linux-mm.kvack.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>
To: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>, John Stultz <john.stultz@linaro.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	Joe Perches <joe@perches.com>,
	Michal Nazarewicz <mina86@mina86.com>,
	Andy Whitcroft <apw@canonical.com>,
	Jiri Slaby <jirislaby@gmail.com>,
	KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com>,
	Dave Hansen <dave@linux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
	linux-mm@kvack.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/3] comm: Introduce comm_lock spinlock to protect task->comm access
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 15:56:24 -0700 (PDT)	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1105171551450.10386@chino.kir.corp.google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1305669256.2466.6286.camel@twins>

On Tue, 17 May 2011, Peter Zijlstra wrote:

> The changelog also fails to mention _WHY_ this is no longer true. Nor
> does it treat why making it true again isn't an option.
> 

It's been true since:

	4614a696bd1c3a9af3a08f0e5874830a85b889d4
	Author: john stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
	Date:   Mon Dec 14 18:00:05 2009 -0800

	    procfs: allow threads to rename siblings via /proc/pid/tasks/tid/comm

Although at the time it appears that nobody was concerned about races so 
proper syncronization was never implemented.  We always had the 
prctl(PR_SET_NAME) so the majority of comm reads, those to current, 
required no locking, but this commit changed that.  The remainder of comm 
dereferences always required task_lock() and the helper get_task_comm() to 
read the string into a (usually stack-allocated) buffer.

> Who is changing another task's comm? That's just silly.
> 

I agree, and I suggested taking write privileges away from /proc/pid/comm, 
but others find that it is useful to be able to differentiate between 
threads in the same thread group without using the prctl() for debugging?

--
To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in
the body to majordomo@kvack.org.  For more info on Linux MM,
see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ .
Fight unfair telecom internet charges in Canada: sign http://stopthemeter.ca/
Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@kvack.org"> email@kvack.org </a>

  reply	other threads:[~2011-05-17 22:56 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2011-05-17 20:47 [PATCH 0/3] v5 Improve task->comm locking situation John Stultz
2011-05-17 20:47 ` [PATCH 1/3] comm: Introduce comm_lock spinlock to protect task->comm access John Stultz
2011-05-17 21:27   ` Ingo Molnar
2011-05-17 21:54     ` Peter Zijlstra
2011-05-17 22:56       ` David Rientjes [this message]
2011-05-18  0:53       ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-05-17 22:27     ` John Stultz
2011-05-18  1:02       ` KOSAKI Motohiro
2011-05-17 20:47 ` [PATCH 2/3] printk: Add %ptc to safely print a task's comm John Stultz
2011-05-17 21:42   ` Jiri Slaby
2011-05-17 21:52     ` Joe Perches
2011-05-17 22:04       ` Jiri Slaby
2011-05-17 22:17         ` Joe Perches
2011-05-17 22:17     ` John Stultz
2011-05-17 20:47 ` [PATCH 3/3] checkpatch.pl: Add check for task comm references John Stultz
2011-05-17 20:58   ` Jiri Slaby
2011-05-17 21:04   ` Michal Nazarewicz

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=alpine.DEB.2.00.1105171551450.10386@chino.kir.corp.google.com \
    --to=rientjes@google.com \
    --cc=a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl \
    --cc=akpm@linux-foundation.org \
    --cc=apw@canonical.com \
    --cc=dave@linux.vnet.ibm.com \
    --cc=jirislaby@gmail.com \
    --cc=joe@perches.com \
    --cc=john.stultz@linaro.org \
    --cc=kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-mm@kvack.org \
    --cc=mina86@mina86.com \
    --cc=mingo@elte.hu \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox