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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
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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
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+========================
+Null block device driver
+========================
+
+Overview
+========
+
+The null block device (``/dev/nullb*``) is used for benchmarking the various
+block-layer implementations. It emulates a block device of X gigabytes in size.
+It does not execute any read/write operation, just mark them as complete in
+the request queue. The following instances are possible:
+
+ Multi-queue block-layer
+
+ - Request-based.
+ - Configurable submission queues per device.
+
+ No block-layer (Known as bio-based)
+
+ - Bio-based. IO requests are submitted directly to the device driver.
+ - Directly accepts bio data structure and returns them.
+
+All of them have a completion queue for each core in the system.
+
+Module parameters
+=================
+
+queue_mode=[0-2]: Default: 2-Multi-queue
+ Selects which block-layer the module should instantiate with.
+
+ = ============
+ 0 Bio-based
+ 1 Single-queue (deprecated)
+ 2 Multi-queue
+ = ============
+
+home_node=[0--nr_nodes]: Default: NUMA_NO_NODE
+ Selects what CPU node the data structures are allocated from.
+
+gb=[Size in GB]: Default: 250GB
+ The size of the device reported to the system.
+
+bs=[Block size (in bytes)]: Default: 512 bytes
+ The block size reported to the system.
+
+nr_devices=[Number of devices]: Default: 1
+ Number of block devices instantiated. They are instantiated as /dev/nullb0,
+ etc.
+
+irqmode=[0-2]: Default: 1-Soft-irq
+ The completion mode used for completing IOs to the block-layer.
+
+ = ===========================================================================
+ 0 None.
+ 1 Soft-irq. Uses IPI to complete IOs across CPU nodes. Simulates the overhead
+ when IOs are issued from another CPU node than the home the device is
+ connected to.
+ 2 Timer: Waits a specific period (completion_nsec) for each IO before
+ completion.
+ = ===========================================================================
+
+completion_nsec=[ns]: Default: 10,000ns
+ Combined with irqmode=2 (timer). The time each completion event must wait.
+
+submit_queues=[1..nr_cpus]: Default: 1
+ The number of submission queues attached to the device driver. If unset, it
+ defaults to 1. For multi-queue, it is ignored when use_per_node_hctx module
+ parameter is 1.
+
+hw_queue_depth=[0..qdepth]: Default: 64
+ The hardware queue depth of the device.
+
+memory_backed=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Whether or not to use a memory buffer to respond to IO requests
+
+ = =============================================
+ 0 Transfer no data in response to IO requests
+ 1 Use a memory buffer to respond to IO requests
+ = =============================================
+
+discard=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Support discard operations (requires memory-backed null_blk device).
+
+ = =====================================
+ 0 Do not support discard operations
+ 1 Enable support for discard operations
+ = =====================================
+
+cache_size=[Size in MB]: Default: 0
+ Cache size in MB for memory-backed device.
+
+mbps=[Maximum bandwidth in MB/s]: Default: 0 (no limit)
+ Bandwidth limit for device performance.
+
+Multi-queue specific parameters
+-------------------------------
+
+use_per_node_hctx=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Number of hardware context queues.
+
+ = =====================================================================
+ 0 The number of submit queues are set to the value of the submit_queues
+ parameter.
+ 1 The multi-queue block layer is instantiated with a hardware dispatch
+ queue for each CPU node in the system.
+ = =====================================================================
+
+no_sched=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Enable/disable the io scheduler.
+
+ = ======================================
+ 0 nullb* use default blk-mq io scheduler
+ 1 nullb* doesn't use io scheduler
+ = ======================================
+
+blocking=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Blocking behavior of the request queue.
+
+ = ===============================================================
+ 0 Register as a non-blocking blk-mq driver device.
+ 1 Register as a blocking blk-mq driver device, null_blk will set
+ the BLK_MQ_F_BLOCKING flag, indicating that it sometimes/always
+ needs to block in its ->queue_rq() function.
+ = ===============================================================
+
+shared_tags=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Sharing tags between devices.
+
+ = ================================================================
+ 0 Tag set is not shared.
+ 1 Tag set shared between devices for blk-mq. Only makes sense with
+ nr_devices > 1, otherwise there's no tag set to share.
+ = ================================================================
+
+zoned=[0/1]: Default: 0
+ Device is a random-access or a zoned block device.
+
+ = ======================================================================
+ 0 Block device is exposed as a random-access block device.
+ 1 Block device is exposed as a host-managed zoned block device. Requires
+ CONFIG_BLK_DEV_ZONED.
+ = ======================================================================
+
+zone_size=[MB]: Default: 256
+ Per zone size when exposed as a zoned block device. Must be a power of two.
+
+zone_nr_conv=[nr_conv]: Default: 0
+ The number of conventional zones to create when block device is zoned. If
+ zone_nr_conv >= nr_zones, it will be reduced to nr_zones - 1.