.

> 
> I will keep it up to you how this issue is correctly resolved.
> 
> This was discovered due to tracking all dead stores that clang-analyzer reports
> on an x86 defconfig. The underlying issue here is more severe than "just a dead
> store in the kernel code base", but it is probably easy for you to resolve.
> 

Thanks for the report.  This code should be dropped.

[1] Commit ID 0cf2f6f6dc605

Regards,
Liam