[PATCH] free: preserve errno [BZ#17924]

Adhemerval Zanella adhemerval.zanella@linaro.org
Mon Dec 28 19:24:29 GMT 2020



On 23/12/2020 22:03, Paul Eggert wrote:
> Thanks for the comments about the patch's test case. I modified the test case to reflect nearly all the comments, resulting in the attached revised patch. I'm replying below only to the comments that didn't result in a change to the patch.
> 
> On 12/23/20 11:19 AM, Adhemerval Zanella wrote:
> 
>> Fixing in a more fine grained would require a lot of more work to check if
>> the shared routines that calls mmap, madvise or brk won't interfere with other
>> symbols; so maybe it should be ok to use this large hammer for now.
> 
> Yes, that was my thought as well.

I will try to revise this for 2.33.

> 
>>> +The @code{free} function preserves the value of @code{errno}, so that
>>> +cleanup code need not worry about saving and restoring @code{errno}
>>> +around a call to @code{free}.  Although neither @w{ISO C} nor
>>> +POSIX.1-2017 requires @code{free} to preserve @code{errno}, a future
>>> +version of POSIX is planned to require it.
> ...
>> Not sure if this is worth to add, since we will need to update the manual
>> once the POSIX does require it.
> 
> I'll volunteer to update the manual. :-)
> 
> It's worth mentioning that preserving errno is not something that portable C or POSIX code should assume for 'free'. If there's a better way for the manual to warn its readers about this, that'd be fine of course.
> 
> I did consider changing "Although neither @w{ISO C} nor POSIX.1-2017 requires @code{free} to preserve @code{errno}, a future version of POSIX is planned to require it" to "Neither @w{ISO C} nor POSIX requires @code{free} to preserve @code{errno}", but that wording would be less informative and would still need updating once POSIX does require 'free' to preserve errno.

Thanks.

> From afbf4ff042cf3a5c8f983d5aa3bd0de3fb696dd3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
> From: Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
> Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2020 11:27:25 -0800
> Subject: [PATCH] free: preserve errno [BZ#17924]
> 
> In the next release of POSIX, free must preserve errno
> <https://www.austingroupbugs.net/view.php?id=385>.
> Modify __libc_free to save and restore errno, so that
> any internal munmap etc. syscalls do not disturb the caller's errno.
> Add a test malloc/tst-free-errno.c (almost all by Bruno Haible),
> and document that free preserves errno.

LGTM with the small test change below.

Reviewed-by: Adhemerval Zanella  <adhemerval.zanella@linaro.org>

> ---
>  malloc/Makefile         |   1 +
>  malloc/malloc.c         |  13 ++--
>  malloc/tst-free-errno.c | 131 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  manual/memory.texi      |   9 +++
>  4 files changed, 150 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>  create mode 100644 malloc/tst-free-errno.c
> 
> diff --git a/malloc/Makefile b/malloc/Makefile
> index ab64dcfd73..4b3975f90d 100644
> --- a/malloc/Makefile
> +++ b/malloc/Makefile
> @@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ tests := mallocbug tst-malloc tst-valloc tst-calloc tst-obstack \
>  	 tst-interpose-nothread \
>  	 tst-interpose-thread \
>  	 tst-alloc_buffer \
> +	 tst-free-errno \
>  	 tst-malloc-tcache-leak \
>  	 tst-malloc_info tst-mallinfo2 \
>  	 tst-malloc-too-large \
> diff --git a/malloc/malloc.c b/malloc/malloc.c
> index a3e914fa8a..3b151f44f7 100644
> --- a/malloc/malloc.c
> +++ b/malloc/malloc.c
> @@ -3278,6 +3278,8 @@ __libc_free (void *mem)
>    *(volatile char *)mem;
>  #endif
>  
> +  int err = errno;
> +
>    p = mem2chunk (mem);
>  
>    /* Mark the chunk as belonging to the library again.  */
> @@ -3298,13 +3300,16 @@ __libc_free (void *mem)
>                        mp_.mmap_threshold, mp_.trim_threshold);
>          }
>        munmap_chunk (p);
> -      return;
>      }
> +  else
> +    {
> +      MAYBE_INIT_TCACHE ();
>  
> -  MAYBE_INIT_TCACHE ();
> +      ar_ptr = arena_for_chunk (p);
> +      _int_free (ar_ptr, p, 0);
> +    }
>  
> -  ar_ptr = arena_for_chunk (p);
> -  _int_free (ar_ptr, p, 0);
> +  __set_errno (err);
>  }
>  libc_hidden_def (__libc_free)
>  
> diff --git a/malloc/tst-free-errno.c b/malloc/tst-free-errno.c
> new file mode 100644
> index 0000000000..89629751e8
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/malloc/tst-free-errno.c
> @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@
> +/* Test that free preserves errno.
> +   Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
> +   This file is part of the GNU C Library.
> +
> +   The GNU C Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
> +   modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
> +   License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
> +   version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
> +
> +   The GNU C Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
> +   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
> +   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
> +   Lesser General Public License for more details.
> +
> +   You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
> +   License along with the GNU C Library; if not, see
> +   <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.  */
> +
> +#include <errno.h>
> +#include <stdlib.h>
> +#include <string.h>
> +#include <unistd.h>
> +#include <fcntl.h>
> +#include <stdint.h>
> +#include <string.h>
> +#include <sys/mman.h>
> +#include <support/check.h>
> +#include <support/support.h>
> +#include <support/temp_file.h>
> +#include <support/xunistd.h>
> +
> +/* The __attribute__ ((weak)) prevents a GCC optimization.  Without
> +   it, GCC would "know" that errno is unchanged by calling free (ptr),
> +   when ptr was the result of a malloc call in the same function.  */
> +int __attribute__ ((weak))
> +get_errno (void)
> +{
> +  return errno;
> +}
> +
> +static int
> +do_test (void)
> +{
> +  /* Check that free() preserves errno.  */
> +  {
> +    errno = 1789; /* Liberté, égalité, fraternité.  */
> +    free (NULL);
> +    TEST_VERIFY (get_errno () == 1789);
> +  }
> +  { /* Large memory allocations, to force mmap.  */
> +    enum { N = 2 };
> +    void * volatile ptrs[N];
> +    size_t i;
> +    for (i = 0; i < N; i++)
> +      ptrs[i] = malloc (5318153);

Use xmalloc here.

> +    for (i = 0; i < N; i++)
> +      {
> +        errno = 1789;
> +        free (ptrs[i]);
> +        TEST_VERIFY (get_errno () == 1789);
> +      }
> +  }
> +
> +  /* Test a less common code path.
> +     When malloc() is based on mmap(), free() can sometimes call munmap().
> +     munmap() usually succeeds, but fails in a particular situation: when
> +       - it has to unmap the middle part of a VMA, and
> +       - the number of VMAs of a process is limited and the limit is
> +         already reached.
> +     The latter condition is fulfilled on Linux, when the file
> +     /proc/sys/vm/max_map_count exists.  For all known Linux versions
> +     the default limit is at most 65536.
> +   */
> +  #if defined __linux__
> +  if (open ("/proc/sys/vm/max_map_count", O_RDONLY) >= 0)

I think we can assume for tests /proc should be mounted, otherwise this
only partially test this interface.  So I think we can use xopen here.

> +    {
> +      /* Preparations.  */
> +      size_t pagesize = getpagesize ();
> +      void *firstpage_backup = xmalloc (pagesize);
> +      void *lastpage_backup = xmalloc (pagesize);
> +      /* Allocate a large memory area, as a bumper, so that the MAP_FIXED
> +         allocation later will not overwrite parts of the memory areas
> +         allocated to ld.so or libc.so.  */
> +      xmmap (NULL, 0x1000000, PROT_READ, MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_PRIVATE, -1);
> +      /* A file descriptor pointing to a regular file.  */
> +      int fd = create_temp_file ("tst-free-errno", NULL);
> +      if (fd < 0)
> +	FAIL_EXIT1 ("cannot create temporary file");
> +
> +      /* Do a large memory allocation.  */
> +      size_t big_size = 0x1000000;
> +      void * volatile ptr = xmalloc (big_size - 0x100);
> +      char *ptr_aligned = (char *) ((uintptr_t) ptr & ~(pagesize - 1));
> +      /* This large memory allocation allocated a memory area
> +	 from ptr_aligned to ptr_aligned + big_size.
> +	 Enlarge this memory area by adding a page before and a page
> +	 after it.  */
> +      memcpy (firstpage_backup, ptr_aligned, pagesize);
> +      memcpy (lastpage_backup, ptr_aligned + big_size - pagesize,
> +	      pagesize);
> +      xmmap (ptr_aligned - pagesize, pagesize + big_size + pagesize,
> +	     PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE,
> +	     MAP_ANONYMOUS | MAP_PRIVATE | MAP_FIXED, -1);
> +      memcpy (ptr_aligned, firstpage_backup, pagesize);
> +      memcpy (ptr_aligned + big_size - pagesize, lastpage_backup,
> +	      pagesize);
> +
> +      /* Now add as many mappings as we can.
> +	 Stop at 65536, in order not to crash the machine (in case the
> +	 limit has been increased by the system administrator).  */
> +      for (int i = 0; i < 65536; i++)
> +	if (mmap (NULL, pagesize, PROT_READ, MAP_FILE | MAP_PRIVATE, fd, 0)
> +	    == MAP_FAILED)
> +	  break;
> +      /* Now the number of VMAs of this process has hopefully attained
> +	 its limit.  */
> +
> +      errno = 1789;
> +      /* This call to free() is supposed to call
> +	   munmap (ptr_aligned, big_size);
> +	 which increases the number of VMAs by 1, which is supposed
> +	 to fail.  */
> +      free (ptr);
> +      TEST_VERIFY (get_errno () == 1789);
> +    }
> +  #endif
> +
> +  return 0;
> +}
> +
> +#include <support/test-driver.c>

Ok.

> diff --git a/manual/memory.texi b/manual/memory.texi
> index c132261084..b2cc65228a 100644
> --- a/manual/memory.texi
> +++ b/manual/memory.texi
> @@ -738,6 +738,12 @@ later call to @code{malloc} to reuse the space.  In the meantime, the
>  space remains in your program as part of a free-list used internally by
>  @code{malloc}.
>  
> +The @code{free} function preserves the value of @code{errno}, so that
> +cleanup code need not worry about saving and restoring @code{errno}
> +around a call to @code{free}.  Although neither @w{ISO C} nor
> +POSIX.1-2017 requires @code{free} to preserve @code{errno}, a future
> +version of POSIX is planned to require it.
> +
>  There is no point in freeing blocks at the end of a program, because all
>  of the program's space is given back to the system when the process
>  terminates.

Ok.

> @@ -1935,6 +1941,9 @@ linking against @code{libc.a} (explicitly or implicitly).
>  functions (that is, all the functions used by the application,
>  @theglibc{}, and other linked-in libraries) can lead to static linking
>  failures, and, at run time, to heap corruption and application crashes.
> +Replacement functions should implement the behavior documented for
> +their counterparts in @theglibc{}; for example, the replacement
> +@code{free} should also preserve @code{errno}.
>  
>  The minimum set of functions which has to be provided by a custom
>  @code{malloc} is given in the table below.
> -- 
> 2.29.2

Ok.


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