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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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tree2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/livepatch/callbacks.rst
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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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+======================
+(Un)patching Callbacks
+======================
+
+Livepatch (un)patch-callbacks provide a mechanism for livepatch modules
+to execute callback functions when a kernel object is (un)patched. They
+can be considered a **power feature** that **extends livepatching abilities**
+to include:
+
+ - Safe updates to global data
+
+ - "Patches" to init and probe functions
+
+ - Patching otherwise unpatchable code (i.e. assembly)
+
+In most cases, (un)patch callbacks will need to be used in conjunction
+with memory barriers and kernel synchronization primitives, like
+mutexes/spinlocks, or even stop_machine(), to avoid concurrency issues.
+
+1. Motivation
+=============
+
+Callbacks differ from existing kernel facilities:
+
+ - Module init/exit code doesn't run when disabling and re-enabling a
+ patch.
+
+ - A module notifier can't stop a to-be-patched module from loading.
+
+Callbacks are part of the klp_object structure and their implementation
+is specific to that klp_object. Other livepatch objects may or may not
+be patched, irrespective of the target klp_object's current state.
+
+2. Callback types
+=================
+
+Callbacks can be registered for the following livepatch actions:
+
+ * Pre-patch
+ - before a klp_object is patched
+
+ * Post-patch
+ - after a klp_object has been patched and is active
+ across all tasks
+
+ * Pre-unpatch
+ - before a klp_object is unpatched (ie, patched code is
+ active), used to clean up post-patch callback
+ resources
+
+ * Post-unpatch
+ - after a klp_object has been patched, all code has
+ been restored and no tasks are running patched code,
+ used to cleanup pre-patch callback resources
+
+3. How it works
+===============
+
+Each callback is optional, omitting one does not preclude specifying any
+other. However, the livepatching core executes the handlers in
+symmetry: pre-patch callbacks have a post-unpatch counterpart and
+post-patch callbacks have a pre-unpatch counterpart. An unpatch
+callback will only be executed if its corresponding patch callback was
+executed. Typical use cases pair a patch handler that acquires and
+configures resources with an unpatch handler tears down and releases
+those same resources.
+
+A callback is only executed if its host klp_object is loaded. For
+in-kernel vmlinux targets, this means that callbacks will always execute
+when a livepatch is enabled/disabled. For patch target kernel modules,
+callbacks will only execute if the target module is loaded. When a
+module target is (un)loaded, its callbacks will execute only if the
+livepatch module is enabled.
+
+The pre-patch callback, if specified, is expected to return a status
+code (0 for success, -ERRNO on error). An error status code indicates
+to the livepatching core that patching of the current klp_object is not
+safe and to stop the current patching request. (When no pre-patch
+callback is provided, the transition is assumed to be safe.) If a
+pre-patch callback returns failure, the kernel's module loader will:
+
+ - Refuse to load a livepatch, if the livepatch is loaded after
+ targeted code.
+
+ or:
+
+ - Refuse to load a module, if the livepatch was already successfully
+ loaded.
+
+No post-patch, pre-unpatch, or post-unpatch callbacks will be executed
+for a given klp_object if the object failed to patch, due to a failed
+pre_patch callback or for any other reason.
+
+If a patch transition is reversed, no pre-unpatch handlers will be run
+(this follows the previously mentioned symmetry -- pre-unpatch callbacks
+will only occur if their corresponding post-patch callback executed).
+
+If the object did successfully patch, but the patch transition never
+started for some reason (e.g., if another object failed to patch),
+only the post-unpatch callback will be called.
+
+4. Use cases
+============
+
+Sample livepatch modules demonstrating the callback API can be found in
+samples/livepatch/ directory. These samples were modified for use in
+kselftests and can be found in the lib/livepatch directory.
+
+Global data update
+------------------
+
+A pre-patch callback can be useful to update a global variable. For
+example, commit 75ff39ccc1bd ("tcp: make challenge acks less predictable")
+changes a global sysctl, as well as patches the tcp_send_challenge_ack()
+function.
+
+In this case, if we're being super paranoid, it might make sense to
+patch the data *after* patching is complete with a post-patch callback,
+so that tcp_send_challenge_ack() could first be changed to read
+sysctl_tcp_challenge_ack_limit with READ_ONCE.
+
+__init and probe function patches support
+-----------------------------------------
+
+Although __init and probe functions are not directly livepatch-able, it
+may be possible to implement similar updates via pre/post-patch
+callbacks.
+
+The commit 48900cb6af42 ("virtio-net: drop NETIF_F_FRAGLIST") change the way that
+virtnet_probe() initialized its driver's net_device features. A
+pre/post-patch callback could iterate over all such devices, making a
+similar change to their hw_features value. (Client functions of the
+value may need to be updated accordingly.)