This is a duct-tape-and-chewing-gum solution to the problem with
the major numbers running out when allocating major numbers
dynamically.

To avoid collissions in the major space, we supply a list of
"holes" that exist in the lower range of major numbers [0-254]
and pick numbers from there once the first dynamic range in
234-254 is used up.

This starts to produce INFO prints if we run down and start
allocating major numbers in the "holes" below major 234 so
we know what is going on.

It will also FAIL if we actually fill up all free major
numbers. This seems to me like the reasonable thing to do
since these numbers are, after all, reserved.

This also deletes the comment /* temporary */ which must be
one of the biggest lies ever.

This also updates the Documentation/devices.txt document to
reflect that all these numbers are used for dynamic assignment.

Reported-by: Ying Huang <[email protected]>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <[email protected]>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <[email protected]>
Cc: Alan Cox <[email protected]>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Linus Walleij <[email protected]>
---
What do I know of the "real" solution to this problem, I like
Gregs solution to have *only* dynamic allocation of major numbers
(give take some like tty's I guess) but cannot really test such
an approach properly. Take this as a discussion starting point.

Maybe Intel's test server with 20+ dynamic major devices is
something extremely unlikely-in-actual-reality virtualized or
whatnot, Ying it'd be nice if you could shed some light on this.
See: https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/2/14/124
---
 Documentation/devices.txt | 22 ++++++++++++++--------
 fs/char_dev.c             | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
 2 files changed, 46 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/devices.txt b/Documentation/devices.txt
index 0a3588a9798d..f1c441e085e9 100644
--- a/Documentation/devices.txt
+++ b/Documentation/devices.txt
@@ -278,6 +278,8 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                associated with block devices.  The binding to the
                loop devices is handled by mount(8) or losetup(8).
 
+  8 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
+
   8 block      SCSI disk devices (0-15)
                  0 = /dev/sda          First SCSI disk whole disk
                 16 = /dev/sdb          Second SCSI disk whole disk
@@ -650,7 +652,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                  2 = /dev/sbpcd2       Panasonic CD-ROM controller 0 unit 2
                  3 = /dev/sbpcd3       Panasonic CD-ROM controller 0 unit 3
 
- 26 char
+ 26 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
  26 block      Second Matsushita (Panasonic/SoundBlaster) CD-ROM
                  0 = /dev/sbpcd4       Panasonic CD-ROM controller 1 unit 0
@@ -893,7 +895,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                      ...
  39 block
 
- 40 char
+ 40 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
  40 block
 
@@ -1157,7 +1159,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
 
                NAMING CONFLICT -- PROPOSED REVISED NAME /dev/rpda0 etc
 
- 60-63 char    LOCAL/EXPERIMENTAL USE
+ 60-63 char    RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
  60-63 block   LOCAL/EXPERIMENTAL USE
                Allocated for local/experimental use.  For devices not
@@ -1671,7 +1673,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                disks (see major number 3) except that the limit on
                partitions is 15.
 
- 93 char
+ 93 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
  93 block      NAND Flash Translation Layer filesystem
                  0 = /dev/nftla        First NFTL layer
@@ -1679,7 +1681,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                    ...
                240 = /dev/nftlp        16th NTFL layer
 
- 94 char
+ 94 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
  94 block      IBM S/390 DASD block storage
                  0 = /dev/dasda First DASD device, major
@@ -1772,7 +1774,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                    ...
                 15 = /dev/amiraid/ar?p15 15th partition
 
-102 char
+102 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
 102 block      Compressed block device
                  0 = /dev/cbd/a        First compressed block device, whole 
device
@@ -2057,7 +2059,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                  1 = /dev/vnet1        2nd virtual network
                    ...
 
-120-127 char   LOCAL/EXPERIMENTAL USE
+120-127 char   RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
 120-127 block  LOCAL/EXPERIMENTAL USE
                Allocated for local/experimental use.  For devices not
@@ -2371,7 +2373,7 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                  1 = /dev/gfax1        GammaLink channel 1
                    ...
 
-159 char       RESERVED
+159 char       RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
 
 159 block      RESERVED
 
@@ -2959,6 +2961,8 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                    ...
                196 = /dev/dvb/adapter3/video0    first video decoder of fourth 
card
 
+213-215 char   RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
+
 216 char       Bluetooth RFCOMM TTY devices
                  0 = /dev/rfcomm0              First Bluetooth RFCOMM TTY 
device
                  1 = /dev/rfcomm1              Second Bluetooth RFCOMM TTY 
device
@@ -3001,6 +3005,8 @@ Your cooperation is appreciated.
                same interface.  For interface documentation see
                http://www.vmelinux.org/.
 
+222-223 char   RESERVED FOR DYNAMIC ALLOCATION OF MAJOR NUMBERS
+
 224 char       A2232 serial card
                  0 = /dev/ttyY0                First A2232 port
                  1 = /dev/ttyY1                Second A2232 port
diff --git a/fs/char_dev.c b/fs/char_dev.c
index 687471dc04a0..001b037f6b98 100644
--- a/fs/char_dev.c
+++ b/fs/char_dev.c
@@ -37,6 +37,15 @@ static struct char_device_struct {
        struct cdev *cdev;              /* will die */
 } *chrdevs[CHRDEV_MAJOR_HASH_SIZE];
 
+/*
+ * Duct tape: free major numbers that can be used below the
+ * primary dynamic character major assignment range 234-254
+ */
+static int free_majors[] = {223, 222, 215, 214, 213, 159, 127,
+                          126, 125, 124, 123, 122, 121, 120,
+                          102, 94, 93, 63, 62, 61, 60, 40,
+                          26, 8 };
+
 /* index in the above */
 static inline int major_to_index(unsigned major)
 {
@@ -84,21 +93,37 @@ __register_chrdev_region(unsigned int major, unsigned int 
baseminor,
 
        mutex_lock(&chrdevs_lock);
 
-       /* temporary */
        if (major == 0) {
                for (i = ARRAY_SIZE(chrdevs)-1; i > 0; i--) {
+                       if (i < CHRDEV_MAJOR_DYN_END)
+                               break;
                        if (chrdevs[i] == NULL)
                                break;
                }
 
-               if (i < CHRDEV_MAJOR_DYN_END)
-                       pr_warn("CHRDEV \"%s\" major number %d goes below the 
dynamic allocation range",
+               /*
+                * Out of the first dynamic range, OK try this duct-tape
+                * array of lower majors.
+                */
+               if (i < CHRDEV_MAJOR_DYN_END) {
+                       int j;
+
+                       for (j = 0; j < ARRAY_SIZE(free_majors); j++) {
+                               if (chrdevs[free_majors[j]] == NULL) {
+                                       i = free_majors[j];
+                                       break;
+                               }
+                       }
+                       if (j == ARRAY_SIZE(free_majors)) {
+                               pr_warn("CHRDEV \"%s\" out of major numbers",
+                                       name);
+                               ret = -EBUSY;
+                               goto out;
+                       }
+                       pr_info("CHRDEV: \"%s\" using extended dynamic range 
for major number %d\n",
                                name, i);
-
-               if (i == 0) {
-                       ret = -EBUSY;
-                       goto out;
                }
+
                major = i;
        }
 
-- 
2.4.3

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