mirror of https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Changbin Du <changbin.du@huawei.com>
To: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@kernel.org>,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: <linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>, <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	Changbin Du <changbin.du@huawei.com>,
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v2] tools: jobserver: Prevent deadlock caused by incorrect jobserver configuration and enhance error reporting
Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2026 18:04:03 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260108100403.2888782-1-changbin.du@huawei.com> (raw)

When using GNU Make's jobserver feature in kernel builds, a bug in MAKEFLAGS
propagation caused "--jobserver-auth=r,w" to reference an unintended file
descriptor. This led to infinite loops in jobserver-exec's os.read() calls
due to empty token.

My shell opened /etc/passwd for some reason without closing it, and as a
result, all child processes inherited this fd 3.

$ ls -l /proc/self/fd
total 0
lrwx------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 0 -> /dev/pts/1
lrwx------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 1 -> /dev/pts/1
lrwx------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 2 -> /dev/pts/1
lr-x------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 3 -> /etc/passwd
lr-x------ 1 changbin changbin 64 Dec 25 13:03 4 -> /proc/1421383/fd

In this case, the `make` should open a new file descriptor for jobserver
control, but clearly, it did not do so and instead still passed fd 3 as
"--jobserver-auth=3,4" in MAKEFLAGS. (The version of my gnu make is 4.3)

This update ensures robustness against invalid jobserver configurations,
even when `make` incorrectly pass non-pipe file descriptors.
 * Rejecting empty reads to prevent infinite loops on EOF.
 * Clearing `self.jobs` to avoid writing to incorrect files if invalid tokens
   are detected.
 * Printing detailed error messages to stderr to inform the user.

Cc: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+huawei@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Changbin Du <changbin.du@huawei.com>

---
  v2: remove validation for all bytes are '+' characters. (Mauro)
---
 tools/lib/python/jobserver.py | 7 ++++++-
 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py b/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py
index a24f30ef4fa8..8206e4c1497b 100755
--- a/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py
+++ b/tools/lib/python/jobserver.py
@@ -91,6 +91,10 @@ class JobserverExec:
             while True:
                 try:
                     slot = os.read(self.reader, 8)
+                    if not slot:
+                        # Clear self.jobs to prevent us from probably writing incorrect file.
+                        self.jobs = []
+                        raise ValueError("unexpected empty token from jobserver fd, invalid '--jobserver-auth=' setting?")
                     self.jobs += slot
                 except (OSError, IOError) as e:
                     if e.errno == errno.EWOULDBLOCK:
@@ -105,7 +109,8 @@ class JobserverExec:
             # to sit here blocked on our child.
             self.claim = len(self.jobs) + 1
 
-        except (KeyError, IndexError, ValueError, OSError, IOError):
+        except (KeyError, IndexError, ValueError, OSError, IOError) as e:
+            print(f"Warning: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
             # Any missing environment strings or bad fds should result in just
             # not being parallel.
             self.claim = None
-- 
2.43.0


             reply	other threads:[~2026-01-08 10:04 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-01-08 10:04 Changbin Du [this message]
2026-01-08 11:05 ` Mauro Carvalho Chehab

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=20260108100403.2888782-1-changbin.du@huawei.com \
    --to=changbin.du@huawei.com \
    --cc=corbet@lwn.net \
    --cc=linux-doc@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    --cc=mchehab+huawei@kernel.org \
    --cc=mchehab@kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox

all inboxes | Powered by JetHome®