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Thomas Gleixner 3ca9595d9f futex: Add support for unlocking robust futexes
Unlocking robust non-PI futexes happens in user space with the following
sequence:

  1)	robust_list_set_op_pending(mutex);
  2)	robust_list_remove(mutex);

  	lval = 0;
  3)	lval = atomic_xchg(lock, lval);
  4)	if (lval & WAITERS)
  5)		sys_futex(WAKE,....);
  6)	robust_list_clear_op_pending();

That opens a window between #3 and #6 where the mutex could be acquired by
some other task which observes that it is the last user and:

  A) unmaps the mutex memory
  B) maps a different file, which ends up covering the same address

When the original task exits before reaching #6 then the kernel robust list
handling observes the pending op entry and tries to fix up user space.

In case that the newly mapped data contains the TID of the exiting thread
at the address of the mutex/futex the kernel will set the owner died bit in
that memory and therefore corrupting unrelated data.

PI futexes have a similar problem both for the non-contented user space
unlock and the in kernel unlock:

  1)	robust_list_set_op_pending(mutex);
  2)	robust_list_remove(mutex);

  	lval = gettid();
  3)	if (!atomic_try_cmpxchg(lock, lval, 0))
  4)		sys_futex(UNLOCK_PI,....);
  5)	robust_list_clear_op_pending();

Address the first part of the problem where the futexes have waiters and
need to enter the kernel anyway. Add a new FUTEX_ROBUST_UNLOCK flag, which
is valid for the sys_futex() FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI, FUTEX_WAKE, FUTEX_WAKE_BITSET
operations.

This deliberately omits FUTEX_WAKE_OP from this treatment as it's unclear
whether this is needed and there is no usage of it in glibc either to
investigate.

For the futex2 syscall family this needs to be implemented with a new
syscall.

The sys_futex() case [ab]uses the @uaddr2 argument to hand the pointer to
robust_list_head::list_pending_op into the kernel. This argument is only
evaluated when the FUTEX_ROBUST_UNLOCK bit is set and is therefore backward
compatible.

This is an explicit argument to avoid the lookup of the robust list pointer
and retrieving the pending op pointer from there. User space has the
pointer already available so it can just put it into the @uaddr2
argument. Aside of that this allows the usage of multiple robust lists in
the future without any changes to the internal functions as they just operate
on the provided pointer.

This requires a second flag FUTEX_ROBUST_LIST32 which indicates that the
robust list pointer points to an u32 and not to an u64. This is required
for two reasons:

    1) sys_futex() has no compat variant

    2) The gaming emulators use both both 64-bit and compat 32-bit robust
       lists in the same 64-bit application

As a consequence 32-bit applications have to set this flag unconditionally
so they can run on a 64-bit kernel in compat mode unmodified. 32-bit
kernels return an error code when the flag is not set. 64-bit kernels will
happily clear the full 64 bits if user space fails to set it.

In case of FUTEX_UNLOCK_PI this clears the robust list pending op when the
unlock succeeded. In case of errors, the user space value is still locked
by the caller and therefore the above cannot happen.

In case of FUTEX_WAKE* this does the unlock of the futex in the kernel and
clears the robust list pending op when the unlock was successful. If not,
the user space value is still locked and user space has to deal with the
returned error. That means that the unlocking of non-PI robust futexes has
to use the same try_cmpxchg() unlock scheme as PI futexes.

If the clearing of the pending list op fails (fault) then the kernel clears
the registered robust list pointer if it matches to prevent that exit()
will try to handle invalid data. That's a valid paranoid decision because
the robust list head sits usually in the TLS and if the TLS is not longer
accessible then the chance for fixing up the resulting mess is very close
to zero.

The problem of non-contended unlocks still exists and will be addressed
separately.

Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Reviewed-by: André Almeida <andrealmeid@igalia.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260602090535.670514505@kernel.org
2026-06-03 11:38:51 +02:00
arch x86: Select ARCH_MEMORY_ORDER_TSO 2026-06-03 11:38:50 +02:00
block block: only restrict bio allocation gfp mask asked to block 2026-04-21 11:42:12 -06:00
certs Clang build fixes for 7.1 2026-04-24 09:29:51 -07:00
crypto This push contains the following changes: 2026-05-02 12:31:43 -07:00
Documentation futex: Move futex task related data into a struct 2026-06-03 11:38:49 +02:00
drivers nvdimm: Convert nvdimm_bus guard to class 2026-06-03 11:38:47 +02:00
fs Description for this pull request: 2026-05-02 12:25:57 -07:00
include futex: Add support for unlocking robust futexes 2026-06-03 11:38:51 +02:00
init memblock: updates for 7.0-rc1 2026-04-18 11:29:14 -07:00
io_uring futex: Add support for unlocking robust futexes 2026-06-03 11:38:51 +02:00
ipc Convert 'alloc_obj' family to use the new default GFP_KERNEL argument 2026-02-21 17:09:51 -08:00
kernel futex: Add support for unlocking robust futexes 2026-06-03 11:38:51 +02:00
lib lockdep/selftests: Restore sched_rt_mutex state on PREEMPT_RT 2026-06-03 11:38:47 +02:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm slab fixes for 7.1-rc1 2026-05-03 08:19:57 -07:00
net net/sched: cls_flower: revert unintended changes 2026-04-30 13:47:01 +02:00
rust Char/Misc/IIO/and others driver updates for 7.1-rc1 2026-04-24 13:23:50 -07:00
samples soc: drivers for 7.1 2026-04-16 20:34:34 -07:00
scripts First round of Kbuild fixes for 7.1 2026-04-25 17:04:15 -07:00
security selinux: fix avdcache auditing 2026-04-28 18:13:58 -04:00
sound ALSA: hda/tas2781: Fix incorrect bit update for non-book-zero or book 0 pages >1 2026-04-29 07:51:17 +02:00
tools selftests/membarrier: Add rseq stress test for CFS throttle interactions 2026-05-05 12:50:48 +02:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt Arm: 2026-04-17 07:18:03 -07:00
.clang-format Devicetree updates for v7.0: 2026-02-11 18:27:08 -08:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-04-02 16:48:25 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore kbuild: rust: provide an option to inline C helpers into Rust 2026-03-30 02:03:52 +02:00
.mailmap drm fixes for 7.1-rc2 2026-05-01 16:56:08 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml
COPYING
CREDITS Delete some obsolete networking code 2026-04-24 09:41:58 -07:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS drm fixes for 7.1-rc2 2026-05-01 16:56:08 -07:00
Makefile Linux 7.1-rc2 2026-05-03 14:21:25 -07:00
README docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer - Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher - Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert - Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer - Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator - Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer - Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor - Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer - Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant - LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst