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| author | Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org> | 2026-08-14 15:43:51 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org> | 2026-08-14 15:43:51 -0700 |
| commit | 9cc63f8bcd560c760d0b12e15bba8f81c86237cf (patch) | |
| tree | 3b5269b1bcf6714171754946367c51e0590f64da /tools/include/uapi/README | |
| download | linux-stable-9cc63f8bcd560c760d0b12e15bba8f81c86237cf.tar.gz linux-stable-9cc63f8bcd560c760d0b12e15bba8f81c86237cf.zip | |
Merge branches 'expcb.2026.07.24a', 'misc.2026.07.30a', 'rcu-tasks.2026.07.30a', 'srcu.2026.08.11a' and 'torture.2026.08.14a' into HEADgrafted
Changes:
Make expedited grace periods expedite normal RCU callbacks
Miscellaneous fixes:
* Improve diagnostic output with character task states.
* Mark accesses to inform KCSAN of concurrency design.
* Move from kmalloc() to kmalloc_obj().
* Documentation updates.
* Improve handling of RCU deferred quiescent states.
* Clean up unused function arguments and structure fields.
* Reduce show_rcu_gp_kthreads() stack space.
Tasks RCU updates:
* Clean up after SRCU re-implementation of Tasks Trace RCU.
* Mark accesses to inform KCSAN of concurrency design.
* Add ->lazy_timer status to diagnostic output.
* Remove an unnecessary memory barrier.
* Fix a data race, courtesy of KCSAN.
* Documentation updates.
* Convert cond_resched_tasks_rcu_qs() from macro to static inline
function.
SRCU updates:
* Add Rust helpers for SRCU.
* Avoid losing queued work at cleanup_srcu_struct() time.
Torture-test updates:
* Preparation work for immediate RCU priority deboosting.
* Test RCU readers from real interrupt handlers (as opposed to softirq).
* Simplify code through use of cpumask_next_wrap().
* Improve diagnostic output with character task states.
* Add rcutorture.nwriters parameter to allow lightweight stall testing,
and rcutorture.stall_only to make doing so easier.
* Test an RCU Tasks Trace grace period implying an RCU grace period.
* Make RCU Tasks Trace torturing track reader batches.
* Fix a data race, courtesy of KCSAN.
* Plug a shuffle_tmp_mask memory leak on kthread spawn failure.
Diffstat (limited to 'tools/include/uapi/README')
| -rw-r--r-- | tools/include/uapi/README | 73 |
1 files changed, 73 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/tools/include/uapi/README b/tools/include/uapi/README new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7147b1b2c --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/include/uapi/README @@ -0,0 +1,73 @@ +Why we want a copy of kernel headers in tools? +============================================== + +There used to be no copies, with tools/ code using kernel headers +directly. From time to time tools/perf/ broke due to legitimate kernel +hacking. At some point Linus complained about such direct usage. Then we +adopted the current model. + +The way these headers are used in perf are not restricted to just +including them to compile something. + +There are sometimes used in scripts that convert defines into string +tables, etc, so some change may break one of these scripts, or new MSRs +may use some different #define pattern, etc. + +E.g.: + + $ ls -1 tools/perf/trace/beauty/*.sh | head -5 + tools/perf/trace/beauty/arch_errno_names.sh + tools/perf/trace/beauty/drm_ioctl.sh + tools/perf/trace/beauty/fadvise.sh + tools/perf/trace/beauty/fsconfig.sh + tools/perf/trace/beauty/fsmount.sh + $ + $ tools/perf/trace/beauty/fadvise.sh + static const char *fadvise_advices[] = { + [0] = "NORMAL", + [1] = "RANDOM", + [2] = "SEQUENTIAL", + [3] = "WILLNEED", + [4] = "DONTNEED", + [5] = "NOREUSE", + }; + $ + +The tools/perf/check-headers.sh script, part of the tools/ build +process, points out changes in the original files. + +So its important not to touch the copies in tools/ when doing changes in +the original kernel headers, that will be done later, when +check-headers.sh inform about the change to the perf tools hackers. + +Another explanation from Ingo Molnar: +It's better than all the alternatives we tried so far: + + - Symbolic links and direct #includes: this was the original approach but + was pushed back on from the kernel side, when tooling modified the + headers and broke them accidentally for kernel builds. + + - Duplicate self-defined ABI headers like glibc: double the maintenance + burden, double the chance for mistakes, plus there's no tech-driven + notification mechanism to look at new kernel side changes. + +What we are doing now is a third option: + + - A software-enforced copy-on-write mechanism of kernel headers to + tooling, driven by non-fatal warnings on the tooling side build when + kernel headers get modified: + + Warning: Kernel ABI header differences: + diff -u tools/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h + diff -u tools/include/uapi/linux/fs.h include/uapi/linux/fs.h + diff -u tools/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h include/uapi/linux/kvm.h + ... + + The tooling policy is to always pick up the kernel side headers as-is, + and integate them into the tooling build. The warnings above serve as a + notification to tooling maintainers that there's changes on the kernel + side. + +We've been using this for many years now, and it might seem hacky, but +works surprisingly well. + |
