[PATCH] security: Fix ret values doc for security_inode_init_security()

[Roberto Sassu]

On Tue, 2023-07-25 at 14:38 -0400, Paul Moore wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 3:02 AM Roberto Sassu
> <roberto.sassu at huaweicloud.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, 2023-07-24 at 17:54 -0400, Paul Moore wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jul 24, 2023 at 10:52 AM Roberto Sassu
> > > <roberto.sassu at huaweicloud.com> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > From: Roberto Sassu <roberto.sassu at huawei.com>
> > > > 
> > > > Commit 6bcdfd2cac55 ("security: Allow all LSMs to provide xattrs for
> > > > inode_init_security hook") unified the !initxattrs and initxattrs cases. By
> > > > doing that, security_inode_init_security() cannot return -EOPNOTSUPP
> > > > anymore, as it is always replaced with zero at the end of the function.
> > > > 
> > > > Also, mentioning -ENOMEM as the only possible error is not correct. For
> > > > example, evm_inode_init_security() could return -ENOKEY.
> > > > 
> > > > Fix these issues in the documentation of security_inode_init_security().
> > > > 
> > > > Fixes: 6bcdfd2cac55 ("security: Allow all LSMs to provide xattrs for inode_init_security hook")
> > > > Signed-off-by: Roberto Sassu <roberto.sassu at huawei.com>
> > > > ---
> > > >  security/security.c | 4 ++--
> > > >  1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> > > > 
> > > > diff --git a/security/security.c b/security/security.c
> > > > index cfdd0cbbcb9..5aa9cb91f0f 100644
> > > > --- a/security/security.c
> > > > +++ b/security/security.c
> > > > @@ -1604,8 +1604,8 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(security_dentry_create_files_as);
> > > >   * a security attribute on this particular inode, then it should return
> > > >   * -EOPNOTSUPP to skip this processing.
> > > >   *
> > > > - * Return: Returns 0 on success, -EOPNOTSUPP if no security attribute is
> > > > - * needed, or -ENOMEM on memory allocation failure.
> > > > + * Return: Returns 0 on success or on -EOPNOTSUPP error, a negative value other
> > > > + *         than -EOPNOTSUPP otherwise.
> > > 
> > > How about "Returns 0 if the LSM successfully initialized all of the
> > > inode security attributes that are required, negative values
> > > otherwise."?  The caller doesn't need to worry about the individual
> > > LSMs returning -EOPNOTSUPP in the case of no security attributes, and
> > > if they really care, they are likely reading the description above (or
> > > the code) which explains it in much better detail.
> > 
> > Maybe this could be better:
> > 
> > Return 0 if security attributes initialization is successful or not
> > necessary, a negative value otherwise.
> 
> Well, I'm trying to avoid differentiating between the non-zero, but
> successful attribute initialization and the zero attribute case; from
> a caller's perspective it doesn't matter (and why we don't
> differentiate between the two with different error codes).  If the
> distinction between the two states is important from a caller's
> perspective, there should be different return codes.

Ok, fine for me. I take your suggestion.

Thanks

Roberto