Subject: [PATCH net-next v2 1/3] netlink: handle EMSGSIZE errors in the core

From: Jakub Kicinski <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2024 21:24:06 -0800

Eric points out that our current suggested way of handling
EMSGSIZE errors ((err == -EMSGSIZE) ? skb->len : err) will
break if we didn't fit even a single object into the buffer
provided by the user. This should not happen for well behaved
applications, but we can fix that, and free netlink families
from dealing with that completely by moving error handling
into the core.

Let's assume from now on that all EMSGSIZE errors in dumps are
because we run out of skb space. Families can now propagate
the error nla_put_*() etc generated and not worry about any
return value magic. If some family really wants to send EMSGSIZE
to user space, assuming it generates the same error on the next
dump iteration the skb->len should be 0, and user space should
still see the EMSGSIZE.

This should simplify families and prevent mistakes in return
values which lead to DONE being forced into a separate recv()
call as discovered by Ido some time ago.

Reviewed-by: Eric Dumazet <[email-masked]>
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <[email-masked]>
---
CC: [email-masked]
---
 net/netlink/af_netlink.c | 9 +++++++++
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
index ad7b645e3ae7..da846212fb9b 100644
--- a/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
+++ b/net/netlink/af_netlink.c
@@ -2267,6 +2267,15 @@ static int netlink_dump(struct sock *sk, bool lock_taken)
 		if (extra_mutex)
 			mutex_unlock(extra_mutex);
 
+		/* EMSGSIZE plus something already in the skb means
+		 * that there's more to dump but current skb has filled up.
+		 * If the callback really wants to return EMSGSIZE to user space
+		 * it needs to do so again, on the next cb->dump() call,
+		 * without putting data in the skb.
+		 */
+		if (nlk->dump_done_errno == -EMSGSIZE && skb->len)
+			nlk->dump_done_errno = skb->len;
+
 		cb->extack = NULL;
 	}
 
-- 
2.44.0