The TEST_STATEID and FREE_STATEID operations can return
-NFS4ERR_BAD_STATEID, -NFS4ERR_OLD_STATEID, or -NFS4ERR_DEADSESSION.
nfs41_{test,free}_stateid() should not pass these errors to
nfs4_handle_exception() during state recovery, since that will
recursively kick off state recovery again, resulting in a deadlock.
In particular, when the TEST_STATEID operation returns NFS4_OK,
res.status can contain one of these errors. _nfs41_test_stateid()
replaces NFS4_OK with the value in res.status, which is then returned
to callers.
But res.status is not passed through nfs4_stat_to_errno(), and thus is
a positive NFS4ERR value. Currently callers are only interested in
!NFS4_OK, and nfs4_handle_exception() ignores positive values.
Thus the res.status values are currently ignored by
nfs4_handle_exception() and won't cause the deadlock above. Thanks to
this missing negative, it is only when these operations fail (which
is very rare) that a deadlock can occur.
Bryan agrees the original intent was to return res.status as a
negative NFS4ERR value to callers of nfs41_test_stateid().
Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Trond Myklebust <Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com>