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authorPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>2026-08-14 15:43:51 -0700
committerPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>2026-08-14 15:43:51 -0700
commit9cc63f8bcd560c760d0b12e15bba8f81c86237cf (patch)
tree3b5269b1bcf6714171754946367c51e0590f64da /tools/include/uapi/README
downloadlinux-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.
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+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.
+