[OpenWrt-Devel] [RFC] fstools/overlayfs race condition

[John Crispin]

On 07/03/2016 14:03, Roman Yeryomin wrote:
> There is a race between `cp -a /tmp/root/* /rom/overlay` from
> libfstools/overlay.c and a process creating new file(s) before
> pivot(/rom, /mnt) occured.
> That is a process can create a file and it will not be copied.
> 
> Currently I do additional copy after jffs2 is ready, which is kind of
> cumbersome (see attached patch), but there are still few potentially
> erroneous scenarios:
> 1. a process may recreate the file by the time second cp occurs
> 2. a process may delete a file (not existing at that moment) and
> second cp will copy it again
> 3. a process may want to read created file before second cp occurs
> 
> If attached patch is the way to go I will properly submit it.
> Otherwise there should be a more fundamental fix but I don't see a way
> to fix this properly.
> 
> 

Hi Roman

that race has been there since the day we do overlayfs. i am always
surprised that it has not exploded in a big way yet. the only way i see
are workarounds such as yours or sending out lots of SIGSTOP and the
continues when we copied the files. either way it will be ugly and
require protective gear.

i'll ponder this and see if we can find a better way

	John
_______________________________________________
openwrt-devel mailing list
openwrt-devel at lists.openwrt.org
https://lists.openwrt.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openwrt-devel