No description
  • C 96.8%
  • Assembly 0.9%
  • Rust 0.7%
  • Shell 0.6%
  • Python 0.5%
  • Other 0.3%
Find a file
Boris Burkov 5376c9db45 btrfs: write-protect folios during data writeback
commit 095be159f3 ("btrfs: unify folio dirty flag clearing") replaced
the folio_clear_dirty_for_io() call in extent_write_cache_pages() with a
plain folio_test_dirty() check. Besides clearing the dirty flag,
folio_clear_dirty_for_io() also calls folio_mkclean(), which write-protects
the shared mmap PTEs mapping the folio. Note that we still do call
folio_clear_dirty_for_io() later in submit_one_sector() when we clear
dirty on the last sector of the folio (the only sector for non-subpage
cases). But we lost this early call in extent_write_cache_pages().

Without the extra write-protection, a process with the file mmap-ed can
modify a sector while it is being used by writeback in a way that
expects a stable folio (checksumming, compressing, copying, etc...)
without faulting, which manifests as a handful of concrete bugs.

1. For large folios or subpage sectorsize, it is possible to submit a bio
which does not cover the whole folio. When this happens, we will have a
bio in flight for a folio that we have *not* called
folio_clear_dirty_for_io() on. If a task with an existing mmap-ed PTE
writes (without faulting..) in this window, it can result in
corruptions. If the write arrives while the checksumming or writing itself
is underway, this can result in an invalid checksum and later corruption
reports on read. If the write arrives after checksumming/writing is done
but before the last sector dirty is cleared, then the write is present
in page cache but doesn't affect the dirty tracking and will be lost
when the folio is fully finished being submitted and the dirty bit
is cleared. This results in losing the write even if fsync() is called.

2. For zoned submissions which are done in batch separate from the main
extent_writepage() loop, we also risk csum violations for those
submissions. Zoned writes are clamped to max_zone_append_size and are
not aligned with folios, so a submission can span two folios. The first
folio being processed in extent_write_cache_pages() will call
extent_write_locked_range() which will submit the partial range of the
next folio, while the rest of that folio could still be dirty. So
clearing dirty on the submitted sectors doesn't call
folio_clear_dirty_for_io() and we have the same issue. Since
extent_write_cache_pages() skips these batch submitted folios (they are
already marked for writeback from submission by the preceding folio), we
must add the extra write protection in lock_delalloc_folios().

3. For inline extents this will subtly risk losing writes that happen
after/while we copy the inline extent but before we clear dirty on
the folio.

4. For folios spanning EOF, mmap could tamper with the zeroed bytes past
EOF and cause them to be persisted where future faults would improperly
see them instead of zeros.

5. Finally, for compressed extents, we risk modifying the folios while we
work on compressing them which will result in corrupted compressed data.
Specifically, in run_delalloc_compressed() we queue up work to do
compress_file_range() in BTRFS_COMPRESSION_CHUNK_SIZE (512K) chunks which
will call btrfs_folio_clamp_clear_dirty() on the range. For non-subpage,
this will always clear the whole folio, safely. For subpage, we risk a
partial clear here as well. In particular, imagine a 2M folio broken up
into 512K chunks of work which might start compression work on one chunk
before all the chunks compress_file_range() workers have gotten far
enough to finish clearing all the dirty bitmaps of the folio and getting
to folio_clear_dirty_for_io(). Large folios on the edges of submission
ranges are similarly at risk to be only partly cleared.
This particular gap was introduced by a second patch in the same series:
commit a4ef54dbb5 ("btrfs: make extent_range_clear_dirty_for_io() to handle sector size < page size cases")

We cannot simply restore the call to folio_clear_dirty_for_io() because
that also drops the dirty flag off the folio which violates invariants
introduced for large folios by
commit 334509ce9d07 ("btrfs: use dirty flag to check if an ordered extent needs to be truncated")
and results in failing to invalidate clean folios past i_size, resulting
in deadlocks.

Therefore, to fix it, leave the existing semantics w.r.t. the folio's
dirty flag (to preserve the correct invalidate behavior) but ensure that
the other aspect of folio_clear_dirty_for_io(), folio_mkclean(), is run
on the folio when we lock it for writeback.

Finally, to help prevent similar regressions in the future, add a debug
warning that triggers at the known corruption sites if we have failed to
write protect the folio.

Assisted-by: LLM (debug, reproduce, research fix, review patch)
Fixes: 095be159f3 ("btrfs: unify folio dirty flag clearing")
Fixes: a4ef54dbb5 ("btrfs: make extent_range_clear_dirty_for_io() to handle sector size < page size cases")
Reviewed-by: Qu Wenruo <wqu@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>
Signed-off-by: David Sterba <dsterba@suse.com>
History 2026-08-07 19:17:17 +02:00
arch s390: 2026-08-07 07:41:40 -07:00
block block: stop the timeout timer when releasing a never added disk 2026-07-29 05:23:20 -06:00
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto crypto: aes - Fix conditions for selecting MAC dependencies 2026-07-09 11:06:22 -04:00
Documentation Including fixes from netfilter. 2026-08-06 11:39:20 -07:00
drivers s390: 2026-08-07 07:41:40 -07:00
fs btrfs: write-protect folios during data writeback 2026-08-07 19:17:17 +02:00
include Thermal control fixes for 7.2-rc7 2026-08-07 06:48:51 -07:00
init rust: allow suspicious_runtime_symbol_definitions lint for Rust >= 1.98 2026-06-29 13:02:15 +02:00
io_uring io_uring: preserve task restrictions across exec 2026-07-30 14:40:22 -06:00
ipc kernel-7.2-rc1.misc 2026-06-15 03:05:50 +05:30
kernel BPF fixes: 2026-08-07 08:08:57 -07:00
lib hardening fixes for v7.2-rc6 2026-07-28 13:36:01 -07:00
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 17 hotfixes. 15 are cc:stable. 16 are for MM. 2026-08-06 20:29:38 -07:00
net BPF fixes: 2026-08-07 08:08:57 -07:00
rust rust: time: fix as_micros_ceil() to round correctly for negative Delta 2026-07-18 19:07:35 +02:00
samples samples/damon/mtier: error out for zero quota goal target values 2026-08-04 20:02:02 -07:00
scripts kbuild: rpm-pkg: Preserve BTF sections in kernel modules during debuginfo stripping 2026-07-29 16:21:42 -07:00
security selinux/stable-7.2 PR 20260805 2026-08-05 13:40:11 -07:00
sound ALSA: usb-audio: Fix sticky mixer regressions on M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 2026-08-07 10:35:31 +02:00
tools BPF fixes: 2026-08-07 08:08:57 -07:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt KVM/arm64 fixes for 7.2, take #2 2026-07-15 12:13:30 +02:00
.clang-format clang-format: fix formatting of guard() and scoped_guard() statements 2026-05-28 21:24:41 -07:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.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 SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
.mailmap 17 hotfixes. 15 are cc:stable. 16 are for MM. 2026-08-06 20:29:38 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS CREDITS: Add Wolfram Sang 2026-07-14 16:34:04 +02:00
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 sound fixes for 7.2-rc7 2026-08-07 06:36:11 -07:00
Makefile Linux 7.2-rc6 2026-08-02 16:24:24 -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