Re: [PATCH v2] 9pfs: local: ignore O_NOATIME if we don't have permissions

[Greg Kurz]

On Fri, 17 Apr 2020 11:48:24 -0700
Omar Sandoval <address@hidden> wrote:

> From: Omar Sandoval <address@hidden>
> 
> QEMU's local 9pfs server passes through O_NOATIME from the client. If
> the QEMU process doesn't have permissions to use O_NOATIME (namely, it
> does not own the file nor have the CAP_FOWNER capability), the open will
> fail. This causes issues when from the client's point of view, it
> believes it has permissions to use O_NOATIME (e.g., a process running as
> root in the virtual machine). Additionally, overlayfs on Linux opens
> files on the lower layer using O_NOATIME, so in this case a 9pfs mount
> can't be used as a lower layer for overlayfs (cf.
> https://github.com/osandov/drgn/blob/dabfe1971951701da13863dbe6d8a1d172ad9650/vmtest/onoatimehack.c
> and https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/issues/54509).
> 
> Luckily, O_NOATIME is effectively a hint, and is often ignored by, e.g.,
> network filesystems. open(2) notes that O_NOATIME "may not be effective
> on all filesystems. One example is NFS, where the server maintains the
> access time." This means that we can honor it when possible but fall
> back to ignoring it.
> 
> Acked-by: Christian Schoenebeck <address@hidden>
> Signed-off-by: Omar Sandoval <address@hidden>
> ---

Applied to 9p-next.

> Changes from v1:
> 
> * Add comment
> * Add Christian's acked-by
> 
>  hw/9pfs/9p-util.h | 13 +++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/hw/9pfs/9p-util.h b/hw/9pfs/9p-util.h
> index 79ed6b233e..546f46dc7d 100644
> --- a/hw/9pfs/9p-util.h
> +++ b/hw/9pfs/9p-util.h
> @@ -37,9 +37,22 @@ static inline int openat_file(int dirfd, const char *name, 
> int flags,
>  {
>      int fd, serrno, ret;
>  
> +again:
>      fd = openat(dirfd, name, flags | O_NOFOLLOW | O_NOCTTY | O_NONBLOCK,
>                  mode);
>      if (fd == -1) {
> +        if (errno == EPERM && (flags & O_NOATIME)) {
> +            /*
> +             * The client passed O_NOATIME but we lack permissions to honor 
> it.
> +             * Rather than failing the open, fall back without O_NOATIME. 
> This
> +             * doesn't break the semantics on the client side, as the Linux
> +             * open(2) man page notes that O_NOATIME "may not be effective on
> +             * all filesystems". In particular, NFS and other network
> +             * filesystems ignore it entirely.
> +             */
> +            flags &= ~O_NOATIME;
> +            goto again;
> +        }
>          return -1;
>      }
>