Use of copy_from_user in msm_gem_submit.c while holding a spin_lock

[Rob Clark]

On Wed, Aug 17, 2016 at 7:40 AM, Vaishali Thakkar
<vaishali.thakkar at oracle.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering about the call to copy_from_user in function submit_lookup_objects for drive
> /gpu/drm/msm/msm_gem_submit.c  It calls copy_from_user[1] in a spin_lock, which is not normally
> allowed, due to the possibility of a deadlock.
>
> Is there some reason that I am overlooking why it is OK in this case? Is there some code in the
> same file which ensures that page fault will not occur when we are calling the function holding
> spin_lock?

hmm, probably just that it isn't typical to use a swap file on these
devices (and that lockdep/etc doesn't warn about it)..  I guess we
probably need some sort of slow-path where we drop the lock and try
again in case there would be a fault..

BR,
-R

> Thank you.
>
> [1] http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/drivers/gpu/drm/msm/msm_gem_submit.c#L85
>
> --
> Vaishali