possible bug in fs/proc/generic.c

[Amir Noam]

Hi all,

Please CC me on any reply, since I'm not subscribed to the list.

I've stumbled upon something that looks like a bug, but since I'm
fairly new
to kernel programming, it can easily be a misunderstanding on my part.

The problem is that proc_register() (in fs/proc/generic.c) can fail
(returning -EAGAIN) if there are no more free node numbers in the
/proc fs.
However, no one is actually checking the return value of
proc_remove(). The
result, as I see it, is that when trying to create a new /proc entry
while
the maximal number of entries already exist, the new entry is
successfully
allocated, but cannot be linked to the rest of the /proc entries (via
the
pointers 'parent', 'subdir', etc...), and therefore cannot be accessed
through the file system.

Furthermore, this new entry can never be de-allocated, since there is
no
match for its name in the /proc fs.

So, is this an actual bug, or am I missing something completely
obvious
here?

Thanks in advance,
Amir Noam