ovl: take lower dir inode mutex outside upper sb_writers lock

The functions ovl_lower_positive() and ovl_check_empty_dir() both take
inode mutex on the real lower dir under ovl_want_write() which takes
the upper_mnt sb_writers lock.

While this is not a clear locking order or layering violation, it creates
an undesired lock dependency between two unrelated layers for no good
reason.

This lock dependency materializes to a false(?) positive lockdep warning
when calling rmdir() on a nested overlayfs, where both nested and
underlying overlayfs both use the same fs type as upper layer.

rmdir() on the nested overlayfs creates the lock chain:
  sb_writers of upper_mnt (e.g. tmpfs) in ovl_do_remove()
  ovl_i_mutex_dir_key[] of lower overlay dir in ovl_lower_positive()

rmdir() on the underlying overlayfs creates the lock chain in
reverse order:
  ovl_i_mutex_dir_key[] of lower overlay dir in vfs_rmdir()
  sb_writers of nested upper_mnt (e.g. tmpfs) in ovl_do_remove()

To rid of the unneeded locking dependency, move both ovl_lower_positive()
and ovl_check_empty_dir() to before ovl_want_write() in rmdir() and
rename() implementation.

This change spreads the pieces of ovl_check_empty_and_clear() directly
inside the rmdir()/rename() implementations so the helper is no longer
needed and removed.

Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
index a7e45e6cd732..7dfe381c2cd8 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/readdir.c
@@ -862,8 +862,11 @@ int ovl_check_empty_dir(struct dentry *dentry, struct list_head *list)
 	int err;
 	struct ovl_cache_entry *p, *n;
 	struct rb_root root = RB_ROOT;
+	const struct cred *old_cred;
 
+	old_cred = ovl_override_creds(dentry->d_sb);
 	err = ovl_dir_read_merged(dentry, list, &root);
+	revert_creds(old_cred);
 	if (err)
 		return err;