summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700
commit034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch)
tree2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
downloadlinux-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/kernel-parameters.rst')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst135
1 files changed, 135 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..02a725536
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+.. _kernelparameters:
+
+The kernel's command-line parameters
+====================================
+
+The following is a consolidated list of the kernel parameters as implemented
+by the __setup(), early_param(), core_param() and module_param() macros
+and sorted into English Dictionary order (defined as ignoring all
+punctuation and sorting digits before letters in a case insensitive
+manner), and with descriptions where known.
+
+The kernel parses parameters from the kernel command line up to "``--``";
+if it doesn't recognize a parameter and it doesn't contain a '.', the
+parameter gets passed to init: parameters with '=' go into init's
+environment, others are passed as command line arguments to init.
+Everything after "``--``" is passed as an argument to init.
+
+Module parameters can be specified in two ways: via the kernel command
+line with a module name prefix, or via modprobe, e.g.::
+
+ (kernel command line) usbcore.blinkenlights=1
+ (modprobe command line) modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1
+
+Parameters for modules which are built into the kernel need to be
+specified on the kernel command line. modprobe looks through the
+kernel command line (/proc/cmdline) and collects module parameters
+when it loads a module, so the kernel command line can be used for
+loadable modules too.
+
+This document may not be entirely up to date and comprehensive. The command
+"modinfo -p ${modulename}" shows a current list of all parameters of a loadable
+module. Loadable modules, after being loaded into the running kernel, also
+reveal their parameters in /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/. Some of these
+parameters may be changed at runtime by the command
+``echo -n ${value} > /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/${parm}``.
+
+Special handling
+----------------
+
+Hyphens (dashes) and underscores are equivalent in parameter names, so::
+
+ log_buf_len=1M print-fatal-signals=1
+
+can also be entered as::
+
+ log-buf-len=1M print_fatal_signals=1
+
+Double-quotes can be used to protect spaces in values, e.g.::
+
+ param="spaces in here"
+
+cpu lists
+~~~~~~~~~
+
+Some kernel parameters take a list of CPUs as a value, e.g. isolcpus,
+nohz_full, irqaffinity, rcu_nocbs. The format of this list is:
+
+ <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
+
+or
+
+ <cpu number>-<cpu number>
+ (must be a positive range in ascending order)
+
+or a mixture
+
+<cpu number>,...,<cpu number>-<cpu number>
+
+Note that for the special case of a range one can split the range into equal
+sized groups and for each group use some amount from the beginning of that
+group:
+
+ <cpu number>-<cpu number>:<used size>/<group size>
+
+For example one can add to the command line following parameter:
+
+ isolcpus=1,2,10-20,100-2000:2/25
+
+where the final item represents CPUs 100,101,125,126,150,151,...
+
+The value "N" can be used to represent the numerically last CPU on the system,
+i.e "foo_cpus=16-N" would be equivalent to "16-31" on a 32 core system.
+
+Keep in mind that "N" is dynamic, so if system changes cause the bitmap width
+to change, such as less cores in the CPU list, then N and any ranges using N
+will also change. Use the same on a small 4 core system, and "16-N" becomes
+"16-3" and now the same boot input will be flagged as invalid (start > end).
+
+The special case-tolerant group name "all" has a meaning of selecting all CPUs,
+so that "nohz_full=all" is the equivalent of "nohz_full=0-N".
+
+The semantics of "N" and "all" is supported on a level of bitmaps and holds for
+all users of bitmap_parselist().
+
+Metric suffixes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The [KMG] suffix is commonly described after a number of kernel
+parameter values. 'K', 'M', 'G', 'T', 'P', and 'E' suffixes are allowed.
+These letters represent the _binary_ multipliers 'Kilo', 'Mega', 'Giga',
+'Tera', 'Peta', and 'Exa', equaling 2^10, 2^20, 2^30, 2^40, 2^50, and
+2^60 bytes respectively. Such letter suffixes can also be entirely omitted.
+
+Kernel Build Options
+--------------------
+
+The parameters listed below are only valid if certain kernel build options
+were enabled and if respective hardware is present. This list should be kept
+in alphabetical order. The text in square brackets at the beginning
+of each description states the restrictions within which a parameter
+is applicable.
+
+Parameters denoted with BOOT are actually interpreted by the boot
+loader, and have no meaning to the kernel directly.
+Do not modify the syntax of boot loader parameters without extreme
+need or coordination with <Documentation/arch/x86/boot.rst>.
+
+There are also arch-specific kernel-parameters not documented here.
+
+Note that ALL kernel parameters listed below are CASE SENSITIVE, and that
+a trailing = on the name of any parameter states that the parameter will
+be entered as an environment variable, whereas its absence indicates that
+it will appear as a kernel argument readable via /proc/cmdline by programs
+running once the system is up.
+
+The number of kernel parameters is not limited, but the length of the
+complete command line (parameters including spaces etc.) is limited to
+a fixed number of characters. This limit depends on the architecture
+and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
+./include/uapi/asm-generic/setup.h as COMMAND_LINE_SIZE.
+
+.. include:: kernel-parameters.txt
+ :literal: