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 unshare system call
 ===================
 
 This document describes the new system call, unshare(). The document
 provides an overview of the feature, why it is needed, how it can
 be used, its interface specification, design, implementation and
 how it can be tested.
 
 Change Log
 ----------
 version 0.1  Initial document, Janak Desai (janak@us.ibm.com), Jan 11, 2006
 
 Contents
 --------
         1) Overview
         2) Benefits
         3) Cost
         4) Requirements
         5) Functional Specification
         6) High Level Design
         7) Low Level Design
         8) Test Specification
         9) Future Work
 
 1) Overview
 -----------
 
 Most legacy operating system kernels support an abstraction of threads
 as multiple execution contexts within a process. These kernels provide
 special resources and mechanisms to maintain these "threads". The Linux
 kernel, in a clever and simple manner, does not make distinction
 between processes and "threads". The kernel allows processes to share
 resources and thus they can achieve legacy "threads" behavior without
 requiring additional data structures and mechanisms in the kernel. The
 power of implementing threads in this manner comes not only from
 its simplicity but also from allowing application programmers to work
 outside the confinement of all-or-nothing shared resources of legacy
 threads. On Linux, at the time of thread creation using the clone system
 call, applications can selectively choose which resources to share
 between threads.
 
 unshare() system call adds a primitive to the Linux thread model that
 allows threads to selectively 'unshare' any resources that were being
 shared at the time of their creation. unshare() was conceptualized by
 Al Viro in the August of 2000, on the Linux-Kernel mailing list, as part
 of the discussion on POSIX threads on Linux.  unshare() augments the
 usefulness of Linux threads for applications that would like to control
 shared resources without creating a new process. unshare() is a natural
 addition to the set of available primitives on Linux that implement
 the concept of process/thread as a virtual machine.
 
 2) Benefits
 -----------
 
 unshare() would be useful to large application frameworks such as PAM
 where creating a new process to control sharing/unsharing of process
 resources is not possible. Since namespaces are shared by default
 when creating a new process using fork or clone, unshare() can benefit
 even non-threaded applications if they have a need to disassociate
 from default shared namespace. The following lists two use-cases
 where unshare() can be used.
 
 2.1 Per-security context namespaces
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 unshare() can be used to implement polyinstantiated directories using
 the kernel's per-process namespace mechanism. Polyinstantiated directories,
 such as per-user and/or per-security context instance of /tmp, /var/tmp or
 per-security context instance of a user's home directory, isolate user
 processes when working with these directories. Using unshare(), a PAM
 module can easily setup a private namespace for a user at login.
 Polyinstantiated directories are required for Common Criteria certification
 with Labeled System Protection Profile, however, with the availability
 of shared-tree feature in the Linux kernel, even regular Linux systems
 can benefit from setting up private namespaces at login and
 polyinstantiating /tmp, /var/tmp and other directories deemed
 appropriate by system administrators.
 
 2.2 unsharing of virtual memory and/or open files
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Consider a client/server application where the server is processing
 client requests by creating processes that share resources such as
 virtual memory and open files. Without unshare(), the server has to
 decide what needs to be shared at the time of creating the process
 which services the request. unshare() allows the server an ability to
 disassociate parts of the context during the servicing of the
 request. For large and complex middleware application frameworks, this
 ability to unshare() after the process was created can be very
 useful.
 
 3) Cost
 -------
 
 In order to not duplicate code and to handle the fact that unshare()
 works on an active task (as opposed to clone/fork working on a newly
 allocated inactive task) unshare() had to make minor reorganizational
 changes to copy_* functions utilized by clone/fork system call.
 There is a cost associated with altering existing, well tested and
 stable code to implement a new feature that may not get exercised
 extensively in the beginning. However, with proper design and code
 review of the changes and creation of an unshare() test for the LTP
 the benefits of this new feature can exceed its cost.
 
 4) Requirements
 ---------------
 
 unshare() reverses sharing that was done using clone(2) system call,
 so unshare() should have a similar interface as clone(2). That is,
 since flags in clone(int flags, void \*stack) specifies what should
 be shared, similar flags in unshare(int flags) should specify
 what should be unshared. Unfortunately, this may appear to invert
 the meaning of the flags from the way they are used in clone(2).
 However, there was no easy solution that was less confusing and that
 allowed incremental context unsharing in future without an ABI change.
 
 unshare() interface should accommodate possible future addition of
 new context flags without requiring a rebuild of old applications.
 If and when new context flags are added, unshare() design should allow
 incremental unsharing of those resources on an as needed basis.
 
 5) Functional Specification
 ---------------------------
 
 NAME
         unshare - disassociate parts of the process execution context
 
 SYNOPSIS
         #include <sched.h>
 
         int unshare(int flags);
 
 DESCRIPTION
         unshare() allows a process to disassociate parts of its execution
         context that are currently being shared with other processes. Part
         of execution context, such as the namespace, is shared by default
         when a new process is created using fork(2), while other parts,
         such as the virtual memory, open file descriptors, etc, may be
         shared by explicit request to share them when creating a process
         using clone(2).
 
         The main use of unshare() is to allow a process to control its
         shared execution context without creating a new process.
 
         The flags argument specifies one or bitwise-or'ed of several of
         the following constants.
 
         CLONE_FS
                 If CLONE_FS is set, file system information of the caller
                 is disassociated from the shared file system information.
 
         CLONE_FILES
                 If CLONE_FILES is set, the file descriptor table of the
                 caller is disassociated from the shared file descriptor
                 table.
 
         CLONE_NEWNS
                 If CLONE_NEWNS is set, the namespace of the caller is
                 disassociated from the shared namespace.
 
         CLONE_VM
                 If CLONE_VM is set, the virtual memory of the caller is
                 disassociated from the shared virtual memory.
 
 RETURN VALUE
         On success, zero returned. On failure, -1 is returned and errno is
 
 ERRORS
         EPERM   CLONE_NEWNS was specified by a non-root process (process
                 without CAP_SYS_ADMIN).
 
         ENOMEM  Cannot allocate sufficient memory to copy parts of caller's
                 context that need to be unshared.
 
         EINVAL  Invalid flag was specified as an argument.
 
 CONFORMING TO
         The unshare() call is Linux-specific and  should  not be used
         in programs intended to be portable.
 
 SEE ALSO
         clone(2), fork(2)
 
 6) High Level Design
 --------------------
 
 Depending on the flags argument, the unshare() system call allocates
 appropriate process context structures, populates it with values from
 the current shared version, associates newly duplicated structures
 with the current task structure and releases corresponding shared
 versions. Helper functions of clone (copy_*) could not be used
 directly by unshare() because of the following two reasons.
 
   1) clone operates on a newly allocated not-yet-active task
      structure, where as unshare() operates on the current active
      task. Therefore unshare() has to take appropriate task_lock()
      before associating newly duplicated context structures
 
   2) unshare() has to allocate and duplicate all context structures
      that are being unshared, before associating them with the
      current task and releasing older shared structures. Failure
      do so will create race conditions and/or oops when trying
      to backout due to an error. Consider the case of unsharing
      both virtual memory and namespace. After successfully unsharing
      vm, if the system call encounters an error while allocating
      new namespace structure, the error return code will have to
      reverse the unsharing of vm. As part of the reversal the
      system call will have to go back to older, shared, vm
      structure, which may not exist anymore.
 
 Therefore code from copy_* functions that allocated and duplicated
 current context structure was moved into new dup_* functions. Now,
 copy_* functions call dup_* functions to allocate and duplicate
 appropriate context structures and then associate them with the
 task structure that is being constructed. unshare() system call on
 the other hand performs the following:
 
   1) Check flags to force missing, but implied, flags
 
   2) For each context structure, call the corresponding unshare()
      helper function to allocate and duplicate a new context
      structure, if the appropriate bit is set in the flags argument.
 
   3) If there is no error in allocation and duplication and there
      are new context structures then lock the current task structure,
      associate new context structures with the current task structure,
      and release the lock on the current task structure.
 
   4) Appropriately release older, shared, context structures.
 
 7) Low Level Design
 -------------------
 
 Implementation of unshare() can be grouped in the following 4 different
 items:
 
   a) Reorganization of existing copy_* functions
 
   b) unshare() system call service function
 
   c) unshare() helper functions for each different process context
 
   d) Registration of system call number for different architectures
 
 7.1) Reorganization of copy_* functions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Each copy function such as copy_mm, copy_namespace, copy_files,
 etc, had roughly two components. The first component allocated
 and duplicated the appropriate structure and the second component
 linked it to the task structure passed in as an argument to the copy
 function. The first component was split into its own function.
 These dup_* functions allocated and duplicated the appropriate
 context structure. The reorganized copy_* functions invoked
 their corresponding dup_* functions and then linked the newly
 duplicated structures to the task structure with which the
 copy function was called.
 
 7.2) unshare() system call service function
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
        * Check flags
          Force implied flags. If CLONE_THREAD is set force CLONE_VM.
          If CLONE_VM is set, force CLONE_SIGHAND. If CLONE_SIGHAND is
          set and signals are also being shared, force CLONE_THREAD. If
          CLONE_NEWNS is set, force CLONE_FS.
 
        * For each context flag, invoke the corresponding unshare_*
          helper routine with flags passed into the system call and a
          reference to pointer pointing the new unshared structure
 
        * If any new structures are created by unshare_* helper
          functions, take the task_lock() on the current task,
          modify appropriate context pointers, and release the
          task lock.
 
        * For all newly unshared structures, release the corresponding
          older, shared, structures.
 
 7.3) unshare_* helper functions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 For unshare_* helpers corresponding to CLONE_SYSVSEM, CLONE_SIGHAND,
 and CLONE_THREAD, return -EINVAL since they are not implemented yet.
 For others, check the flag value to see if the unsharing is
 required for that structure. If it is, invoke the corresponding
 dup_* function to allocate and duplicate the structure and return
 a pointer to it.
 
 7.4) Finally
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 Appropriately modify architecture specific code to register the
 new system call.
 
 8) Test Specification
 ---------------------
 
 The test for unshare() should test the following:
 
   1) Valid flags: Test to check that clone flags for signal and
      signal handlers, for which unsharing is not implemented
      yet, return -EINVAL.
 
   2) Missing/implied flags: Test to make sure that if unsharing
      namespace without specifying unsharing of filesystem, correctly
      unshares both namespace and filesystem information.
 
   3) For each of the four (namespace, filesystem, files and vm)
      supported unsharing, verify that the system call correctly
      unshares the appropriate structure. Verify that unsharing
      them individually as well as in combination with each
      other works as expected.
 
   4) Concurrent execution: Use shared memory segments and futex on
      an address in the shm segment to synchronize execution of
      about 10 threads. Have a couple of threads execute execve,
      a couple _exit and the rest unshare with different combination
      of flags. Verify that unsharing is performed as expected and
      that there are no oops or hangs.
 
 9) Future Work
 --------------
 
 The current implementation of unshare() does not allow unsharing of
 signals and signal handlers. Signals are complex to begin with and
 to unshare signals and/or signal handlers of a currently running
 process is even more complex. If in the future there is a specific
 need to allow unsharing of signals and/or signal handlers, it can
 be incrementally added to unshare() without affecting legacy
 applications using unshare().
 

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