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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
+
+=====================================
+Using Propeller with the Linux kernel
+=====================================
+
+This enables Propeller build support for the kernel when using Clang
+compiler. Propeller is a profile-guided optimization (PGO) method used
+to optimize binary executables. Like AutoFDO, it utilizes hardware
+sampling to gather information about the frequency of execution of
+different code paths within a binary. Unlike AutoFDO, this information
+is then used right before linking phase to optimize (among others)
+block layout within and across functions.
+
+A few important notes about adopting Propeller optimization:
+
+#. Although it can be used as a standalone optimization step, it is
+ strongly recommended to apply Propeller on top of AutoFDO,
+ AutoFDO+ThinLTO or Instrument FDO. The rest of this document
+ assumes this paradigm.
+
+#. Propeller uses another round of profiling on top of
+ AutoFDO/AutoFDO+ThinLTO/iFDO. The whole build process involves
+ "build-afdo - train-afdo - build-propeller - train-propeller -
+ build-optimized".
+
+#. Propeller requires LLVM 19 release or later for Clang/Clang++
+ and the linker(ld.lld).
+
+#. In addition to LLVM toolchain, Propeller requires a profiling
+ conversion tool: https://github.com/google/llvm-propeller.
+
+Current supported architectures include x86/X86_64 (via LBR),
+and arm64 (via SPE).
+
+The Propeller optimization process involves the following steps:
+
+#. Initial building: Build the AutoFDO or AutoFDO+ThinLTO binary as
+ you would normally do, but with a set of compile-time / link-time
+ flags, so that a special metadata section is created within the
+ kernel binary. The special section is only intend to be used by the
+ profiling tool, it is not part of the runtime image, nor does it
+ change kernel run time text sections.
+
+#. Profiling: The above kernel is then run with a representative
+ workload to gather execution frequency data. This data is collected
+ using hardware sampling, via perf. Propeller is most effective on
+ platforms supporting advanced PMU features like LBR on Intel
+ machines. This step is the same as profiling the kernel for AutoFDO
+ (the exact perf parameters can be different).
+
+#. Propeller profile generation: Perf output file is converted to a
+ pair of Propeller profiles via an offline tool.
+
+#. Optimized build: Build the AutoFDO or AutoFDO+ThinLTO optimized
+ binary as you would normally do, but with a compile-time /
+ link-time flag to pick up the Propeller compile time and link time
+ profiles. This build step uses 3 profiles - the AutoFDO profile,
+ the Propeller compile-time profile and the Propeller link-time
+ profile.
+
+#. Deployment: The optimized kernel binary is deployed and used
+ in production environments, providing improved performance
+ and reduced latency.
+
+Preparation
+===========
+
+Configure the kernel with::
+
+ CONFIG_AUTOFDO_CLANG=y
+ CONFIG_PROPELLER_CLANG=y
+
+Customization
+=============
+
+The default CONFIG_PROPELLER_CLANG setting covers kernel space objects
+for Propeller builds. One can, however, enable or disable Propeller build
+for individual files and directories by adding a line similar to the
+following to the respective kernel Makefile:
+
+- For enabling a single file (e.g. foo.o)::
+
+ PROPELLER_PROFILE_foo.o := y
+
+- For enabling all files in one directory::
+
+ PROPELLER_PROFILE := y
+
+- For disabling one file::
+
+ PROPELLER_PROFILE_foo.o := n
+
+- For disabling all files in one directory::
+
+ PROPELLER__PROFILE := n
+
+
+Workflow
+========
+
+Here is an example workflow for building an AutoFDO+Propeller kernel:
+
+1) Assuming an AutoFDO profile is already collected following
+ instructions in the AutoFDO document, build the kernel on the host
+ machine, with AutoFDO and Propeller build configs ::
+
+ CONFIG_AUTOFDO_CLANG=y
+ CONFIG_PROPELLER_CLANG=y
+
+ and ::
+
+ $ make LLVM=1 CLANG_AUTOFDO_PROFILE=<autofdo-profile-name>
+
+2) Install the kernel on the test machine.
+
+3) Run the load tests. The '-c' option in perf specifies the sample
+ event period. We suggest using a suitable prime number, like 500009,
+ for this purpose.
+
+ - For Intel platforms::
+
+ $ perf record -e BR_INST_RETIRED.NEAR_TAKEN:k -a -N -b -c <count> -o <perf_file> -- <loadtest>
+
+ - For AMD platforms::
+
+ $ perf record --pfm-event RETIRED_TAKEN_BRANCH_INSTRUCTIONS:k -a -N -b -c <count> -o <perf_file> -- <loadtest>
+
+ - For arm64 with SPE::
+ There are a few kernel features that must be enabled to collect SPE profiles on Arm.
+ Below is a list of the required features:
+
+ - CONFIG_ARM_SPE_PMU=y
+ - CONFIG_PID_IN_CONTEXTIDR=y
+ - kpti=off
+
+ Use the following command to generate SPE perf data file::
+
+ $ perf record -e 'arm_spe_0/branch_filter=1,load_filter=0,store_filter=0/' -a -N -c <count> --no-switch-events -o <perf_file> -- <loadtest>
+
+ Note you can repeat the above steps to collect multiple <perf_file>s.
+
+4) (Optional) Download the raw perf file(s) to the host machine.
+
+5) Use the generate_propeller_profiles tool (https://github.com/google/llvm-propeller) to
+ generate Propeller profile. ::
+
+ $ generate_propeller_profiles \
+ --binary=<vmlinux> --profile=<perf_file> \
+ --format=propeller --propeller_output_module_name \
+ --out=<propeller_profile_prefix>_cc_profile.txt \
+ --propeller_symorder=<propeller_profile_prefix>_ld_profile.txt
+
+ "<propeller_profile_prefix>" can be something like "/home/user/dir/any_string".
+
+ This command generates a pair of Propeller profiles:
+ "<propeller_profile_prefix>_cc_profile.txt" and
+ "<propeller_profile_prefix>_ld_profile.txt".
+
+ If there are more than 1 perf_file collected in the previous step,
+ you can create a temp list file "<perf_file_list>" with each line
+ containing one perf file name and run::
+
+ $ generate_propeller_profiles \
+ --binary=<vmlinux> --profile=@<perf_file_list> \
+ --format=propeller --propeller_output_module_name \
+ --out=<propeller_profile_prefix>_cc_profile.txt \
+ --propeller_symorder=<propeller_profile_prefix>_ld_profile.txt
+
+ For arm64 SPE, add the option '--profiler=perf_spe', like::
+
+ $ generate_propeller_profiles \
+ --binary=<vmlinux> --profile=<perf_file> \
+ --profiler=perf_spe \
+ --format=propeller --propeller_output_module_name \
+ --out=<propeller_profile_prefix>_cc_profile.txt \
+ --propeller_symorder=<propeller_profile_prefix>_ld_profile.txt
+
+6) Rebuild the kernel using the AutoFDO and Propeller
+ profiles. ::
+
+ CONFIG_AUTOFDO_CLANG=y
+ CONFIG_PROPELLER_CLANG=y
+
+ and ::
+
+ $ make LLVM=1 CLANG_AUTOFDO_PROFILE=<profile_file> CLANG_PROPELLER_PROFILE_PREFIX=<propeller_profile_prefix>