On Thu, 29 Feb 2024 at 09:32, Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> One option might be to make a failed memcpy_from_iter_mc() set another
> flag in the iter, and then make fault_in_iov_iter_readable() test that
> flag and return 'len' if that flag is set.
>
> Something like that (wild handwaving) should get the right error handling.
>
> The simpler alternative is maybe something like the attached.
> COMPLETELY UNTESTED. Maybe I've confused myself with all the different
> indiraction mazes in the iov_iter code.

Actually, I think the right model is to get rid of that horrendous
.copy_mc field entirely.

We only have one single place that uses it - that nasty core dumping
code. And that code is *not* performance critical.

And not only isn't it performance-critical, it already does all the
core dumping one page at a time because it doesn't want to write pages
that were never mapped into user space.

So what we can do is

 (a) make the core dumping code *copy* the page to a good location
with copy_mc_to_kernel() first

 (b) remove this horrendous .copy_mc crap entirely from iov_iter

This is slightly complicated by the fact that copy_mc_to_kernel() may
not even exist, and architectures that don't have it don't want the
silly extra copy. So we need to abstract the "copy to temporary page"
code a bit. But that's probably a good thing anyway in that it forces
us to have nice interfaces.

End result: something like the attached.

AGAIN: THIS IS ENTIRELY UNTESTED.

But hey, so was clearly all the .copy_mc code too that this removes, so...

               Linus