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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/userspace-api/futex2.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/userspace-api/futex2.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/userspace-api/futex2.rst | 86 |
1 files changed, 86 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/userspace-api/futex2.rst b/Documentation/userspace-api/futex2.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..9693f47a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/userspace-api/futex2.rst @@ -0,0 +1,86 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +====== +futex2 +====== + +:Author: André Almeida <andrealmeid@collabora.com> + +futex, or fast user mutex, is a set of syscalls to allow userspace to create +performant synchronization mechanisms, such as mutexes, semaphores and +conditional variables in userspace. C standard libraries, like glibc, uses it +as a means to implement more high level interfaces like pthreads. + +futex2 is a followup version of the initial futex syscall, designed to overcome +limitations of the original interface. + +User API +======== + +``futex_waitv()`` +----------------- + +Wait on an array of futexes, wake on any:: + + futex_waitv(struct futex_waitv *waiters, unsigned int nr_futexes, + unsigned int flags, struct timespec *timeout, clockid_t clockid) + + struct futex_waitv { + __u64 val; + __u64 uaddr; + __u32 flags; + __u32 __reserved; + }; + +Userspace sets an array of struct futex_waitv (up to a max of 128 entries), +using ``uaddr`` for the address to wait for, ``val`` for the expected value +and ``flags`` to specify the type (e.g. private) and size of futex. +``__reserved`` needs to be 0, but it can be used for future extension. The +pointer for the first item of the array is passed as ``waiters``. An invalid +address for ``waiters`` or for any ``uaddr`` returns ``-EFAULT``. + +If userspace has 32-bit pointers, it should do a explicit cast to make sure +the upper bits are zeroed. ``uintptr_t`` does the tricky and it works for +both 32/64-bit pointers. + +``nr_futexes`` specifies the size of the array. Numbers out of [1, 128] +interval will make the syscall return ``-EINVAL``. + +The ``flags`` argument of the syscall needs to be 0, but it can be used for +future extension. + +For each entry in ``waiters`` array, the current value at ``uaddr`` is compared +to ``val``. If it's different, the syscall undo all the work done so far and +return ``-EAGAIN``. If all tests and verifications succeeds, syscall waits until +one of the following happens: + +- The timeout expires, returning ``-ETIMEOUT``. +- A signal was sent to the sleeping task, returning ``-ERESTARTSYS``. +- Some futex at the list was woken, returning the index of some waked futex. + +An example of how to use the interface can be found at ``tools/testing/selftests/futex/functional/futex_waitv.c``. + +Timeout +------- + +``struct timespec *timeout`` argument is an optional argument that points to an +absolute timeout. You need to specify the type of clock being used at +``clockid`` argument. ``CLOCK_MONOTONIC`` and ``CLOCK_REALTIME`` are supported. +This syscall accepts only 64bit timespec structs. + +Types of futex +-------------- + +A futex can be either private or shared. Private is used for processes that +shares the same memory space and the virtual address of the futex will be the +same for all processes. This allows for optimizations in the kernel. To use +private futexes, it's necessary to specify ``FUTEX_PRIVATE_FLAG`` in the futex +flag. For processes that doesn't share the same memory space and therefore can +have different virtual addresses for the same futex (using, for instance, a +file-backed shared memory) requires different internal mechanisms to be get +properly enqueued. This is the default behavior, and it works with both private +and shared futexes. + +Futexes can be of different sizes: 8, 16, 32 or 64 bits. Currently, the only +supported one is 32 bit sized futex, and it need to be specified using +``FUTEX_32`` flag. |
