seq_file: document how per-entry resources are managed.

Patch series "Fix some seq_file users that were recently broken".

A recent change to seq_file broke some users which were using seq_file
in a non-"standard" way ...  though the "standard" isn't documented, so
they can be excused.  The result is a possible leak - of memory in one
case, of references to a 'transport' in the other.

These three patches:
 1/ document and explain the problem
 2/ fix the problem user in x86
 3/ fix the problem user in net/sctp

This patch (of 3):

Users of seq_file will sometimes find it convenient to take a resource,
such as a lock or memory allocation, in the ->start or ->next operations.
These are per-entry resources, distinct from per-session resources which
are taken in ->start and released in ->stop.

The preferred management of these is release the resource on the
subsequent call to ->next or ->stop.

However prior to Commit 1f4aace60b0e ("fs/seq_file.c: simplify seq_file
iteration code and interface") it happened that ->show would always be
called after ->start or ->next, and a few users chose to release the
resource in ->show.

This is no longer reliable.  Since the mentioned commit, ->next will
always come after a successful ->show (to ensure m->index is updated
correctly), so the original ordering cannot be maintained.

This patch updates the documentation to clearly state the required
behaviour.  Other patches will fix the few problematic users.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: fix typo, per Willy]

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/161248518659.21478.2484341937387294998.stgit@noble1
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/161248539020.21478.3147971477400875336.stgit@noble1
Fixes: 1f4aace60b0e ("fs/seq_file.c: simplify seq_file iteration code and interface")
Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neilb@suse.de>
Cc: Xin Long <lucien.xin@gmail.com>
Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Andy Lutomirski <luto@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Vlad Yasevich <vyasevich@gmail.com>
Cc: Neil Horman <nhorman@tuxdriver.com>
Cc: Marcelo Ricardo Leitner <marcelo.leitner@gmail.com>
Cc: "David S. Miller" <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.rst
index 56856481dc8d..a6726082a7c2 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/seq_file.rst
@@ -217,6 +217,12 @@ between the calls to start() and stop(), so holding a lock during that time
 is a reasonable thing to do. The seq_file code will also avoid taking any
 other locks while the iterator is active.
 
+The iterater value returned by start() or next() is guaranteed to be
+passed to a subsequent next() or stop() call.  This allows resources
+such as locks that were taken to be reliably released.  There is *no*
+guarantee that the iterator will be passed to show(), though in practice
+it often will be.
+
 
 Formatted output
 ================