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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/fb/deferred_io.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/fb/deferred_io.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/fb/deferred_io.rst | 79 |
1 files changed, 79 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/fb/deferred_io.rst b/Documentation/fb/deferred_io.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7fc1933b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/fb/deferred_io.rst @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ +=========== +Deferred IO +=========== + +Deferred IO is a way to delay and repurpose IO. It uses host memory as a +buffer and the MMU pagefault as a pretrigger for when to perform the device +IO. The following example may be a useful explanation of how one such setup +works: + +- userspace app like Xfbdev mmaps framebuffer +- deferred IO and driver sets up fault and page_mkwrite handlers +- userspace app tries to write to mmapped vaddress +- we get pagefault and reach fault handler +- fault handler finds and returns physical page +- we get page_mkwrite where we add this page to a list +- schedule a workqueue task to be run after a delay +- app continues writing to that page with no additional cost. this is + the key benefit. +- the workqueue task comes in and mkcleans the pages on the list, then + completes the work associated with updating the framebuffer. this is + the real work talking to the device. +- app tries to write to the address (that has now been mkcleaned) +- get pagefault and the above sequence occurs again + +As can be seen from above, one benefit is roughly to allow bursty framebuffer +writes to occur at minimum cost. Then after some time when hopefully things +have gone quiet, we go and really update the framebuffer which would be +a relatively more expensive operation. + +For some types of nonvolatile high latency displays, the desired image is +the final image rather than the intermediate stages which is why it's okay +to not update for each write that is occurring. + +It may be the case that this is useful in other scenarios as well. Paul Mundt +has mentioned a case where it is beneficial to use the page count to decide +whether to coalesce and issue SG DMA or to do memory bursts. + +Another one may be if one has a device framebuffer that is in an usual format, +say diagonally shifting RGB, this may then be a mechanism for you to allow +apps to pretend to have a normal framebuffer but reswizzle for the device +framebuffer at vsync time based on the touched pagelist. + +How to use it: (for applications) +--------------------------------- +No changes needed. mmap the framebuffer like normal and just use it. + +How to use it: (for fbdev drivers) +---------------------------------- +The following example may be helpful. + +1. Setup your structure. Eg:: + + static struct fb_deferred_io hecubafb_defio = { + .delay = HZ, + .deferred_io = hecubafb_dpy_deferred_io, + }; + +The delay is the minimum delay between when the page_mkwrite trigger occurs +and when the deferred_io callback is called. The deferred_io callback is +explained below. + +2. Setup your deferred IO callback. Eg:: + + static void hecubafb_dpy_deferred_io(struct fb_info *info, + struct list_head *pagelist) + +The deferred_io callback is where you would perform all your IO to the display +device. You receive the pagelist which is the list of pages that were written +to during the delay. You must not modify this list. This callback is called +from a workqueue. + +3. Call init:: + + info->fbdefio = &hecubafb_defio; + fb_deferred_io_init(info); + +4. Call cleanup:: + + fb_deferred_io_cleanup(info); |
