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    [PATCH] Missing brelse() in ext2/ext3 extended attribute code · 72c4f88a
    Andrew Morton authored
    From: Andreas Gruenbacher <agruen@suse.de>
    
    Missing brelse() in ext2/ext3 extended attribute code
    
    The ext2 and ext3 EA implementations fail to release a buffer_head if
    the inode that is being accessed is sharing EAs with another inode, and
    an attribute is set to the same value that it has already, like so:
    
            $ touch f g
    	$ setfattr -n user.test -v test f g
    	# (Now, both f and g refer to the same EA block.)
    	$ setfattr -n user.test -v test f
    
    With the bug, an "invalidate: busy buffer" or "invalidate: dirty
    buffer" message will be logged when the file system is unmounted. This
    patch fixes the problem.
    
    At the implementation level:
    
    The code was assuming that ext3_xattr_cache_find cannot return the same
    block the inode already is associated with, so testing for (old_bh !=
    new_bh) would determine whether the old block is resued or an additional
    bh is held. This is wrong if the EA block is used by multiple inodes (in
    which case it stays in the cache), and the block isn't actually
    modified.  Instead of testing for (old_bh != new_bh), the code now does
    a get_bh() in the branch that keeps the old block, which assures that
    new_bh now is either NULL or a handle that must be released at the end
    of ext3_xattr_set_handle2().
    72c4f88a
xattr.c 31.4 KB