From: Michael Kerrisk on
Hi Jens,

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:58 AM, Michael Kerrisk
<mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jens,
>
> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:48 AM, Michael Kerrisk
> <mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Michael Kerrisk
>> <mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Jens Axboe <jaxboe(a)fusionio.com> wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Jun 03 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>> Hi Jens,
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Jens Axboe <jaxboe(a)fusionio.com> wrote:
>>>>> > On Wed, Jun 02 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>> >> On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Jens Axboe <axboe(a)kernel.dk> wrote:
>>>>> >> > On Thu, May 27 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>> >> >> Jens,
>>>>> >> >>
>>>>> >> >> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 7:56 PM, Jens Axboe <jens.axboe(a)oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>> >> >> > On Mon, May 24 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>> >> >> >> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 7:35 PM, Jens Axboe <jens.axboe(a)oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>> >> >> >> > On Mon, May 24 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>> >> >> >> >> > Right, that looks like a thinko.
>>>>> >> >> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> >> > I'll submit a patch changing it to bytes and the agreed API and fix this
>>>>> >> >> >> >> > -Eerror. Thanks for your comments and suggestions!
>>>>> >> >> >> >>
>>>>> >> >> >> >> Thanks. And of course you are welcome. (Please CC linux-api(a)vger on
>>>>> >> >> >> >> this patche (and all patches that change the API/ABI.)
>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> > The first change is this:
>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> > http://git.kernel.dk/?p=linux-2.6-block.git;a=commit;h=0191f8697bbdfefcd36e7b8dc3eeddfe82893e4b
>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> > and the one dealing with the pages vs bytes API is this:
>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> > http://git.kernel.dk/?p=linux-2.6-block.git;a=commit;h=b9598db3401282bb27b4aef77e3eee12015f7f29
>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> > Not tested yet, will do so before sending in of course.
>>>>> >> >> >>
>>>>> >> >> >> Eyeballing it quickly, these changes look right.
>>>>> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> > Good, thanks.
>>>>> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> >> Do you have some test programs you can make available?
>>>>> >> >> >
>>>>> >> >> > Actually I don't, I test it by modifying fio's splice engine to set/get
>>>>> >> >> > the pipe size and test the resulting transfers.
>>>>> >> >>
>>>>> >> >> An afterthought. Do there not also need to be fixes to the /proc
>>>>> >> >> interfaces. I don't think they were included in your revised patches.
>>>>> >> >
>>>>> >> > I think the proc part can be sanely left in pages, since it's just a
>>>>> >> > memory limiter.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> I can't see any advantage to using two different units for these
>>>>> >> closely related APIs, and it does seem like it could be a source of
>>>>> >> confusion. Similar APIs that I can think of like RLIMIT_MEMLOCK and
>>>>> >> shmget() SHMMAX that impose per-process memory-related limits use
>>>>> >> bytes. Best to be consistent, don't you think?
>>>>> >
>>>>> > But they are different interfaces. �I think the 'pass in required size,
>>>>> > return actual size' where actual size is >= required size makes sense
>>>>> > for the syscall part, but for an "admin" interface it is more logical to
>>>>> > deal in pages. Perhaps that's just me and the average admin does not
>>>>> > agree. So while it's just detail, it's also an interface so has some
>>>>> > importance. And if there's consensus that bytes is a cleaner interface
>>>>> > on the proc side as well, then lets change it.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll add one more datapoint to those that I already mentioned.
>>>>> RLIMIT_STACK and RLIMIT_DATA (getrlimit()) is also expressed in bytes.
>>>>>
>>>>> There was only one vaguely related limit that I could find that
>>>>> measured things in pages. Consider these two System V shared memory
>>>>> limits:
>>>>>
>>>>> SHMMAX
>>>>> This is the maximum size (in bytes) of a shared memory segment.
>>>>>
>>>>> SHMALL
>>>>> This is a system-wide limit on the total number of pages of shared memory.
>>>>>
>>>>> But in a way this almost confirms my point. SHMMAX is a limit the
>>>>> governs the behavior of individual processes (like your /proc file),
>>>>> while SHMALL is a limit that governs the behavior of the system as a
>>>>> whole. There is a (sort of) logic to using bytes for one and pages for
>>>>> the other.
>>>>>
>>>>> I think that I've said all I need to say on the topic. I'm inclined to
>>>>> think yours /proc file should use bytes, since it seems consistent
>>>>> with other simialr APIs. Others may confirm, or someone else mught
>>>>> have a different insight.
>>>>
>>>> I'll commit a patch to change it to bytes.
>>>
>>> Thanks Jens.
>>
>> Since I'm going to document the /proc file, it occurred to me... What
>> are you going to call this file now? "pipe_max_pages" �no longer makes
>> sense. "pipe_size_ceiling" may be more expressive than simply
>> "pipe_max".
>
> So, I'm looking at this interface still more closely now. How about
> using CAP_SYS_RESOURCE, rather than the hugely overloaded
> CAP_SYS_ADMIN as the governor for the capability check? Again, it's
> about consistency. Here's what CAP_SYS_RESOURCE currently governs:
>
> � � � CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
> � � � � � � �* Use reserved space on ext2 file systems;
> � � � � � � �* make ioctl(2) calls controlling ext3 journaling;
> � � � � � � �* override disk quota limits;
> � � � � � � �* increase resource limits (see setrlimit(2));
> � � � � � � �* override RLIMIT_NPROC resource limit;
> � � � � � � �* raise msg_qbytes limit for a System V message queue
> above the limit
> � � � � � � � �in /proc/sys/kernel/msgmnb (see msgop(2) and msgctl(2)).
>
> Including the pipe size limit in this list makes sense.

Another question: What happens if we adjust the capacity of a pipe to
a value that is smaller than the number of bytes currently in the
pipe?

Cheers,

Michael
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From: Michael Kerrisk on
On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:29 AM, Michael Kerrisk
<mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jens,
>
> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:58 AM, Michael Kerrisk
> <mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Hi Jens,
>>
>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:48 AM, Michael Kerrisk
>> <mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Michael Kerrisk
>>> <mtk.manpages(a)googlemail.com> wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 9:01 AM, Jens Axboe <jaxboe(a)fusionio.com> wrote:
>>>>> On Thu, Jun 03 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Jens,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 8:10 AM, Jens Axboe <jaxboe(a)fusionio.com> wrote:
>>>>>> > On Wed, Jun 02 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>>> >> On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Jens Axboe <axboe(a)kernel.dk> wrote:
>>>>>> >> > On Thu, May 27 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>>> >> >> Jens,
>>>>>> >> >>
>>>>>> >> >> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 7:56 PM, Jens Axboe <jens.axboe(a)oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>>> >> >> > On Mon, May 24 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>>> >> >> >> On Mon, May 24, 2010 at 7:35 PM, Jens Axboe <jens.axboe(a)oracle.com> wrote:
>>>>>> >> >> >> > On Mon, May 24 2010, Michael Kerrisk wrote:
>>>>>> >> >> >> >> > Right, that looks like a thinko.
>>>>>> >> >> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> >> > I'll submit a patch changing it to bytes and the agreed API and fix this
>>>>>> >> >> >> >> > -Eerror. Thanks for your comments and suggestions!
>>>>>> >> >> >> >>
>>>>>> >> >> >> >> Thanks. And of course you are welcome. (Please CC linux-api(a)vger on
>>>>>> >> >> >> >> this patche (and all patches that change the API/ABI.)
>>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> > The first change is this:
>>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> > http://git.kernel.dk/?p=linux-2.6-block.git;a=commit;h=0191f8697bbdfefcd36e7b8dc3eeddfe82893e4b
>>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> > and the one dealing with the pages vs bytes API is this:
>>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> > http://git.kernel.dk/?p=linux-2.6-block.git;a=commit;h=b9598db3401282bb27b4aef77e3eee12015f7f29
>>>>>> >> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> > Not tested yet, will do so before sending in of course.
>>>>>> >> >> >>
>>>>>> >> >> >> Eyeballing it quickly, these changes look right.
>>>>>> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> > Good, thanks.
>>>>>> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> >> Do you have some test programs you can make available?
>>>>>> >> >> >
>>>>>> >> >> > Actually I don't, I test it by modifying fio's splice engine to set/get
>>>>>> >> >> > the pipe size and test the resulting transfers.
>>>>>> >> >>
>>>>>> >> >> An afterthought. Do there not also need to be fixes to the /proc
>>>>>> >> >> interfaces. I don't think they were included in your revised patches.
>>>>>> >> >
>>>>>> >> > I think the proc part can be sanely left in pages, since it's just a
>>>>>> >> > memory limiter.
>>>>>> >>
>>>>>> >> I can't see any advantage to using two different units for these
>>>>>> >> closely related APIs, and it does seem like it could be a source of
>>>>>> >> confusion. Similar APIs that I can think of like RLIMIT_MEMLOCK and
>>>>>> >> shmget() SHMMAX that impose per-process memory-related limits use
>>>>>> >> bytes. Best to be consistent, don't you think?
>>>>>> >
>>>>>> > But they are different interfaces. �I think the 'pass in required size,
>>>>>> > return actual size' where actual size is >= required size makes sense
>>>>>> > for the syscall part, but for an "admin" interface it is more logical to
>>>>>> > deal in pages. Perhaps that's just me and the average admin does not
>>>>>> > agree. So while it's just detail, it's also an interface so has some
>>>>>> > importance. And if there's consensus that bytes is a cleaner interface
>>>>>> > on the proc side as well, then lets change it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll add one more datapoint to those that I already mentioned.
>>>>>> RLIMIT_STACK and RLIMIT_DATA (getrlimit()) is also expressed in bytes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> There was only one vaguely related limit that I could find that
>>>>>> measured things in pages. Consider these two System V shared memory
>>>>>> limits:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> SHMMAX
>>>>>> This is the maximum size (in bytes) of a shared memory segment.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> SHMALL
>>>>>> This is a system-wide limit on the total number of pages of shared memory.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But in a way this almost confirms my point. SHMMAX is a limit the
>>>>>> governs the behavior of individual processes (like your /proc file),
>>>>>> while SHMALL is a limit that governs the behavior of the system as a
>>>>>> whole. There is a (sort of) logic to using bytes for one and pages for
>>>>>> the other.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think that I've said all I need to say on the topic. I'm inclined to
>>>>>> think yours /proc file should use bytes, since it seems consistent
>>>>>> with other simialr APIs. Others may confirm, or someone else mught
>>>>>> have a different insight.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll commit a patch to change it to bytes.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Jens.
>>>
>>> Since I'm going to document the /proc file, it occurred to me... What
>>> are you going to call this file now? "pipe_max_pages" �no longer makes
>>> sense. "pipe_size_ceiling" may be more expressive than simply
>>> "pipe_max".
>>
>> So, I'm looking at this interface still more closely now. How about
>> using CAP_SYS_RESOURCE, rather than the hugely overloaded
>> CAP_SYS_ADMIN as the governor for the capability check? Again, it's
>> about consistency. Here's what CAP_SYS_RESOURCE currently governs:
>>
>> � � � CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
>> � � � � � � �* Use reserved space on ext2 file systems;
>> � � � � � � �* make ioctl(2) calls controlling ext3 journaling;
>> � � � � � � �* override disk quota limits;
>> � � � � � � �* increase resource limits (see setrlimit(2));
>> � � � � � � �* override RLIMIT_NPROC resource limit;
>> � � � � � � �* raise msg_qbytes limit for a System V message queue
>> above the limit
>> � � � � � � � �in /proc/sys/kernel/msgmnb (see msgop(2) and msgctl(2)).
>>
>> Including the pipe size limit in this list makes sense.
>
> Another question: What happens if we adjust the capacity of a pipe to
> a value that is smaller than the number of bytes currently in the
> pipe?

Hi Jens,

This is my first cut at trying to describe the new interface:

[[
Starting with kernel 2.6.35, Linux allows the capacity of a pipe to be
modified. The Linux-specific fcntl(fd, F_SETPIPE_SZ, size) call
changes the capacity of the pipe referred to by fd to be at least size
bytes. An unprivileged process can change the pipe capacity to any
value in the range from the system page size up to the value in
/proc/sys/fs/pipe-max-pages???. The default value for
pipe-max-pages???? is ???? bytes. A privileged (CAP_SYS_RESOURCE???)
process can override this limit. When allocating space for the pipe,
the kernel may round size up to some value convenient for the
implementation. (In the initial implementation, size is rounded up to
the next power-of-two multiple of the system page size.) The fcntl(fd,
F_GETPIPE_SZ) call returns the actual size allocated for the pipe
referred to by fd.
]]

Obviously there's a few things that are still not final, such as
* the resource name,
* the name of the /proc file,
and the behavior if 'size' is less than the number of bytes currently
in the pipe.

But other than that, how does this look?

Cheers,

Michael
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From: Jens Axboe on
(Readding linux-kernel, switching to a new mailer after more than a
decade of mutt isn't easy...)

On 2010-06-03 12:58, Michael Kerrisk wrote:

>> the CAP_SYS_ADMIN was basically just
>> grabbed out of thin air.
>
> Which explains why CAP_SYS_ADMIN has become the mess it is today ;-)

Definitely true :-)

--
Jens Axboe

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From: Miklos Szeredi on
On Thu, 03 Jun 2010, Jens Axboe wrote:
> I looked at that when I did the original pipe-max-pages, but it seems
> we're not consistent in this regard. Anyway, here's what I came up with.
> Not tested yet, and I hope thunderbird doesn't fsck up the patch.

Unfortunately it did (line wrap damage).

Thanks,
Miklos
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From: Jens Axboe on
On 2010-06-03 13:32, Miklos Szeredi wrote:
> On Thu, 03 Jun 2010, Jens Axboe wrote:
>> I looked at that when I did the original pipe-max-pages, but it seems
>> we're not consistent in this regard. Anyway, here's what I came up with.
>> Not tested yet, and I hope thunderbird doesn't fsck up the patch.
>
> Unfortunately it did (line wrap damage).

I suspected it might. This better?

diff --git a/fs/pipe.c b/fs/pipe.c
index f98fae3..f7f62f3 100644
--- a/fs/pipe.c
+++ b/fs/pipe.c
@@ -26,9 +26,14 @@

/*
* The max size that a non-root user is allowed to grow the pipe. Can
- * be set by root in /proc/sys/fs/pipe-max-pages
+ * be set by root in /proc/sys/fs/pipe_max_size
*/
-unsigned int pipe_max_pages = PIPE_DEF_BUFFERS * 16;
+unsigned int pipe_max_size = 1048576;
+
+/*
+ * Minimum pipe size, as required by POSIX
+ */
+unsigned int pipe_min_size = PAGE_SIZE;

/*
* We use a start+len construction, which provides full use of the
@@ -1156,6 +1161,35 @@ static long pipe_set_size(struct pipe_inode_info *pipe, unsigned long nr_pages)
return nr_pages * PAGE_SIZE;
}

+/*
+ * Currently we rely on the pipe array holding a power-of-2 number
+ * of pages.
+ */
+static inline unsigned int round_pipe_size(unsigned int size)
+{
+ unsigned long nr_pages;
+
+ nr_pages = (size + PAGE_SIZE - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
+ return roundup_pow_of_two(nr_pages) << PAGE_SHIFT;
+}
+
+/*
+ * This should work even if CONFIG_PROC_FS isn't set, as proc_dointvec_minmax
+ * will return an error.
+ */
+int pipe_proc_fn(struct ctl_table *table, int write, void __user *buf,
+ size_t *lenp, loff_t *ppos)
+{
+ int ret;
+
+ ret = proc_dointvec_minmax(table, write, buf, lenp, ppos);
+ if (ret < 0 || !write)
+ return ret;
+
+ pipe_max_size = round_pipe_size(pipe_max_size);
+ return ret;
+}
+
long pipe_fcntl(struct file *file, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg)
{
struct pipe_inode_info *pipe;
@@ -1169,23 +1203,19 @@ long pipe_fcntl(struct file *file, unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg)

switch (cmd) {
case F_SETPIPE_SZ: {
- unsigned long nr_pages;
+ unsigned int size, nr_pages;

- /*
- * Currently the array must be a power-of-2 size, so adjust
- * upwards if needed.
- */
- nr_pages = (arg + PAGE_SIZE - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
- nr_pages = roundup_pow_of_two(nr_pages);
+ size = round_pipe_size(arg);
+ nr_pages = size >> PAGE_SHIFT;

- if (!capable(CAP_SYS_RESOURCE) && nr_pages > pipe_max_pages) {
+ if (!capable(CAP_SYS_RESOURCE) && size > pipe_max_size) {
ret = -EPERM;
goto out;
- } else if (nr_pages < 1) {
+ } else if (nr_pages < PAGE_SIZE) {
ret = -EINVAL;
goto out;
}
- ret = pipe_set_size(pipe, arg);
+ ret = pipe_set_size(pipe, nr_pages);
break;
}
case F_GETPIPE_SZ:
diff --git a/include/linux/pipe_fs_i.h b/include/linux/pipe_fs_i.h
index 16de393..4457969 100644
--- a/include/linux/pipe_fs_i.h
+++ b/include/linux/pipe_fs_i.h
@@ -139,7 +139,9 @@ void pipe_lock(struct pipe_inode_info *);
void pipe_unlock(struct pipe_inode_info *);
void pipe_double_lock(struct pipe_inode_info *, struct pipe_inode_info *);

-extern unsigned int pipe_max_pages;
+extern unsigned int pipe_max_size, pipe_min_size;
+int pipe_proc_fn(struct ctl_table *, int, void __user *, size_t *, loff_t *);
+

/* Drop the inode semaphore and wait for a pipe event, atomically */
void pipe_wait(struct pipe_inode_info *pipe);
diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
index 997080f..2f9b3a6 100644
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c
+++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -1471,12 +1471,12 @@ static struct ctl_table fs_table[] = {
},
#endif
{
- .procname = "pipe-max-pages",
- .data = &pipe_max_pages,
+ .procname = "pipe_max_size",
+ .data = &pipe_max_size,
.maxlen = sizeof(int),
.mode = 0644,
- .proc_handler = &proc_dointvec_minmax,
- .extra1 = &two,
+ .proc_handler = &pipe_proc_fn,
+ .extra1 = &pipe_min_size,
},
/*
* NOTE: do not add new entries to this table unless you have read

--
Jens Axboe

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