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authorTejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>2026-09-14 22:12:34 -1000
committerTejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>2026-09-15 06:57:20 -1000
commita9e3760b0838299649c0d57cca44daaf40ba3c33 (patch)
tree95807ff0e511c05602ef34808cfc660303309057 /tools/include/uapi/README
downloadlinux-stable-a9e3760b0838299649c0d57cca44daaf40ba3c33.tar.gz
linux-stable-a9e3760b0838299649c0d57cca44daaf40ba3c33.zip
sched_ext: Maintain an online cid mask in the scheduler arenagrafted
Schedulers on the default cid mapping treat [0, nr_online_cids) as the online set and restart on hotplug. Schedulers that install their own mapping with scx_bpf_cid_override() have no way to learn which cids are online: the count no longer identifies members and the CPU-form cpumask is unusable from cid programs. This is an obvious hole in the cid API. Add scx_bpf_online_cmask(), a kernel-maintained cmask in the scheduler's arena, allocated alongside the per-CPU scratch masks and populated after the cid mapping is finalized and before ops.init(), for child schedulers too. The pointer stays valid through ops.exit() with no reference to take. It is the arena offset as a void pointer, the same form struct_ops arena arguments arrive in. The verifier types the void return as a scalar for the program's arena cast. The mask follows the SCX hotplug notifications: seeded from cpu_active_mask and updated before ops.cid_online/offline() runs, so it lags cpu_online_mask only inside a hotplug transition. Updates walk the scheduler list under the lock that also serializes unlinking. Reads are live, not atomic snapshots. Root initialization excludes hotplug. v2: Reworded the getter kerneldoc (Andrea Righi). Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> Reviewed-by: Andrea Righi <arighi@nvidia.com>
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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.
+