Sanity check for Intermezzo/ext3 interactions From Andreas Dilger: Nowhere in journal_start() (or more specifically in start_this_handle() is any sanity checking on the number of blocks requested for a single handle done. If you request more than journal_size/4 blocks for a handle it will loop endlessly on repeat_locked: trying to "free" enough blocks to satisfy the request. The below patch validates the number of blocks requested is small enough to actually be allocated, otherwise returns -ENOSPC. --- linux-ext3-2.4merge-2/fs/jbd/transaction.c.=K0014=.orig Fri Aug 23 16:18:23 2002 +++ linux-ext3-2.4merge-2/fs/jbd/transaction.c Fri Aug 23 16:18:23 2002 @@ -90,7 +90,14 @@ transaction_t *transaction; int needed; int nblocks = handle->h_buffer_credits; - + + if (nblocks > journal->j_max_transaction_buffers) { + jbd_debug(1, "JBD: %s wants too many credits (%d > %d)\n", + current->comm, nblocks, + journal->j_max_transaction_buffers); + return -ENOSPC; + } + jbd_debug(3, "New handle %p going live.\n", handle); repeat: