Re: [PATCH] qom: assert integer does not overflow

[Michael S. Tsirkin]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 02:35:36PM +0000, Daniel P. Berrangé wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 25, 2022 at 09:10:44AM -0500, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > QOM reference counting is not designed with an infinite amount of
> > references in mind, trying to take a reference in a loop will overflow
> > the integer. We will then eventually assert when dereferencing, but the
> > real problem is in object_ref so let's assert there to make such issues
> > cleaner and easier to debug.
> 
> What is the actual bug / scenario that led you to hit this problem ?

E.g. if during code development I call object_ref but not object_unref,
the counter eventually overflows. If this triggers in an error flow
and not a good path this kind of bug might thinkably make it through QE
into release code.

> I'm surprised you saw an assert in object_unref, as that would
> imply you had exactly  UINT32_MAX calls to object_ref and then
> one to object_unref.

Any imbalance with # of unrefs > # refs
will trigger an existing assert in unref.

However, an imbalance with # of refs > # unrefs does not trigger an
assert at the moment.


> > Some micro-benchmarking shows using fetch and add this is essentially
> > free on x86.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@redhat.com>
> > ---
> >  qom/object.c | 6 +++++-
> >  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/qom/object.c b/qom/object.c
> > index 4f0677cca9..5db3974f04 100644
> > --- a/qom/object.c
> > +++ b/qom/object.c
> > @@ -1167,10 +1167,14 @@ GSList *object_class_get_list_sorted(const char 
> > *implements_type,
> >  Object *object_ref(void *objptr)
> >  {
> >      Object *obj = OBJECT(objptr);
> > +    uint32_t ref;
> > +
> >      if (!obj) {
> >          return NULL;
> >      }
> > -    qatomic_inc(&obj->ref);
> > +    ref = qatomic_fetch_inc(&obj->ref);
> > +    /* Assert waaay before the integer overflows */
> > +    g_assert(ref < INT_MAX);
> 
> Not that I expect this to hit, but why choose this lower
> bound instead of g_assert(ref > 0) which is the actual
> failure scenario, matching the existing object_unref
> assert.

The earlier we catch it the better, if we overflowed to 0 some other
thread might already be confused.


> Regards,
> Daniel
> -- 
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