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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
+
+=======================
+Squashfs 4.0 Filesystem
+=======================
+
+Squashfs is a compressed read-only filesystem for Linux.
+
+It uses zlib, lz4, lzo, xz or zstd compression to compress files, inodes and
+directories. Inodes in the system are very small and all blocks are packed to
+minimise data overhead. Block sizes greater than 4K are supported up to a
+maximum of 1Mbytes (default block size 128K).
+
+Squashfs is intended for general read-only filesystem use, for archival
+use (i.e. in cases where a .tar.gz file may be used), and in constrained
+block device/memory systems (e.g. embedded systems) where low overhead is
+needed.
+
+Mailing list (kernel code): linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org
+Web site: github.com/plougher/squashfs-tools
+
+1. Filesystem Features
+----------------------
+
+Squashfs filesystem features versus Cramfs:
+
+============================== ========= ==========
+ Squashfs Cramfs
+============================== ========= ==========
+Max filesystem size 2^64 256 MiB
+Max file size ~ 2 TiB 16 MiB
+Max files unlimited unlimited
+Max directories unlimited unlimited
+Max entries per directory unlimited unlimited
+Max block size 1 MiB 4 KiB
+Metadata compression yes no
+Directory indexes yes no
+Sparse file support yes no
+Tail-end packing (fragments) yes no
+Exportable (NFS etc.) yes no
+Hard link support yes no
+"." and ".." in readdir yes no
+Real inode numbers yes no
+32-bit uids/gids yes no
+File creation time yes no
+Xattr support yes no
+ACL support no no
+============================== ========= ==========
+
+Squashfs compresses data, inodes and directories. In addition, inode and
+directory data are highly compacted, and packed on byte boundaries. Each
+compressed inode is on average 8 bytes in length (the exact length varies on
+file type, i.e. regular file, directory, symbolic link, and block/char device
+inodes have different sizes).
+
+2. Using Squashfs
+-----------------
+
+As squashfs is a read-only filesystem, the mksquashfs program must be used to
+create populated squashfs filesystems. This and other squashfs utilities
+are very likely packaged by your linux distribution (called squashfs-tools).
+The source code can be obtained from github.com/plougher/squashfs-tools.
+Usage instructions can also be obtained from this site.
+
+2.1 Mount options
+-----------------
+=================== =========================================================
+errors=%s Specify whether squashfs errors trigger a kernel panic
+ or not
+
+ ========== =============================================
+ continue errors don't trigger a panic (default)
+ panic trigger a panic when errors are encountered,
+ similar to several other filesystems (e.g.
+ btrfs, ext4, f2fs, GFS2, jfs, ntfs, ubifs)
+
+ This allows a kernel dump to be saved,
+ useful for analyzing and debugging the
+ corruption.
+ ========== =============================================
+threads=%s Select the decompression mode or the number of threads
+
+ If SQUASHFS_CHOICE_DECOMP_BY_MOUNT is set:
+
+ ========== =============================================
+ single use single-threaded decompression (default)
+
+ Only one block (data or metadata) can be
+ decompressed at any one time. This limits
+ CPU and memory usage to a minimum, but it
+ also gives poor performance on parallel I/O
+ workloads when using multiple CPU machines
+ due to waiting on decompressor availability.
+ multi use up to two parallel decompressors per core
+
+ If you have a parallel I/O workload and your
+ system has enough memory, using this option
+ may improve overall I/O performance. It
+ dynamically allocates decompressors on a
+ demand basis.
+ percpu use a maximum of one decompressor per core
+
+ It uses percpu variables to ensure
+ decompression is load-balanced across the
+ cores.
+ 1|2|3|... configure the number of threads used for
+ decompression
+
+ The upper limit is num_online_cpus() * 2.
+ ========== =============================================
+
+ If SQUASHFS_CHOICE_DECOMP_BY_MOUNT is **not** set and
+ SQUASHFS_DECOMP_MULTI, SQUASHFS_MOUNT_DECOMP_THREADS are
+ both set:
+
+ ========== =============================================
+ 2|3|... configure the number of threads used for
+ decompression
+
+ The upper limit is num_online_cpus() * 2.
+ ========== =============================================
+
+=================== =========================================================
+
+3. Squashfs Filesystem Design
+-----------------------------
+
+A squashfs filesystem consists of a maximum of nine parts, packed together on a
+byte alignment::
+
+ ---------------
+ | superblock |
+ |---------------|
+ | compression |
+ | options |
+ |---------------|
+ | datablocks |
+ | & fragments |
+ |---------------|
+ | inode table |
+ |---------------|
+ | directory |
+ | table |
+ |---------------|
+ | fragment |
+ | table |
+ |---------------|
+ | export |
+ | table |
+ |---------------|
+ | uid/gid |
+ | lookup table |
+ |---------------|
+ | xattr |
+ | table |
+ ---------------
+
+Compressed data blocks are written to the filesystem as files are read from
+the source directory, and checked for duplicates. Once all file data has been
+written the completed inode, directory, fragment, export, uid/gid lookup and
+xattr tables are written.
+
+3.1 Compression options
+-----------------------
+
+Compressors can optionally support compression specific options (e.g.
+dictionary size). If non-default compression options have been used, then
+these are stored here.
+
+3.2 Inodes
+----------
+
+Metadata (inodes and directories) are compressed in 8Kbyte blocks. Each
+compressed block is prefixed by a two byte length, the top bit is set if the
+block is uncompressed. A block will be uncompressed if the -noI option is set,
+or if the compressed block was larger than the uncompressed block.
+
+Inodes are packed into the metadata blocks, and are not aligned to block
+boundaries, therefore inodes overlap compressed blocks. Inodes are identified
+by a 48-bit number which encodes the location of the compressed metadata block
+containing the inode, and the byte offset into that block where the inode is
+placed (<block, offset>).
+
+To maximise compression there are different inodes for each file type
+(regular file, directory, device, etc.), the inode contents and length
+varying with the type.
+
+To further maximise compression, two types of regular file inode and
+directory inode are defined: inodes optimised for frequently occurring
+regular files and directories, and extended types where extra
+information has to be stored.
+
+3.3 Directories
+---------------
+
+Like inodes, directories are packed into compressed metadata blocks, stored
+in a directory table. Directories are accessed using the start address of
+the metablock containing the directory and the offset into the
+decompressed block (<block, offset>).
+
+Directories are organised in a slightly complex way, and are not simply
+a list of file names. The organisation takes advantage of the
+fact that (in most cases) the inodes of the files will be in the same
+compressed metadata block, and therefore, can share the start block.
+Directories are therefore organised in a two level list, a directory
+header containing the shared start block value, and a sequence of directory
+entries, each of which share the shared start block. A new directory header
+is written once/if the inode start block changes. The directory
+header/directory entry list is repeated as many times as necessary.
+
+Directories are sorted, and can contain a directory index to speed up
+file lookup. Directory indexes store one entry per metablock, each entry
+storing the index/filename mapping to the first directory header
+in each metadata block. Directories are sorted in alphabetical order,
+and at lookup the index is scanned linearly looking for the first filename
+alphabetically larger than the filename being looked up. At this point the
+location of the metadata block the filename is in has been found.
+The general idea of the index is to ensure only one metadata block needs to be
+decompressed to do a lookup irrespective of the length of the directory.
+This scheme has the advantage that it doesn't require extra memory overhead
+and doesn't require much extra storage on disk.
+
+3.4 File data
+-------------
+
+Regular files consist of a sequence of contiguous compressed blocks, and/or a
+compressed fragment block (tail-end packed block). The compressed size
+of each datablock is stored in a block list contained within the
+file inode.
+
+To speed up access to datablocks when reading 'large' files (256 Mbytes or
+larger), the code implements an index cache that caches the mapping from
+block index to datablock location on disk.
+
+The index cache allows Squashfs to handle large files (up to 1.75 TiB) while
+retaining a simple and space-efficient block list on disk. The cache
+is split into slots, caching up to eight 224 GiB files (128 KiB blocks).
+Larger files use multiple slots, with 1.75 TiB files using all 8 slots.
+The index cache is designed to be memory efficient, and by default uses
+16 KiB.
+
+3.5 Fragment lookup table
+-------------------------
+
+Regular files can contain a fragment index which is mapped to a fragment
+location on disk and compressed size using a fragment lookup table. This
+fragment lookup table is itself stored compressed into metadata blocks.
+A second index table is used to locate these. This second index table for
+speed of access (and because it is small) is read at mount time and cached
+in memory.
+
+3.6 Uid/gid lookup table
+------------------------
+
+For space efficiency regular files store uid and gid indexes, which are
+converted to 32-bit uids/gids using an id look up table. This table is
+stored compressed into metadata blocks. A second index table is used to
+locate these. This second index table for speed of access (and because it
+is small) is read at mount time and cached in memory.
+
+3.7 Export table
+----------------
+
+To enable Squashfs filesystems to be exportable (via NFS etc.) filesystems
+can optionally (disabled with the -no-exports Mksquashfs option) contain
+an inode number to inode disk location lookup table. This is required to
+enable Squashfs to map inode numbers passed in filehandles to the inode
+location on disk, which is necessary when the export code reinstantiates
+expired/flushed inodes.
+
+This table is stored compressed into metadata blocks. A second index table is
+used to locate these. This second index table for speed of access (and because
+it is small) is read at mount time and cached in memory.
+
+3.8 Xattr table
+---------------
+
+The xattr table contains extended attributes for each inode. The xattrs
+for each inode are stored in a list, each list entry containing a type,
+name and value field. The type field encodes the xattr prefix
+("user.", "trusted." etc) and it also encodes how the name/value fields
+should be interpreted. Currently the type indicates whether the value
+is stored inline (in which case the value field contains the xattr value),
+or if it is stored out of line (in which case the value field stores a
+reference to where the actual value is stored). This allows large values
+to be stored out of line improving scanning and lookup performance and it
+also allows values to be de-duplicated, the value being stored once, and
+all other occurrences holding an out of line reference to that value.
+
+The xattr lists are packed into compressed 8K metadata blocks.
+To reduce overhead in inodes, rather than storing the on-disk
+location of the xattr list inside each inode, a 32-bit xattr id
+is stored. This xattr id is mapped into the location of the xattr
+list using a second xattr id lookup table.
+
+4. TODOs and Outstanding Issues
+-------------------------------
+
+4.1 TODO list
+-------------
+
+Implement ACL support.
+
+4.2 Squashfs Internal Cache
+---------------------------
+
+Blocks in Squashfs are compressed. To avoid repeatedly decompressing
+recently accessed data Squashfs uses two small metadata and fragment caches.
+
+The cache is not used for file datablocks, these are decompressed and cached in
+the page-cache in the normal way. The cache is used to temporarily cache
+fragment and metadata blocks which have been read as a result of a metadata
+(i.e. inode or directory) or fragment access. Because metadata and fragments
+are packed together into blocks (to gain greater compression) the read of a
+particular piece of metadata or fragment will retrieve other metadata/fragments
+which have been packed with it, these because of locality-of-reference may be
+read in the near future. Temporarily caching them ensures they are available
+for near future access without requiring an additional read and decompress.
+
+In the future this internal cache may be replaced with an implementation which
+uses the kernel page cache. Because the page cache operates on page sized
+units this may introduce additional complexity in terms of locking and
+associated race conditions.