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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-09-13 12:27:00 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2026-09-13 12:27:00 -0700
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Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt: - Don't destroy user event fields when removal fails User event fields are destroyed before the event is removed from visibility. But that can fail leaving the still visible event with no fields. Move the destroying of the fields to after the event is successfully removed from visibility. - Initialize function graph state is fork before calling copy_exec_state() For non-CLONE_VM forks, copy_exec_state() allocates a new task_exec_state. If that allocation fails, ftrace_graph_exit_task() will free the tasks ret_stack pointer. Since that pointer is still using the parent's ret_stack, it mistakenly frees the parent's pointer too. Call ftrace_graph_init() on the task first which will NULL out the new tasks's ret_stack and if the copy fails, it will not free anything. - Remove FGRAPH_MAX_INDEX The macro FGRAPH_MAX_INDEX was added but never used. Remove it. - Save ent_size in function graph printing of nested functions The function graph tracer needs to look at the next event to see if the next event is the return of the current function entry. If it is, it prints a single line: ktime_get(); Otherwise it prints it like a nested function: tick_nohz_irq_exit() { ktime_get(); kcpustat_irq_exit(); } In order to look at the next event, it must save the current event so that it has the information to print from it. It saves the event in the iterator descriptor called "ent". What it doesn't save is the ent_size of the event which is now used to know if the function graph arguments are to be printed. The peek doesn't save the size so the size used happens to be that of the size of the last event that was seen. Save the entry event size in the iterator descriptor so that the correct size is used. - Fix several errors with freeing data in the histogram code The histogram code had a lot of leaked or or incorrect accounting when failures happen. Correct them. - Fix histogram regression of .percent and .graph modifiers Up until 6.3 histogram values could have "percent" or "graph" modifiers that changed how they were printed. But a change that added restricting histograms values from being strings, stack traces and other modifiers inadvertently prevented them from using the percent and graph modifiers, which were legal use cases for values. Put back the percent and graph modifiers. - Fix various typos in the comments - Set the trace_clock before initializing a histogram with clock argument The histogram API allows the user to specific which trace clock to use via a "clock=" string. The histogram is set up first before the clock is checked. If the passed in clock is not valid, it exits without fully fixing up the histogram leaving it on the list and a use-after-free can trigger. Update the clock argument first and if it fails then exit gracefully before the histogram trigger is placed on any lists. - Restore :mod: trailer after parsing in ftrace_set_clr_event The function ftrace_set_clr_event() modifies the parse string and needs to put it back to what was passed in. It searches for ":mod:" via a strsep() but fails to put back the first ':' in the string. Add back the ':' in the passed in string. - Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file The options files are dynamically created and some tracers add their own options. When a tracer adds their own list of options, the trace_array holding them has an array to hold the list of options for each tracer. This array increases in size via a krealloc(), and the new entry gets a newly allocated array to hold the options of the new tracer being added. The element in each entry of the tracer's option array holds a pointer back to the trace_array, a pointer to the tracer it is associated to, a pointer to the flags of the option. The issue is that these arrays are freed when the trace_array is freed when its instance it represents is removed from the instances directory. There's a race that an open of one of these options files can happen when the instance is being removed. Add a new helper function to be called by the open function of the options file to iterate all existing trace_arrays under a lock and find the one that has the given option element in one of it's tracer arrays. If found, then update the associated trace_array's reference counter to keep it from being freed. If not found, have the open call return -ENODEV. - Disable interrupts when acquiring the lock in rb_wake_up_waiters() The function rb_wake_up_waiters() assumes it will be called in interrupt context and does not disable irqs when taking cpu_buffer->reader_lock, which can be called in hard interrupt context. The issue is in PREEMPT_RT, this function is called in thread context leaving this lock open to a deadlock. Take the lock with interrupts disabled. - Use rcu_assign_pointer() for tmp_ops filter hash The tmp_ops used in update_ftrace_direct_mod() assigns its filter_hash field directly, but that field is annotated as __rcu and sparse complains. Assign it with rcu_assign_pointer() - Fix use-after-free in enable_trigger_private_data_free() The trace_event_call is accessed through the event_trigger_data's trace_event_file pointer to put the trace_event_call on freeing. The issue is that the trace_event_file data may have been freed already causing a use-after-free. Add a field to the event_trigger_data that points directly to the trace_event_call so that it can decrement its reference directly without needing to go through the trace_event_file. - Fix accounting of buffer data remote headers trace_buffer_desc_size() and trace_remote_alloc_buffer() undercount the number of pages is needed for the asked for size as it doesn't take into account the meta data on each page. Add a helper function to do the calculation properly and use that in these functions. - Catch nr_page_va overflow in ring_buffer_desc sizing The number of pages per remote ring buffer is capped by ring_buffer_desc::nr_page_va (32 bits). A buffer_size large enough to overflow that field would silently allocate a descriptor smaller than what was asked for. - Do not resize the subbuf order if any per_cpu buffer is disabled The mmapping of ring buffers disables resizing the subbuffers, but it is done per-cpu whereas the subbuf size change is done for all the per_cpu buffers under the buffer->mutex. It could change the size of some while the mapping is happening on others. Have the resize of the subbuf order check all the per_cpu buffers under the lock to see if any of them is disabled before starting and causing an inconsistency between buffers that are being mapped. * tag 'trace-v7.3-rc2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace: (25 commits) ring-buffer: Check resize_disabled before publishing the new subbuf order tracing/remotes: Catch nr_page_va overflow in ring_buffer_desc sizing tracing/remotes: Account for ring buffer page header in size calculation tracing: Don't dereference trace_event_file in deferred trigger free ftrace: Use rcu_assign_pointer() for tmp_ops filter hash ring-buffer: Acquire the lock with irqsave in rb_wake_up_waiters() tracing: Take trace_array reference when opening a tracer options file tracing: Fix ring_buffer_read_page_size() kernel-doc tracing: Restore :mod: trailer after parsing in ftrace_set_clr_event() tracing: Fix memory corruption from a "STACKTRACE" histogram key tracing: Fix memory corruption from the histogram stacktrace modifier tracing: Undo the registration when enabling the histogram trigger fails tracing: Take the reference before publishing the named histogram trigger tracing: Set the trace clock before registering the histogram trigger tracing: Fix typo "preceeded" in comment tracing: Fix typo "availabe" in comment tracing: Let histogram values keep the percent and graph modifiers tracing: Keep the entry count when the histogram stats allocation fails tracing: Free histogram the field rejected for a bad modifier tracing: Free histogram the var ref when its initialization fails ...
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+===========================================================================
+Proper Locking Under a Preemptible Kernel: Keeping Kernel Code Preempt-Safe
+===========================================================================
+
+:Author: Robert Love <rml@tech9.net>
+
+
+Introduction
+============
+
+
+A preemptible kernel creates new locking issues. The issues are the same as
+those under SMP: concurrency and reentrancy. Thankfully, the Linux preemptible
+kernel model leverages existing SMP locking mechanisms. Thus, the kernel
+requires explicit additional locking for very few additional situations.
+
+This document is for all kernel hackers. Developing code in the kernel
+requires protecting these situations.
+
+
+RULE #1: Per-CPU data structures need explicit protection
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+
+Two similar problems arise. An example code snippet::
+
+ struct this_needs_locking tux[NR_CPUS];
+ tux[smp_processor_id()] = some_value;
+ /* task is preempted here... */
+ something = tux[smp_processor_id()];
+
+First, since the data is per-CPU, it may not have explicit SMP locking, but
+require it otherwise. Second, when a preempted task is finally rescheduled,
+the previous value of smp_processor_id may not equal the current. You must
+protect these situations by disabling preemption around them.
+
+You can also use put_cpu() and get_cpu(), which will disable preemption.
+
+
+RULE #2: CPU state must be protected.
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+
+Under preemption, the state of the CPU must be protected. This is arch-
+dependent, but includes CPU structures and state not preserved over a context
+switch. For example, on x86, entering and exiting FPU mode is now a critical
+section that must occur while preemption is disabled. Think what would happen
+if the kernel is executing a floating-point instruction and is then preempted.
+Remember, the kernel does not save FPU state except for user tasks. Therefore,
+upon preemption, the FPU registers will be sold to the lowest bidder. Thus,
+preemption must be disabled around such regions.
+
+Note, some FPU functions are already explicitly preempt safe. For example,
+kernel_fpu_begin and kernel_fpu_end will disable and enable preemption.
+
+
+RULE #3: Lock acquire and release must be performed by same task
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+
+A lock acquired in one task must be released by the same task. This
+means you can't do oddball things like acquire a lock and go off to
+play while another task releases it. If you want to do something
+like this, acquire and release the task in the same code path and
+have the caller wait on an event by the other task.
+
+
+Solution
+========
+
+
+Data protection under preemption is achieved by disabling preemption for the
+duration of the critical region.
+
+::
+
+ preempt_enable() decrement the preempt counter
+ preempt_disable() increment the preempt counter
+ preempt_enable_no_resched() decrement, but do not immediately preempt
+ preempt_check_resched() if needed, reschedule
+ preempt_count() return the preempt counter
+
+The functions are nestable. In other words, you can call preempt_disable
+n-times in a code path, and preemption will not be reenabled until the n-th
+call to preempt_enable. The preempt statements define to nothing if
+preemption is not enabled.
+
+Note that you do not need to explicitly prevent preemption if you are holding
+any locks or interrupts are disabled, since preemption is implicitly disabled
+in those cases.
+
+But keep in mind that 'irqs disabled' is a fundamentally unsafe way of
+disabling preemption - any cond_resched() or cond_resched_lock() might trigger
+a reschedule if the preempt count is 0. A simple printk() might trigger a
+reschedule. So use this implicit preemption-disabling property only if you
+know that the affected codepath does not do any of this. Best policy is to use
+this only for small, atomic code that you wrote and which calls no complex
+functions.
+
+Example::
+
+ cpucache_t *cc; /* this is per-CPU */
+ preempt_disable();
+ cc = cc_data(searchp);
+ if (cc && cc->avail) {
+ __free_block(searchp, cc_entry(cc), cc->avail);
+ cc->avail = 0;
+ }
+ preempt_enable();
+ return 0;
+
+Notice how the preemption statements must encompass every reference of the
+critical variables. Another example::
+
+ int buf[NR_CPUS];
+ set_cpu_val(buf);
+ if (buf[smp_processor_id()] == -1) printf(KERN_INFO "wee!\n");
+ spin_lock(&buf_lock);
+ /* ... */
+
+This code is not preempt-safe, but see how easily we can fix it by simply
+moving the spin_lock up two lines.
+
+
+Preventing preemption using interrupt disabling
+===============================================
+
+
+It is possible to prevent a preemption event using local_irq_disable and
+local_irq_save. Note, when doing so, you must be very careful to not cause
+an event that would set need_resched and result in a preemption check. When
+in doubt, rely on locking or explicit preemption disabling.
+
+Note in 2.5 interrupt disabling is now only per-CPU (e.g. local).
+
+An additional concern is proper usage of local_irq_disable and local_irq_save.
+These may be used to protect from preemption, however, on exit, if preemption
+may be enabled, a test to see if preemption is required should be done. If
+these are called from the spin_lock and read/write lock macros, the right thing
+is done. They may also be called within a spin-lock protected region, however,
+if they are ever called outside of this context, a test for preemption should
+be made. Do note that calls from interrupt context or bottom half/ tasklets
+are also protected by preemption locks and so may use the versions which do
+not check preemption.