Architectures may have special rules for accessing the hardware page tables (for example, atomicity/ordering requirements), so the generic MM code provides the pXXp_get() and set_pXX() hooks for architectures to implement. These accessor functions are often omitted where a raw pointer dereference is believed to be safe (i.e. race-free). However, RISC-V needs to use these hooks to rewrite the page table values at read/write time on some platforms. A raw pointer dereference will no longer produce the correct value on those platforms, so the generic code must always use the accessor functions. sparse can only report improper pointer dereferences if every page table pointer (variable, function argument, struct member) is individually marked with an attribute (similar to __user). So while this is possible, it would require invasive changes across all architectures. Instead, as an immediate first solution, add a checkpatch warning that will generally catch the prohibited pointer dereferences. Architecture code is ignored, as the raw dereferences may be safe on some architectures. Signed-off-by: Samuel Holland --- Changes in v3: - New patch for v3 scripts/checkpatch.pl | 7 +++++++ 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+) diff --git a/scripts/checkpatch.pl b/scripts/checkpatch.pl index 92669904eecc..55984d7361ea 100755 --- a/scripts/checkpatch.pl +++ b/scripts/checkpatch.pl @@ -7721,6 +7721,13 @@ sub process { ERROR("MISSING_SENTINEL", "missing sentinel in ID array\n" . "$here\n$stat\n"); } } + +# check for raw dereferences of hardware page table pointers + if ($realfile !~ m@^arch/@ && + $line =~ /(?))?(pte|p[mu4g]d)p?\b/) { + WARN("PAGE_TABLE_ACCESSORS", + "Use $3p_get()/set_$3() instead of dereferencing page table pointers\n" . $herecurr); + } } # If we have no input at all, then there is nothing to report on -- 2.47.2