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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
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| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Fix error output of boot instance creation failure
Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
strsep(). Print the saved name instead.
While at it, print the error code of the failure.
- Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams
Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
histogram and crash the kernel.
Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
data.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test
The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
returned.
- Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size
If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
buffer sub-buffer size.
- Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory
In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.
Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
upon creation.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code
The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.
- Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure
On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
using it.
In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
not free the parent's descriptor.
- Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
failed replacement leaves it at -1.
But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.
- Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error
Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst | 165 |
1 files changed, 165 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..f4f867cab --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst @@ -0,0 +1,165 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: (GPL-2.0+ OR CC-BY-4.0) +.. [see the bottom of this file for redistribution information] + +====================== +Bisecting a regression +====================== + +This document describes how to use a ``git bisect`` to find the source code +change that broke something -- for example when some functionality stopped +working after upgrading from Linux 6.0 to 6.1. + +The text focuses on the gist of the process. If you are new to bisecting the +kernel, better follow Documentation/admin-guide/verify-bugs-and-bisect-regressions.rst +instead: it depicts everything from start to finish while covering multiple +aspects even kernel developers occasionally forget. This includes detecting +situations early where a bisection would be a waste of time, as nobody would +care about the result -- for example, because the problem happens after the +kernel marked itself as 'tainted', occurs in an abandoned version, was already +fixed, or is caused by a .config change you or your Linux distributor performed. + +Finding the change causing a kernel issue using a bisection +=========================================================== + +*Note: the following process assumes you prepared everything for a bisection. +This includes having a Git clone with the appropriate sources, installing the +software required to build and install kernels, as well as a .config file stored +in a safe place (the following example assumes '~/prepared_kernel_.config') to +use as pristine base at each bisection step; ideally, you have also worked out +a fully reliable and straight-forward way to reproduce the regression, too.* + +* Preparation: start the bisection and tell Git about the points in the history + you consider to be working and broken, which Git calls 'good' and 'bad':: + + git bisect start + git bisect good v6.0 + git bisect bad v6.1 + + Instead of Git tags like 'v6.0' and 'v6.1' you can specify commit-ids, too. + +1. Copy your prepared .config into the build directory and adjust it to the + needs of the codebase Git checked out for testing:: + + cp ~/prepared_kernel_.config .config + make olddefconfig + +2. Now build, install, and boot a kernel. This might fail for unrelated reasons, + for example, when a compile error happens at the current stage of the + bisection a later change resolves. In such cases run ``git bisect skip`` and + go back to step 1. + +3. Check if the functionality that regressed works in the kernel you just built. + + If it works, execute:: + + git bisect good + + If it is broken, run:: + + git bisect bad + + Note, getting this wrong just once will send the rest of the bisection + totally off course. To prevent having to start anew later you thus want to + ensure what you tell Git is correct; it is thus often wise to spend a few + minutes more on testing in case your reproducer is unreliable. + + After issuing one of these two commands, Git will usually check out another + bisection point and print something like 'Bisecting: 675 revisions left to + test after this (roughly 10 steps)'. In that case go back to step 1. + + If Git instead prints something like 'cafecaca0c0dacafecaca0c0dacafecaca0c0da + is the first bad commit', then you have finished the bisection. In that case + move to the next point below. Note, right after displaying that line Git will + show some details about the culprit including its patch description; this can + easily fill your terminal, so you might need to scroll up to see the message + mentioning the culprit's commit-id. + + In case you missed Git's output, you can always run ``git bisect log`` to + print the status: it will show how many steps remain or mention the result of + the bisection. + +* Recommended complementary task: put the bisection log and the current .config + file aside for the bug report; furthermore tell Git to reset the sources to + the state before the bisection:: + + git bisect log > ~/bisection-log + cp .config ~/bisection-config-culprit + git bisect reset + +* Recommended optional task: try reverting the culprit on top of the latest + codebase and check if that fixes your bug; if that is the case, it validates + the bisection and enables developers to resolve the regression through a + revert. + + To try this, update your clone and check out latest mainline. Then tell Git + to revert the change by specifying its commit-id:: + + git revert --no-edit cafec0cacaca0 + + Git might reject this, for example when the bisection landed on a merge + commit. In that case, abandon the attempt. Do the same, if Git fails to revert + the culprit on its own because later changes depend on it -- at least unless + you bisected a stable or longterm kernel series, in which case you want to + check out its latest codebase and try a revert there. + + If a revert succeeds, build and test another kernel to check if reverting + resolved your regression. + +With that the process is complete. Now report the regression as described by +Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst. + +Bisecting linux-next +-------------------- + +If you face a problem only happening in linux-next, bisect between the +linux-next branches 'stable' and 'master'. The following commands will start +the process for a linux-next tree you added as a remote called 'next':: + + git bisect start + git bisect good next/stable + git bisect bad next/master + +The 'stable' branch refers to the state of linux-mainline that the current +linux-next release (found in the 'master' branch) is based on -- the former +thus should be free of any problems that show up in -next, but not in Linus' +tree. + +This will bisect across a wide range of changes, some of which you might have +used in earlier linux-next releases without problems. Sadly there is no simple +way to avoid checking them: bisecting from one linux-next release to a later +one (say between 'next-20241020' and 'next-20241021') is impossible, as they +share no common history. + +Additional reading material +--------------------------- + +* The `man page for 'git bisect' <https://git-scm.com/docs/git-bisect>`_ and + `fighting regressions with 'git bisect' <https://git-scm.com/docs/git-bisect-lk2009.html>`_ + in the Git documentation. +* `Working with git bisect <https://nathanchance.dev/posts/working-with-git-bisect/>`_ + from kernel developer Nathan Chancellor. +* `Using Git bisect to figure out when brokenness was introduced <http://webchick.net/node/99>`_. +* `Fully automated bisecting with 'git bisect run' <https://lwn.net/Articles/317154>`_. + +.. + end-of-content +.. + This document is maintained by Thorsten Leemhuis <linux@leemhuis.info>. If + you spot a typo or small mistake, feel free to let him know directly and + he'll fix it. You are free to do the same in a mostly informal way if you + want to contribute changes to the text -- but for copyright reasons please CC + linux-doc@vger.kernel.org and 'sign-off' your contribution as + Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst explains in the section 'Sign + your work - the Developer's Certificate of Origin'. +.. + This text is available under GPL-2.0+ or CC-BY-4.0, as stated at the top + of the file. If you want to distribute this text under CC-BY-4.0 only, + please use 'The Linux kernel development community' for author attribution + and link this as source: + https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/plain/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-bisect.rst + +.. + Note: Only the content of this RST file as found in the Linux kernel sources + is available under CC-BY-4.0, as versions of this text that were processed + (for example by the kernel's build system) might contain content taken from + files which use a more restrictive license. |
