tree 5357cc9e4c8e7aa61ed4b44c2c4bad3c0ad72f25
parent b0732c2010940d6b7cd704cdcb1527f28705c2e2
author Kevin Buettner <kevinb@redhat.com> 1701573931 -0700
committer Kevin Buettner <kevinb@redhat.com> 1701574025 -0700

Fix detach bug when lwp has exited/terminated

When using GDB on native linux, it can happen that, while attempting
to detach an inferior, the inferior may have been exited or have been
killed, yet still be in the list of lwps.  Should that happen, the
assert in x86_linux_update_debug_registers in
gdb/nat/x86-linux-dregs.c will trigger.  The line in question looks
like this:

  gdb_assert (lwp_is_stopped (lwp));

For this case, the lwp isn't stopped - it's dead.

The bug which brought this problem to my attention is one in which the
pwntools library uses GDB to to debug a process; as the script is
shutting things down, it kills the process that GDB is debugging and
also sends GDB a SIGTERM signal, which causes GDB to detach all
inferiors prior to exiting.  Here's a link to the bug:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2192169

The following shell command mimics part of what the pwntools
reproducer script does (with regard to shutting things down), but
reproduces the bug much less reliably.  I have found it necessary to
run the command a bunch of times before seeing the bug.  (I usually
see it within 5-10 repetitions.)  If you choose to try this command,
make sure that you have no running "cat" or "gdb" processes first!

  cat </dev/zero >/dev/null & \
  (sleep 5; (kill -KILL `pgrep cat` & kill -TERM `pgrep gdb`)) & \
  sleep 1 ; \
  gdb -q -iex 'set debuginfod enabled off' -ex 'set height 0' \
      -ex c /usr/bin/cat `pgrep cat`

So, basically, the idea here is to kill both gdb and cat at roughly
the same time.  If we happen to attempt the detach before the process
lwp has been deleted from GDB's (linux native) LWP data structures,
then the assert will trigger.  The relevant part of the backtrace
looks like this:

  #8  0x00000000008a83ae in x86_linux_update_debug_registers (lwp=0x1873280)
      at gdb/nat/x86-linux-dregs.c:146
  #9  0x00000000008a862f in x86_linux_prepare_to_resume (lwp=0x1873280)
      at gdb/nat/x86-linux.c:81
  #10 0x000000000048ea42 in x86_linux_nat_target::low_prepare_to_resume (
      this=0x121eee0 <the_amd64_linux_nat_target>, lwp=0x1873280)
      at gdb/x86-linux-nat.h:70
  #11 0x000000000081a452 in detach_one_lwp (lp=0x1873280, signo_p=0x7fff8ca3441c)
      at gdb/linux-nat.c:1374
  #12 0x000000000081a85f in linux_nat_target::detach (
      this=0x121eee0 <the_amd64_linux_nat_target>, inf=0x16e8f70, from_tty=0)
      at gdb/linux-nat.c:1450
  #13 0x000000000083a23b in thread_db_target::detach (
      this=0x1206ae0 <the_thread_db_target>, inf=0x16e8f70, from_tty=0)
      at gdb/linux-thread-db.c:1385
  #14 0x0000000000a66722 in target_detach (inf=0x16e8f70, from_tty=0)
      at gdb/target.c:2526
  #15 0x0000000000a8f0ad in kill_or_detach (inf=0x16e8f70, from_tty=0)
      at gdb/top.c:1659
  #16 0x0000000000a8f4fa in quit_force (exit_arg=0x0, from_tty=0)
      at gdb/top.c:1762
  #17 0x000000000070829c in async_sigterm_handler (arg=0x0)
      at gdb/event-top.c:1141

My colleague, Andrew Burgess, has done some recent work on other
problems with detach.  Upon hearing of this problem, he came up a test
case which reliably reproduces the problem and tests for a few other
problems as well.  In addition to testing detach when the inferior has
terminated due to a signal, it also tests detach when the inferior has
exited normally.  Andrew observed that the linux-native-only
"checkpoint" command would be affected too, so the test also tests
those cases when there's an active checkpoint.

For the LWP exit / termination case with no checkpoint, that's handled
via newly added checks of the waitstatus in detach_one_lwp in
linux-nat.c.

For the checkpoint detach problem, I chose to pass the lwp_info
to linux_fork_detach in linux-fork.c.  With that in place, suitable
tests were added before attempting a PTRACE_DETACH operation.

I added a few asserts at the beginning of linux_fork_detach and
modified the caller code so that the newly added asserts shouldn't
trigger.  (That's what the 'pid == inferior_ptid.pid' check is about
in gdb/linux-nat.c.)

Lastly, I'll note that the checkpoint code needs some work with regard
to background execution.  This patch doesn't attempt to fix that
problem, but it doesn't make it any worse.  It does slightly improve
the situation with detach because, due to the check noted above,
linux_fork_detach() won't be called for the wrong inferior when there
are multiple inferiors.  (There are at least two other problems with
the checkpoint code when there are multiple inferiors.  See:
https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=31065)

This commit also adds a new test,
gdb.base/process-dies-while-detaching.exp.  Andrew Burgess is the
primary author of this test case.  Its design is similar to that of
gdb.threads/main-thread-exit-during-detach.exp, which was also written
by Andrew.

This test checks that GDB correctly handles several cases that can
occur when GDB attempts to detach an inferior process.  The process
can exit or be terminated (e.g.  via SIGKILL) prior to GDB's event
loop getting a chance to remove it from GDB's internal data
structures.  To complicate things even more, detach works differently
when a checkpoint (created via GDB's "checkpoint" command) exists for
the inferior.  This test checks all four possibilities: process exit
with no checkpoint, process termination with no checkpoint, process
exit with a checkpoint, and process termination with a checkpoint.

Co-Authored-By: Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com>
Approved-By: Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com>