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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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+==============
+Driver Binding
+==============
+
+Driver binding is the process of associating a device with a device
+driver that can control it. Bus drivers have typically handled this
+because there have been bus-specific structures to represent the
+devices and the drivers. With generic device and device driver
+structures, most of the binding can take place using common code.
+
+
+Bus
+~~~
+
+The bus type structure contains a list of all devices that are on that bus
+type in the system. When device_register is called for a device, it is
+inserted into the end of this list. The bus object also contains a
+list of all drivers of that bus type. When driver_register is called
+for a driver, it is inserted at the end of this list. These are the
+two events which trigger driver binding.
+
+
+device_register
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+When a new device is added, the bus's list of drivers is iterated over
+to find one that supports it. In order to determine that, the device
+ID of the device must match one of the device IDs that the driver
+supports. The format and semantics for comparing IDs is bus-specific.
+Instead of trying to derive a complex state machine and matching
+algorithm, it is up to the bus driver to provide a callback to compare
+a device against the IDs of a driver. The bus returns 1 if a match was
+found; 0 otherwise.
+
+int match(struct device * dev, struct device_driver * drv);
+
+If a match is found, the device's driver field is set to the driver
+and the driver's probe callback is called. This gives the driver a
+chance to verify that it really does support the hardware, and that
+it's in a working state.
+
+Device Class
+~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Upon the successful completion of probe, the device is registered with
+the class to which it belongs. Device drivers belong to one and only one
+class, and that is set in the driver's devclass field.
+devclass_add_device is called to enumerate the device within the class
+and actually register it with the class, which happens with the
+class's register_dev callback.
+
+
+Driver
+~~~~~~
+
+When a driver is attached to a device, the driver's probe() function is
+called. Within probe(), the driver initializes the device and allocates
+and initializes per-device data structures. This per-device state is
+associated with the device object for as long as the driver remains bound
+to it. Conceptually, this per-device data together with the binding to
+the device can be thought of as an instance of the driver.
+
+sysfs
+~~~~~
+
+A symlink is created in the bus's 'devices' directory that points to
+the device's directory in the physical hierarchy.
+
+A symlink is created in the driver's 'devices' directory that points
+to the device's directory in the physical hierarchy.
+
+A directory for the device is created in the class's directory. A
+symlink is created in that directory that points to the device's
+physical location in the sysfs tree.
+
+A symlink can be created (though this isn't done yet) in the device's
+physical directory to either its class directory, or the class's
+top-level directory. One can also be created to point to its driver's
+directory also.
+
+
+driver_register
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The process is almost identical for when a new driver is added.
+The bus's list of devices is iterated over to find a match. Devices
+that already have a driver are skipped. All the devices are iterated
+over, to bind as many devices as possible to the driver.
+
+
+Removal
+~~~~~~~
+
+When a device is removed, the reference count for it will eventually
+go to 0. When it does, the remove callback of the driver is called. It
+is removed from the driver's list of devices and the reference count
+of the driver is decremented. All symlinks between the two are removed.
+
+When a driver is removed, the list of devices that it supports is
+iterated over, and the driver's remove callback is called for each
+one. The device is removed from that list and the symlinks removed.
+
+
+Driver Override
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Userspace may override the standard matching by writing a driver name to
+a device's ``driver_override`` sysfs attribute. When set, only a driver
+whose name matches the override will be considered during binding. This
+bypasses all bus-specific matching (OF, ACPI, ID tables, etc.).
+
+The override may be cleared by writing an empty string, which returns
+the device to standard matching rules. Writing to ``driver_override``
+does not automatically unbind the device from its current driver or
+make any attempt to load the specified driver.
+
+Buses opt into this mechanism by setting the ``driver_override`` flag in
+their ``struct bus_type``::
+
+ const struct bus_type example_bus_type = {
+ ...
+ .driver_override = true,
+ };
+
+When the flag is set, the driver core automatically creates the
+``driver_override`` sysfs attribute for every device on that bus.
+
+The bus's ``match()`` callback should check the override before performing
+its own matching, using ``device_match_driver_override()``::
+
+ static int example_match(struct device *dev, const struct device_driver *drv)
+ {
+ int ret;
+
+ ret = device_match_driver_override(dev, drv);
+ if (ret >= 0)
+ return ret;
+
+ /* Fall through to bus-specific matching... */
+ }
+
+``device_match_driver_override()`` returns > 0 if the override matches
+the given driver, 0 if the override is set but does not match, or < 0 if
+no override is set at all.
+
+Additional helpers are available:
+
+- ``device_set_driver_override()`` - set or clear the override from kernel code.
+- ``device_has_driver_override()`` - check whether an override is set.