Files
kernel/fs/ext4/ext4.h
Baokun Li 9169ef838d ext4: add ext4_sb_bread_nofail() helper function for ext4_free_branches()
commit d8b90e6387a74bcb1714c8d1e6a782ff709de9a9 upstream.

The implicit __GFP_NOFAIL flag in ext4_sb_bread() was removed in commit
8a83ac5494 ("ext4: call bdev_getblk() from sb_getblk_gfp()"), meaning
the function can now fail under memory pressure.

Most callers of ext4_sb_bread() propagate the error to userspace and do not
remount the filesystem read-only. However, ext4_free_branches() handles
ext4_sb_bread() failure by remounting the filesystem read-only.

This implies that an ext3 filesystem (mounted via the ext4 driver) could be
forcibly remounted read-only due to a transient page allocation failure,
which is unacceptable.

To mitigate this, introduce a new helper function, ext4_sb_bread_nofail(),
which explicitly uses __GFP_NOFAIL, and use it in ext4_free_branches().

Fixes: 8a83ac5494 ("ext4: call bdev_getblk() from sb_getblk_gfp()")
Cc: stable@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Baokun Li <libaokun1@huawei.com>
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
2025-10-19 16:33:59 +02:00

134 KiB