procfs: allow threads to rename siblings via /proc/pid/tasks/tid/comm

Setting a thread's comm to be something unique is a very useful ability
and is helpful for debugging complicated threaded applications.  However
currently the only way to set a thread name is for the thread to name
itself via the PR_SET_NAME prctl.

However, there may be situations where it would be advantageous for a
thread dispatcher to be naming the threads its managing, rather then
having the threads self-describe themselves.  This sort of behavior is
available on other systems via the pthread_setname_np() interface.

This patch exports a task's comm via proc/pid/comm and
proc/pid/task/tid/comm interfaces, and allows thread siblings to write to
these values.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: cleanups]
Signed-off-by: John Stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>
Cc: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>
Cc: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@infradead.org>
Cc: Mike Fulton <fultonm@ca.ibm.com>
Cc: Sean Foley <Sean_Foley@ca.ibm.com>
Cc: Darren Hart <dvhltc@us.ibm.com>
Cc: KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/fs/exec.c b/fs/exec.c
index c0c636e34f6..623a5cc3076 100644
--- a/fs/exec.c
+++ b/fs/exec.c
@@ -923,6 +923,15 @@ char *get_task_comm(char *buf, struct task_struct *tsk)
 void set_task_comm(struct task_struct *tsk, char *buf)
 {
 	task_lock(tsk);
+
+	/*
+	 * Threads may access current->comm without holding
+	 * the task lock, so write the string carefully.
+	 * Readers without a lock may see incomplete new
+	 * names but are safe from non-terminating string reads.
+	 */
+	memset(tsk->comm, 0, TASK_COMM_LEN);
+	wmb();
 	strlcpy(tsk->comm, buf, sizeof(tsk->comm));
 	task_unlock(tsk);
 	perf_event_comm(tsk);