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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-09-13 12:27:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-09-13 12:27:00 -0700
commit22098763a10d9c1340827fcf6edab66f153b27f0 (patch)
tree3962f95a34df034652ff93686cdd156c7197f2d9 /Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/writecache.rst
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Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt: - Don't destroy user event fields when removal fails User event fields are destroyed before the event is removed from visibility. But that can fail leaving the still visible event with no fields. Move the destroying of the fields to after the event is successfully removed from visibility. - Initialize function graph state is fork before calling copy_exec_state() For non-CLONE_VM forks, copy_exec_state() allocates a new task_exec_state. If that allocation fails, ftrace_graph_exit_task() will free the tasks ret_stack pointer. Since that pointer is still using the parent's ret_stack, it mistakenly frees the parent's pointer too. Call ftrace_graph_init() on the task first which will NULL out the new tasks's ret_stack and if the copy fails, it will not free anything. - Remove FGRAPH_MAX_INDEX The macro FGRAPH_MAX_INDEX was added but never used. Remove it. - Save ent_size in function graph printing of nested functions The function graph tracer needs to look at the next event to see if the next event is the return of the current function entry. If it is, it prints a single line: ktime_get(); Otherwise it prints it like a nested function: tick_nohz_irq_exit() { ktime_get(); kcpustat_irq_exit(); } In order to look at the next event, it must save the current event so that it has the information to print from it. It saves the event in the iterator descriptor called "ent". What it doesn't save is the ent_size of the event which is now used to know if the function graph arguments are to be printed. The peek doesn't save the size so the size used happens to be that of the size of the last event that was seen. Save the entry event size in the iterator descriptor so that the correct size is used. - Fix several errors with freeing data in the histogram code The histogram code had a lot of leaked or or incorrect accounting when failures happen. Correct them. - Fix histogram regression of .percent and .graph modifiers Up until 6.3 histogram values could have "percent" or "graph" modifiers that changed how they were printed. But a change that added restricting histograms values from being strings, stack traces and other modifiers inadvertently prevented them from using the percent and graph modifiers, which were legal use cases for values. Put back the percent and graph modifiers. - Fix various typos in the comments - Set the trace_clock before initializing a histogram with clock argument The histogram API allows the user to specific which trace clock to use via a "clock=" string. The histogram is set up first before the clock is checked. If the passed in clock is not valid, it exits without fully fixing up the histogram leaving it on the list and a use-after-free can trigger. Update the clock argument first and if it fails then exit gracefully before the histogram trigger is placed on any lists. - Restore :mod: trailer after parsing in ftrace_set_clr_event The function ftrace_set_clr_event() modifies the parse string and needs to put it back to what was passed in. It searches for ":mod:" via a strsep() but fails to put back the first ':' in the string. Add back the ':' in the passed in string. - Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file The options files are dynamically created and some tracers add their own options. When a tracer adds their own list of options, the trace_array holding them has an array to hold the list of options for each tracer. This array increases in size via a krealloc(), and the new entry gets a newly allocated array to hold the options of the new tracer being added. The element in each entry of the tracer's option array holds a pointer back to the trace_array, a pointer to the tracer it is associated to, a pointer to the flags of the option. The issue is that these arrays are freed when the trace_array is freed when its instance it represents is removed from the instances directory. There's a race that an open of one of these options files can happen when the instance is being removed. Add a new helper function to be called by the open function of the options file to iterate all existing trace_arrays under a lock and find the one that has the given option element in one of it's tracer arrays. If found, then update the associated trace_array's reference counter to keep it from being freed. If not found, have the open call return -ENODEV. - Disable interrupts when acquiring the lock in rb_wake_up_waiters() The function rb_wake_up_waiters() assumes it will be called in interrupt context and does not disable irqs when taking cpu_buffer->reader_lock, which can be called in hard interrupt context. The issue is in PREEMPT_RT, this function is called in thread context leaving this lock open to a deadlock. Take the lock with interrupts disabled. - Use rcu_assign_pointer() for tmp_ops filter hash The tmp_ops used in update_ftrace_direct_mod() assigns its filter_hash field directly, but that field is annotated as __rcu and sparse complains. Assign it with rcu_assign_pointer() - Fix use-after-free in enable_trigger_private_data_free() The trace_event_call is accessed through the event_trigger_data's trace_event_file pointer to put the trace_event_call on freeing. The issue is that the trace_event_file data may have been freed already causing a use-after-free. Add a field to the event_trigger_data that points directly to the trace_event_call so that it can decrement its reference directly without needing to go through the trace_event_file. - Fix accounting of buffer data remote headers trace_buffer_desc_size() and trace_remote_alloc_buffer() undercount the number of pages is needed for the asked for size as it doesn't take into account the meta data on each page. Add a helper function to do the calculation properly and use that in these functions. - Catch nr_page_va overflow in ring_buffer_desc sizing The number of pages per remote ring buffer is capped by ring_buffer_desc::nr_page_va (32 bits). A buffer_size large enough to overflow that field would silently allocate a descriptor smaller than what was asked for. - Do not resize the subbuf order if any per_cpu buffer is disabled The mmapping of ring buffers disables resizing the subbuffers, but it is done per-cpu whereas the subbuf size change is done for all the per_cpu buffers under the buffer->mutex. It could change the size of some while the mapping is happening on others. Have the resize of the subbuf order check all the per_cpu buffers under the lock to see if any of them is disabled before starting and causing an inconsistency between buffers that are being mapped. * tag 'trace-v7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: (25 commits) ring-buffer: Check resize_disabled before publishing the new subbuf order tracing/remotes: Catch nr_page_va overflow in ring_buffer_desc sizing tracing/remotes: Account for ring buffer page header in size calculation tracing: Don't dereference trace_event_file in deferred trigger free ftrace: Use rcu_assign_pointer() for tmp_ops filter hash ring-buffer: Acquire the lock with irqsave in rb_wake_up_waiters() tracing: Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file tracing: Fix ring_buffer_read_page_size() kernel-doc tracing: Restore :mod: trailer after parsing in ftrace_set_clr_event() tracing: Fix memory corruption from a "STACKTRACE" histogram key tracing: Fix memory corruption from the histogram stacktrace modifier tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails tracing: Take the reference before publishing the named histogram trigger tracing: Set the trace clock before registering the histogram trigger tracing: Fix typo "preceeded" in comment tracing: Fix typo "availabe" in comment tracing: Let histogram values keep the percent and graph modifiers tracing: Keep the entry count when the histogram stats allocation fails tracing: Free histogram the field rejected for a bad modifier tracing: Free histogram the var ref when its initialization fails ...
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+=================
+Writecache target
+=================
+
+The writecache target caches writes on persistent memory or on SSD. It
+doesn't cache reads because reads are supposed to be cached in page cache
+in normal RAM.
+
+When the device is constructed, the first sector should be zeroed or the
+first sector should contain valid superblock from previous invocation.
+
+Constructor parameters:
+
+1. type of the cache device - "p" or "s"
+ - p - persistent memory
+ - s - SSD
+2. the underlying device that will be cached
+3. the cache device
+4. block size (4096 is recommended; the maximum block size is the page
+ size)
+5. the number of optional parameters (the parameters with an argument
+ count as two)
+
+ start_sector n (default: 0)
+ offset from the start of cache device in 512-byte sectors
+ high_watermark n (default: 50)
+ start writeback when the number of used blocks reach this
+ watermark
+ low_watermark x (default: 45)
+ stop writeback when the number of used blocks drops below
+ this watermark
+ writeback_jobs n (default: unlimited)
+ limit the number of blocks that are in flight during
+ writeback. Setting this value reduces writeback
+ throughput, but it may improve latency of read requests
+ autocommit_blocks n (default: 64 for pmem, 65536 for ssd)
+ when the application writes this amount of blocks without
+ issuing the FLUSH request, the blocks are automatically
+ committed
+ autocommit_time ms (default: 1000)
+ autocommit time in milliseconds. The data is automatically
+ committed if this time passes and no FLUSH request is
+ received
+ fua (by default on)
+ applicable only to persistent memory - use the FUA flag
+ when writing data from persistent memory back to the
+ underlying device
+ nofua
+ applicable only to persistent memory - don't use the FUA
+ flag when writing back data and send the FLUSH request
+ afterwards
+
+ - some underlying devices perform better with fua, some
+ with nofua. The user should test it
+ cleaner
+ when this option is activated (either in the constructor
+ arguments or by a message), the cache will not promote
+ new writes (however, writes to already cached blocks are
+ promoted, to avoid data corruption due to misordered
+ writes) and it will gradually writeback any cached
+ data. The userspace can then monitor the cleaning
+ process with "dmsetup status". When the number of cached
+ blocks drops to zero, userspace can unload the
+ dm-writecache target and replace it with dm-linear or
+ other targets.
+ max_age n
+ specifies the maximum age of a block in milliseconds. If
+ a block is stored in the cache for too long, it will be
+ written to the underlying device and cleaned up.
+ metadata_only
+ only metadata is promoted to the cache. This option
+ improves performance for heavier REQ_META workloads.
+ pause_writeback n (default: 3000)
+ pause writeback if there was some write I/O redirected to
+ the origin volume in the last n milliseconds
+
+Status:
+
+1. error indicator - 0 if there was no error, otherwise error number
+2. the number of blocks
+3. the number of free blocks
+4. the number of blocks under writeback
+5. the number of read blocks
+6. the number of read blocks that hit the cache
+7. the number of write blocks
+8. the number of write blocks that hit uncommitted block
+9. the number of write blocks that hit committed block
+10. the number of write blocks that bypass the cache
+11. the number of write blocks that are allocated in the cache
+12. the number of write requests that are blocked on the freelist
+13. the number of flush requests
+14. the number of discarded blocks
+
+Messages:
+ flush
+ Flush the cache device. The message returns successfully
+ if the cache device was flushed without an error
+ flush_on_suspend
+ Flush the cache device on next suspend. Use this message
+ when you are going to remove the cache device. The proper
+ sequence for removing the cache device is:
+
+ 1. send the "flush_on_suspend" message
+ 2. load an inactive table with a linear target that maps
+ to the underlying device
+ 3. suspend the device
+ 4. ask for status and verify that there are no errors
+ 5. resume the device, so that it will use the linear
+ target
+ 6. the cache device is now inactive and it can be deleted
+ cleaner
+ See above "cleaner" constructor documentation.
+ clear_stats
+ Clear the statistics that are reported on the status line