Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] hvc_init(): Enforce one-time initialization.

From: Michael Ellerman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 09 Nov 2011 18:24:12 +1100

On Tue, 2011-11-08 at 13:45 -0800, Miche Baker-Harvey wrote:
> hvc_init() must only be called once, and no thread should continue with hvc_alloc()
> until after initialization is complete.  The original code does not enforce either
> of these requirements.  A new mutex limits entry to hvc_init() to a single thread,
> and blocks all later comers until it has completed.
> 
> This patch fixes multiple crash symptoms.

Hi Miche,

A few nit-picky comments below ..

> @@ -84,6 +85,10 @@ static LIST_HEAD(hvc_structs);
>   * list traversal.
>   */
>  static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(hvc_structs_lock);
> +/*
> + * only one task does allocation at a time.
> + */
> +static DEFINE_MUTEX(hvc_ports_mutex);

The comment is wrong, isn't it? Only one task does _init_ at a time.
Once the driver is initialised allocs can run concurrently.

So shouldn't it be called hvc_init_mutex ?

> @@ -825,11 +830,15 @@ struct hvc_struct *hvc_alloc(uint32_t vtermno, int data,
>  	int i;
>  
>  	/* We wait until a driver actually comes along */
> +	mutex_lock(&hvc_ports_mutex);
>  	if (!hvc_driver) {
>  		int err = hvc_init();
> -		if (err)
> +		if (err) {
> +			mutex_unlock(&hvc_ports_mutex);
>  			return ERR_PTR(err);
> +		}
>  	}
> +	mutex_unlock(&hvc_ports_mutex);
>  
>  	hp = kzalloc(ALIGN(sizeof(*hp), sizeof(long)) + outbuf_size,
>  			GFP_KERNEL);

It'd be cleaner I think to do all the locking in hvc_init(). That's safe
as long as you recheck !hvc_driver in hvc_init() with the lock held.

cheers