ubifs issue about xattr node when replay journal

[hujianyang]

Hi Wang,

I have researched into the code but I still have some problems:

1) What's your kernel version?
2) Is the mechanism of removing XENT_NODE as same as removing
   DATA_NODE?
3) Is the mechanism of removing XENT_NODE same on ubifs_removexattr()
   and ubifs_jnl_delete_inode().

On 2014/7/12 21:36, 王丁 wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Now we use xattr based on ubifs, and find some issues about it.
> Situation like that:
> 1.poweron ->2.create a file -> 3.set xattr -> 4.delete the file -> 5.power cut
> After several cycles with above steps, we can not boot up the device
> with the error below.
> 
> 
> Analysis:
> when delete a file, ubifs will remove the xent node from tnc, if gc
> happend, it will remove the xent node data from the GCed LEB because
> of it has been removed form tnc ,
> then if a power cut happen, the journal replay may also try to remove
> the related xattr node, the error occurred because of it has been
> GCed.
> 
> 
> Now I run commit when ubifs_jnl_delete_inode called, and it's OK.
> Does anyone have a better way for the issue?
>  

Can you draw a figure of this race? According to your description,
I think the race is removing XENT_NODE twice. Is that true?

> 
> diff --git a/fs/ubifs/journal.c b/fs/ubifs/journal.c
> index f755a24..eba555e 100755
> --- a/fs/ubifs/journal.c
> +++ b/fs/ubifs/journal.c
> @@ -900,6 +900,9 @@ int ubifs_jnl_delete_inode(struct ubifs_info *c,
> const struct inode *inode)
>         else
>                 ubifs_delete_orphan(c, inode->i_ino);
>         up_read(&c->commit_sem);
> +
> +       ubifs_run_commit(c);
> +
>         return err;
> }

Run commit after each deletion is not a good choice and I think this
fix is just decreasing the rate of error happening.

Let's find out a better solution.

Thanks,

Hu