linux/include
Christian Brauner e08f57a7dc readdir: take no inode lock on an immutable directory
iterate_dir() takes the directory's i_rwsem shared and holds it across
->iterate_shared(). For a directory that never has an entry and is
never removed the lock keeps nothing still, it only orders every reader
and every writer of that inode behind each other.

For the directory of a nullfs instance that matters. The instance of
the initial mount namespace is the root of every empty mount namespace
and the private instance is the root of every kernel thread, so one
inode is shared across users who have nothing else in common. And a
reader can hold the lock for as long as it likes: back the getdents()
buffer with a mapping of a file on a FUSE mount of your own, let the
copy of "." and ".." fault and let the server wait. Queue an exclusive
taker behind it, a mkdir() in that directory goes through start_dirop()
before the read-only mount is reported, and from then on every lookup
that misses the dcache in that directory, every create and every mount
on it waits until the server answers. One user of an empty mount
namespace stalls all the others.

Add FOP_IMMUTABLE for the file operations of a directory that never
changes and is never removed and let iterate_dir() skip the lock for
it. The flag never changes for a file, ->f_pos is protected by
f_pos_lock since directories are FMODE_ATOMIC_POS, IS_DEADDIR can't be
set on such a directory and neither touch_atime() nor fsnotify take
i_rwsem. Set it on the nullfs directory. The placeholder directories of
libfs never have an entry either but their owners remove them, so they
keep the lock.

Fixes: 9d4e752a24 ("namespace: allow creating empty mount namespaces")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # v7.1+
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20261002-work-mount-fixes-4-v1-19-dd44b89d44ce@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
2026-10-04 12:36:13 +02:00
..
acpi ACPI: bus: Drop two fields from struct acpi_device_pnp 2026-09-01 21:45:50 +02:00
asm-generic kho: make boot time huge page allocation work nicely with KHO 2026-08-23 09:17:38 -07:00
clocksource hyperv-next for v7.3-rc1 2026-08-26 16:47:40 -07:00
crypto This update includes the following changes: 2026-08-19 17:25:42 -07:00
cxl
drm Merge drm/drm-fixes into drm-misc-fixes 2026-09-01 09:38:51 +02:00
dt-bindings sound fixes for 7.3-rc1 2026-08-28 10:01:02 -07:00
hyperv
keys tpm: Initial step to reorganize TPM public headers 2026-08-25 18:13:35 +03:00
kunit
kvm KVM/arm64 changes for 7.3 2026-08-24 12:42:07 -04:00
linux readdir: take no inode lock on an immutable directory 2026-10-04 12:36:13 +02:00
math-emu
media
memory
misc
net ipv6: mcast: use copy-on-write RCU updates in ip6_mc_source() 2026-08-31 17:54:45 -07:00
pcmcia
ras
rdma
rv mm.git review status for linus..mm-stable 2026-08-27 09:17:06 -07:00
scsi SCSI updates for 7.3 2026-08-29 11:55:36 -07:00
soc Mostly the usual clk driver updates and new SoC additions plus non-critical 2026-08-26 11:14:30 -07:00
sound ALSA: rawmidi: Another workaround for false-positive mutex lockdep warning 2026-08-25 15:55:37 +02:00
target
trace Landlock fix for v7.3-rc3 2026-09-09 11:00:35 -07:00
uapi integrity-v7.3-rc2 2026-09-04 19:36:11 -07:00
ufs
vdso
video fbdev: maxine: fix 64-bit build error 2026-08-20 23:45:07 +02:00
xen
Kbuild