Commit 260fbcb9 authored Oct 28, 2025 by Tejun Heo

cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()



Currently, cgroup_task_exit() adds thread group leaders with live member
threads to their css_set's dying_tasks list (so cgroup.procs iteration can
still see the leader), and cgroup_task_release() later removes them with
list_del_init(&task->cg_list).

An upcoming patch will defer the dying_tasks list addition, moving it from
cgroup_task_exit() (called from do_exit()) to a new function called from
finish_task_switch(). However, release_task() (which calls
cgroup_task_release()) can run either before or after finish_task_switch(),
creating a race where cgroup_task_release() might try to remove the task from
dying_tasks before or while it's being added.

Move the list_del_init() from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free() to
fix this race. cgroup_task_free() runs from __put_task_struct(), which is
always after both paths, making the cleanup safe.

Cc: Dan Schatzberg <dschatzberg@meta.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>

parent 16dad780

kernel/cgroup/cgroup.c

+5 −4

Original line number	Diff line number	Diff line
		@@ -7019,6 +7019,11 @@ void cgroup_task_release(struct task_struct *task)
		do_each_subsys_mask(ss, ssid, have_release_callback) {
		ss->release(task);
		} while_each_subsys_mask();
		}

		void cgroup_task_free(struct task_struct *task)
		{
		struct css_set *cset = task_css_set(task);

		if (!list_empty(&task->cg_list)) {
		spin_lock_irq(&css_set_lock);
		@@ -7026,11 +7031,7 @@ void cgroup_task_release(struct task_struct *task)
		list_del_init(&task->cg_list);
		spin_unlock_irq(&css_set_lock);
		}
		}

		void cgroup_task_free(struct task_struct *task)
		{
		struct css_set *cset = task_css_set(task);
		put_css_set(cset);
		}