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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
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tree3962f95a34df034652ff93686cdd156c7197f2d9 /Documentation/admin-guide/rtc.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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+=======================================
+Real Time Clock (RTC) Drivers for Linux
+=======================================
+
+When Linux developers talk about a "Real Time Clock", they usually mean
+something that tracks wall clock time and is battery backed so that it
+works even with system power off. Such clocks will normally not track
+the local time zone or daylight savings time -- unless they dual boot
+with MS-Windows -- but will instead be set to Coordinated Universal Time
+(UTC, formerly "Greenwich Mean Time").
+
+The newest non-PC hardware tends to just count seconds, like the time(2)
+system call reports, but RTCs also very commonly represent time using
+the Gregorian calendar and 24 hour time, as reported by gmtime(3).
+
+Linux has two largely-compatible userspace RTC API families you may
+need to know about:
+
+ * /dev/rtc ... is the RTC provided by PC compatible systems,
+ so it's not very portable to non-x86 systems.
+
+ * /dev/rtc0, /dev/rtc1 ... are part of a framework that's
+ supported by a wide variety of RTC chips on all systems.
+
+Programmers need to understand that the PC/AT functionality is not
+always available, and some systems can do much more. That is, the
+RTCs use the same API to make requests in both RTC frameworks (using
+different filenames of course), but the hardware may not offer the
+same functionality. For example, not every RTC is hooked up to an
+IRQ, so they can't all issue alarms; and where standard PC RTCs can
+only issue an alarm up to 24 hours in the future, other hardware may
+be able to schedule one any time in the upcoming century.
+
+
+Old PC/AT-Compatible driver: /dev/rtc
+--------------------------------------
+
+All PCs (even Alpha machines) have a Real Time Clock built into them.
+Usually they are built into the chipset of the computer, but some may
+actually have a Motorola MC146818 (or clone) on the board. This is the
+clock that keeps the date and time while your computer is turned off.
+
+ACPI has standardized that MC146818 functionality, and extended it in
+a few ways (enabling longer alarm periods, and wake-from-hibernate).
+That functionality is NOT exposed in the old driver.
+
+However it can also be used to generate signals from a slow 2Hz to a
+relatively fast 8192Hz, in increments of powers of two. These signals
+are reported by interrupt number 8. (Oh! So *that* is what IRQ 8 is
+for...) It can also function as a 24hr alarm, raising IRQ 8 when the
+alarm goes off. The alarm can also be programmed to only check any
+subset of the three programmable values, meaning that it could be set to
+ring on the 30th second of the 30th minute of every hour, for example.
+The clock can also be set to generate an interrupt upon every clock
+update, thus generating a 1Hz signal.
+
+The interrupts are reported via /dev/rtc (major 10, minor 135, read only
+character device) in the form of an unsigned long. The low byte contains
+the type of interrupt (update-done, alarm-rang, or periodic) that was
+raised, and the remaining bytes contain the number of interrupts since
+the last read. Status information is reported through the pseudo-file
+/proc/driver/rtc if the /proc filesystem was enabled. The driver has
+built in locking so that only one process is allowed to have the /dev/rtc
+interface open at a time.
+
+A user process can monitor these interrupts by doing a read(2) or a
+select(2) on /dev/rtc -- either will block/stop the user process until
+the next interrupt is received. This is useful for things like
+reasonably high frequency data acquisition where one doesn't want to
+burn up 100% CPU by polling gettimeofday etc. etc.
+
+At high frequencies, or under high loads, the user process should check
+the number of interrupts received since the last read to determine if
+there has been any interrupt "pileup" so to speak. Just for reference, a
+typical 486-33 running a tight read loop on /dev/rtc will start to suffer
+occasional interrupt pileup (i.e. > 1 IRQ event since last read) for
+frequencies above 1024Hz. So you really should check the high bytes
+of the value you read, especially at frequencies above that of the
+normal timer interrupt, which is 100Hz.
+
+Programming and/or enabling interrupt frequencies greater than 64Hz is
+only allowed by root. This is perhaps a bit conservative, but we don't want
+an evil user generating lots of IRQs on a slow 386sx-16, where it might have
+a negative impact on performance. This 64Hz limit can be changed by writing
+a different value to /proc/sys/dev/rtc/max-user-freq. Note that the
+interrupt handler is only a few lines of code to minimize any possibility
+of this effect.
+
+Also, if the kernel time is synchronized with an external source, the
+kernel will write the time back to the CMOS clock every 11 minutes. In
+the process of doing this, the kernel briefly turns off RTC periodic
+interrupts, so be aware of this if you are doing serious work. If you
+don't synchronize the kernel time with an external source (via ntp or
+whatever) then the kernel will keep its hands off the RTC, allowing you
+exclusive access to the device for your applications.
+
+The alarm and/or interrupt frequency are programmed into the RTC via
+various ioctl(2) calls as listed in ./include/linux/rtc.h
+Rather than write 50 pages describing the ioctl() and so on, it is
+perhaps more useful to include a small test program that demonstrates
+how to use them, and demonstrates the features of the driver. This is
+probably a lot more useful to people interested in writing applications
+that will be using this driver. See the code at the end of this document.
+
+(The original /dev/rtc driver was written by Paul Gortmaker.)
+
+
+New portable "RTC Class" drivers: /dev/rtcN
+--------------------------------------------
+
+Because Linux supports many non-ACPI and non-PC platforms, some of which
+have more than one RTC style clock, it needed a more portable solution
+than expecting a single battery-backed MC146818 clone on every system.
+Accordingly, a new "RTC Class" framework has been defined. It offers
+three different userspace interfaces:
+
+ * /dev/rtcN ... much the same as the older /dev/rtc interface
+
+ * /sys/class/rtc/rtcN ... sysfs attributes support readonly
+ access to some RTC attributes.
+
+ * /proc/driver/rtc ... the system clock RTC may expose itself
+ using a procfs interface. If there is no RTC for the system clock,
+ rtc0 is used by default. More information is (currently) shown
+ here than through sysfs.
+
+The RTC Class framework supports a wide variety of RTCs, ranging from those
+integrated into embeddable system-on-chip (SOC) processors to discrete chips
+using I2C, SPI, or some other bus to communicate with the host CPU. There's
+even support for PC-style RTCs ... including the features exposed on newer PCs
+through ACPI.
+
+The new framework also removes the "one RTC per system" restriction. For
+example, maybe the low-power battery-backed RTC is a discrete I2C chip, but
+a high functionality RTC is integrated into the SOC. That system might read
+the system clock from the discrete RTC, but use the integrated one for all
+other tasks, because of its greater functionality.
+
+Check out tools/testing/selftests/rtc/rtctest.c for an example usage of the
+ioctl interface.