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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/dev-tools/kmemleak.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/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst | 269 |
1 files changed, 269 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..d1b690b17 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst @@ -0,0 +1,269 @@ +Kernel Memory Leak Detector +=========================== + +Kmemleak provides a way of detecting possible kernel memory leaks in a +way similar to a `tracing garbage collector +<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracing_garbage_collection>`_, +with the difference that the orphan objects are not freed but only +reported via /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak. A similar method is used by the +Valgrind tool (``memcheck --leak-check``) to detect the memory leaks in +user-space applications. + +Usage +----- + +CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK in "Kernel hacking" has to be enabled. A kernel +thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints the +number of new unreferenced objects found. If the ``debugfs`` isn't already +mounted, mount with:: + + # mount -t debugfs nodev /sys/kernel/debug/ + +To display the details of all the possible scanned memory leaks:: + + # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +To trigger an intermediate memory scan:: + + # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +To clear the list of all current possible memory leaks:: + + # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +New leaks will then come up upon reading ``/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak`` +again. + +Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated +and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent +objects to be reported as orphan. + +Memory scanning parameters can be modified at run-time by writing to the +``/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak`` file. The following parameters are supported: + +- off + disable kmemleak (irreversible) +- stack=on + enable the task stacks scanning (default) +- stack=off + disable the tasks stacks scanning +- scan=on + start the automatic memory scanning thread (default) +- scan=off + stop the automatic memory scanning thread +- scan=<secs> + set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds + (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning) +- scan + trigger a memory scan +- clear + clear list of current memory leak suspects, done by + marking all current reported unreferenced objects grey, + or free all kmemleak objects if kmemleak has been disabled. +- dump=<addr> + dump information about the object found at <addr> + +Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing ``kmemleak=off`` on +the kernel command line. + +Memory may be allocated or freed before kmemleak is initialised and +these actions are stored in an early log buffer. The size of this buffer +is configured via the CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_MEM_POOL_SIZE option. + +If CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_DEFAULT_OFF are enabled, the kmemleak is +disabled by default. Passing ``kmemleak=on`` on the kernel command +line enables the function. + +If you are getting errors like "Error while writing to stdout" or "write_loop: +Invalid argument", make sure kmemleak is properly enabled. + +Basic Algorithm +--------------- + +The memory allocations via :c:func:`kmalloc`, :c:func:`vmalloc`, +:c:func:`kmem_cache_alloc` and +friends are traced and the pointers, together with additional +information like size and stack trace, are stored in a rbtree. +The corresponding freeing function calls are tracked and the pointers +removed from the kmemleak data structures. + +An allocated block of memory is considered orphan if no pointer to its +start address or to any location inside the block can be found by +scanning the memory (including saved registers). This means that there +might be no way for the kernel to pass the address of the allocated +block to a freeing function and therefore the block is considered a +memory leak. + +The scanning algorithm steps: + + 1. mark all objects as white (remaining white objects will later be + considered orphan) + 2. scan the memory starting with the data section and stacks, checking + the values against the addresses stored in the rbtree. If + a pointer to a white object is found, the object is added to the + gray list + 3. scan the gray objects for matching addresses (some white objects + can become gray and added at the end of the gray list) until the + gray set is finished + 4. the remaining white objects are considered orphan and reported via + /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +Some allocated memory blocks have pointers stored in the kernel's +internal data structures and they cannot be detected as orphans. To +avoid this, kmemleak can also store the number of values pointing to an +address inside the block address range that need to be found so that the +block is not considered a leak. One example is __vmalloc(). + +Testing specific sections with kmemleak +--------------------------------------- + +Upon initial bootup your /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak output page may be +quite extensive. This can also be the case if you have very buggy code +when doing development. To work around these situations you can use the +'clear' command to clear all reported unreferenced objects from the +/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak output. By issuing a 'scan' after a 'clear' +you can find new unreferenced objects; this should help with testing +specific sections of code. + +To test a critical section on demand with a clean kmemleak do:: + + # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + ... test your kernel or modules ... + # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +Then as usual to get your report with:: + + # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +Freeing kmemleak internal objects +--------------------------------- + +To allow access to previously found memory leaks after kmemleak has been +disabled by the user or due to an fatal error, internal kmemleak objects +won't be freed when kmemleak is disabled, and those objects may occupy +a large part of physical memory. + +In this situation, you may reclaim memory with:: + + # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +Kmemleak API +------------ + +See the include/linux/kmemleak.h header for the functions prototype. + +- ``kmemleak_init`` - initialize kmemleak +- ``kmemleak_alloc`` - notify of a memory block allocation +- ``kmemleak_alloc_percpu`` - notify of a percpu memory block allocation +- ``kmemleak_vmalloc`` - notify of a vmalloc() memory allocation +- ``kmemleak_free`` - notify of a memory block freeing +- ``kmemleak_free_part`` - notify of a partial memory block freeing +- ``kmemleak_free_percpu`` - notify of a percpu memory block freeing +- ``kmemleak_update_trace`` - update object allocation stack trace +- ``kmemleak_not_leak`` - mark an object as not a leak +- ``kmemleak_transient_leak`` - mark an object as a transient leak +- ``kmemleak_ignore`` - do not scan or report an object as leak +- ``kmemleak_scan_area`` - add scan areas inside a memory block +- ``kmemleak_no_scan`` - do not scan a memory block +- ``kmemleak_erase`` - erase an old value in a pointer variable +- ``kmemleak_alloc_recursive`` - as kmemleak_alloc but checks the recursiveness +- ``kmemleak_free_recursive`` - as kmemleak_free but checks the recursiveness + +The following functions take a physical address as the object pointer +and only perform the corresponding action if the address has a lowmem +mapping: + +- ``kmemleak_alloc_phys`` +- ``kmemleak_free_part_phys`` +- ``kmemleak_ignore_phys`` + +Dealing with false positives/negatives +-------------------------------------- + +The false negatives are real memory leaks (orphan objects) but not +reported by kmemleak because values found during the memory scanning +point to such objects. To reduce the number of false negatives, kmemleak +provides the kmemleak_ignore, kmemleak_scan_area, kmemleak_no_scan and +kmemleak_erase functions (see above). The task stacks also increase the +amount of false negatives and their scanning is not enabled by default. + +The false positives are objects wrongly reported as being memory leaks +(orphan). For objects known not to be leaks, kmemleak provides the +kmemleak_not_leak function. The kmemleak_ignore could also be used if +the memory block is known not to contain other pointers and it will no +longer be scanned. + +Some of the reported leaks are only transient, especially on SMP +systems, because of pointers temporarily stored in CPU registers or +stacks. Kmemleak defines MSECS_MIN_AGE (defaulting to 1000) representing +the minimum age of an object to be reported as a memory leak. + +The ``min_unref_scans`` module parameter requires an object to be seen +unreferenced in that many consecutive scans before it is reported. It +defaults to 2 when CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_VERBOSE is enabled, where the +periodic scan thread confirms a leak on its own, and to 1 otherwise. A +value of 1 preserves the historical behaviour; higher values filter the +transient false positives described above, at the cost of delaying genuine +reports by up to that many scans. It can be set at boot with +``kmemleak.min_unref_scans=<n>`` or at run-time via +``/sys/module/kmemleak/parameters/min_unref_scans``. + +Limitations and Drawbacks +------------------------- + +The main drawback is the reduced performance of memory allocation and +freeing. To avoid other penalties, the memory scanning is only performed +when the /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak file is read. Anyway, this tool is +intended for debugging purposes where the performance might not be the +most important requirement. + +To keep the algorithm simple, kmemleak scans for values pointing to any +address inside a block's address range. This may lead to an increased +number of false negatives. However, it is likely that a real memory leak +will eventually become visible. + +Another source of false negatives is the data stored in non-pointer +values. In a future version, kmemleak could only scan the pointer +members in the allocated structures. This feature would solve many of +the false negative cases described above. + +The tool can report false positives. These are cases where an allocated +block doesn't need to be freed (some cases in the init_call functions), +the pointer is calculated by other methods than the usual container_of +macro or the pointer is stored in a location not scanned by kmemleak. + +Page allocations and ioremap are not tracked. + +Testing with kmemleak-test +-------------------------- + +To check if you have all set up to use kmemleak, you can use the kmemleak-test +module, a module that deliberately leaks memory. Set CONFIG_SAMPLE_KMEMLEAK +as module (it can't be used as built-in) and boot the kernel with kmemleak +enabled. Load the module and perform a scan with:: + + # modprobe kmemleak-test + # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + +Note that the you may not get results instantly or on the first scanning. When +kmemleak gets results, it'll log ``kmemleak: <count of leaks> new suspected +memory leaks``. Then read the file to see then:: + + # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak + unreferenced object 0xffff89862ca702e8 (size 32): + comm "modprobe", pid 2088, jiffies 4294680594 (age 375.486s) + hex dump (first 32 bytes): + 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk + 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b 6b a5 kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. + backtrace: + [<00000000e0a73ec7>] 0xffffffffc01d2036 + [<000000000c5d2a46>] do_one_initcall+0x41/0x1df + [<0000000046db7e0a>] do_init_module+0x55/0x200 + [<00000000542b9814>] load_module+0x203c/0x2480 + [<00000000c2850256>] __do_sys_finit_module+0xba/0xe0 + [<000000006564e7ef>] do_syscall_64+0x43/0x110 + [<000000007c873fa6>] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xa9 + ... + +Removing the module with ``rmmod kmemleak_test`` should also trigger some +kmemleak results. |
