Re: [PATCH RFC v4 23/25] fs: start all kthreads in nullfs

[Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>]

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> The following lockdep splat can be triggered on mainline, which is built
> with arm64's defconfig plus
> 
> 	CONFIG_SHRINKER_DEBUG
> 	CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING
> 	CONFIG_FTRACE
> 
> .  Reverting this patch (as pointed out by AI) makes this warn disappear.

This is benign and caused by holding LOCK_MOUNT_EXACT() for longer than
necessary. I'm adding the appended fix to vfs.fixes.

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From a6bd269dceeb76f92d5e8d378fed2482dd208085 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2026 13:20:25 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fs: don't create the private nullfs mount under namespace_sem

init_mount_tree() mounts the mutable rootfs on top of nullfs via
LOCK_MOUNT_EXACT(). That declares a pinned mountpoint with a cleanup
attribute in the scope of the whole function so the nullfs root inode
lock and namespace_sem are only dropped when init_mount_tree() returns.

This became a problem when the private nullfs instance for kthreads was
added. kern_mount() allocates a new superblock and alloc_super() takes
the new s_umount with SINGLE_DEPTH_NESTING and then shrinker_mutex via
shrinker_alloc(). Doing that with namespace_sem held teaches lockdep the
dependency

    namespace_sem -> s_umount/1 -> shrinker_mutex

With CONFIG_SHRINKER_DEBUG shrinker_debugfs_rename() takes the debugfs
directory inode lock under shrinker_mutex every time a block device is
mounted and lock_mount_exact() takes namespace_sem under the inode lock
of the mountpoint for every mount. So mounting anything on debugfs,
e.g. the tracefs automount on /sys/kernel/debug/tracing, closes the
cycle:

    WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
    7.3.0-rc3+ #17 Not tainted
    ------------------------------------------------------
    rasdaemon/4449 is trying to acquire lock:
    (namespace_sem){++++}-{4:4}, at: lock_mount_exact+0x4c/0x308

    but task is already holding lock:
    (&sb->s_type->i_mutex_key#17){++++}-{4:4}, at: lock_mount_exact+0x3c/0x308

    which lock already depends on the new lock.
    ...
    Chain exists of:
      namespace_sem --> shrinker_mutex --> &sb->s_type->i_mutex_key#17

This can't actually deadlock. init_mount_tree() runs single-threaded
during early boot before any other task exists and nothing allocates a
superblock under namespace_sem after that. But lockdep can't know that
and disables itself for the rest of the boot.

Move mounting the rootfs on top of nullfs into a helper so the locks
are dropped when it returns.

Fixes: 32750c77e811 ("fs: start all kthreads in nullfs")
Reported-by: Zenghui Yu <yuzenghui@huawei.com>
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/15174353-3f4a-a1ca-5bd1-ea2a4c77828e@huawei.com
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
---
 fs/namespace.c | 25 ++++++++++++++++---------
 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/namespace.c b/fs/namespace.c
index ae5dc64f8b45..5e41021eaa63 100644
--- a/fs/namespace.c
+++ b/fs/namespace.c
@@ -6184,6 +6184,21 @@ struct mnt_namespace init_mnt_ns = {
 	.poll		= __WAIT_QUEUE_HEAD_INITIALIZER(init_mnt_ns.poll),
 };
 
+static void __init mount_rootfs_on_nullfs(struct vfsmount *mnt,
+					  struct vfsmount *nullfs_mnt)
+{
+	struct path root = {
+		.mnt	= nullfs_mnt,
+		.dentry	= nullfs_mnt->mnt_root,
+	};
+
+	LOCK_MOUNT_EXACT(mp, &root);
+	if (unlikely(IS_ERR(mp.parent)))
+		panic("VFS: Failed to mount rootfs on nullfs");
+	scoped_guard(mount_writer)
+		attach_mnt(real_mount(mnt), mp.parent, mp.mp);
+}
+
 static void __init init_mount_tree(void)
 {
 	struct vfsmount *mnt, *nullfs_mnt;
@@ -6215,15 +6230,7 @@ static void __init init_mount_tree(void)
 	mnt_root		= real_mount(nullfs_mnt);
 	init_mnt_ns.root	= mnt_root;
 
-	/* Mount mutable rootfs on top of nullfs. */
-	root.mnt		= nullfs_mnt;
-	root.dentry		= nullfs_mnt->mnt_root;
-
-	LOCK_MOUNT_EXACT(mp, &root);
-	if (unlikely(IS_ERR(mp.parent)))
-		panic("VFS: Failed to mount rootfs on nullfs");
-	scoped_guard(mount_writer)
-		attach_mnt(real_mount(mnt), mp.parent, mp.mp);
+	mount_rootfs_on_nullfs(mnt, nullfs_mnt);
 
 	pr_info("VFS: Finished mounting rootfs on nullfs\n");
 
-- 
2.53.0