[patch 0/3] Re: tty contention resulting from tty_open_by_device export

[Okash Khawaja]

On Wed, Jul 12, 2017 at 07:20:28PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> 
> > When opening from kernel, we don't use file pointer. The count mismatch
> > is between tty->count and #fd's. So opening from kernel leads to #fd's
> > being less than tty->count. I thought this difference is relevant to
> > user-space opening of tty, and not to kernel opening of tty. Can you
> > suggest how to address this mismatch?
> 
> Your kernel reference is the same as having a file open reference so I
> think this actually needs addressing in the maths. In other words count
> the number of kernel references and also add that into the test for
> check_tty_count (kernel references + #fds == count).
> 
> I'd really like to keep this right because that check has a long history
> of catching really nasty race conditions in the tty code. The
> open/close/hangup code is really fragile so worth the debugability.

I see. Okay based this, check_tty_count can be easily updated to take
into account kernel references.

> 
> > Ah may be I didn't notice the active bit. Is it one of the #defines in
> > tty.h? Can usage count and active bit be used to differentiate between
> > whether the tty was opened by kernel or user?
> 
> It only tells you whether the port is currently active for some purpose,
> not which. If you still want to implement exclusivity between kernel and
> user then it needs another flag, but I think that flag should be in
> port->flags as it is a property of the physical interface.
> 
> (Take a look at tty_port_open for example)
Okay I can add TTY_PORT_KOPENED to port->flags and that should work too.

However, can you please help me understand this:
Our use case requires kernel access to tty_struct and accordingly
tty_kopen returns tty_struct. The exclusivity between user and kernel
space is also meant to prevent one side from opening tty_struct while
another has it opened. In all this, it is tty_struct and not tty_port
which is the key resource we are concerned with. So shouldn't the
exclusivity flag belong to tty_struct?

Adding a the flag to port->flags but controlling it from code for
opening and closing tty will also mean we have tty_port_kopened,
tty_port_set_kopen etc inside tty open/close code.

Am I viewing this problem incorrectly?

Thanks,
Okash