From 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Linus Torvalds Date: Sun, 30 Aug 2026 09:22:00 -0700 Subject: Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace 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 --- Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst | 109 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 109 insertions(+) create mode 100644 Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst (limited to 'Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst') diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..b1341c1a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/faq.rst @@ -0,0 +1,109 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +========================== +Frequently Asked Questions +========================== + +How is this different from Autotest, kselftest, and so on? +========================================================== +KUnit is a unit testing framework. Autotest, kselftest (and some others) are +not. + +A `unit test `_ is supposed to +test a single unit of code in isolation and hence the name *unit test*. A unit +test should be the finest granularity of testing and should allow all possible +code paths to be tested in the code under test. This is only possible if the +code under test is small and does not have any external dependencies outside of +the test's control like hardware. + +There are no testing frameworks currently available for the kernel that do not +require installing the kernel on a test machine or in a virtual machine. All +testing frameworks require tests to be written in userspace and run on the +kernel under test. This is true for Autotest, kselftest, and some others, +disqualifying any of them from being considered unit testing frameworks. + +Does KUnit support running on architectures other than UML? +=========================================================== + +Yes. KUnit can run on any architecture, though the kunit.py tool can only +build and run kernels for some architectures (of which UML is the default). + +You can build and run tests without kunit.py at all on any architecture by +enabling ``CONFIG_KUNIT=y`` and booting the kernel. +See Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/run_manual.rst for more details. + +Alternatively, kunit.py supports many common architectures using +cross-compilers and the qemu emulator. This can be done using the ``--arch`` +parameter when running the tests, and the ``--cross_compile`` parameter +when building (if the architecture is not supported by the host compiler). +See :ref:`kunit-on-qemu` for more details. + +When writing tests targeting other architectures, it's worth keeping the tips +on the :ref:`kunit-on-non-uml` page in mind. + +.. _kinds-of-tests: + +What is the difference between a unit test and other kinds of tests? +==================================================================== +Most existing tests for the Linux kernel would be categorized as an integration +test, or an end-to-end test. + +- A unit test is supposed to test a single unit of code in isolation. A unit + test should be the finest granularity of testing and, as such, allows all + possible code paths to be tested in the code under test. This is only possible + if the code under test is small and does not have any external dependencies + outside of the test's control like hardware. +- An integration test tests the interaction between a minimal set of components, + usually just two or three. For example, someone might write an integration + test to test the interaction between a driver and a piece of hardware, or to + test the interaction between the userspace libraries the kernel provides and + the kernel itself. However, one of these tests would probably not test the + entire kernel along with hardware interactions and interactions with the + userspace. +- An end-to-end test usually tests the entire system from the perspective of the + code under test. For example, someone might write an end-to-end test for the + kernel by installing a production configuration of the kernel on production + hardware with a production userspace and then trying to exercise some behavior + that depends on interactions between the hardware, the kernel, and userspace. + +KUnit is not working, what should I do? +======================================= + +Unfortunately, there are a number of things which can break, but here are some +things to try. + +1. Run ``./tools/testing/kunit/kunit.py run`` with the ``--raw_output`` + parameter. This might show details or error messages hidden by the kunit_tool + parser. +2. Instead of running ``kunit.py run``, try running ``kunit.py config``, + ``kunit.py build``, and ``kunit.py exec`` independently. This can help track + down where an issue is occurring. (If you think the parser is at fault, you + can run it manually against ``stdin`` or a file with ``kunit.py parse``.) +3. Running the UML kernel directly can often reveal issues or error messages, + ``kunit_tool`` ignores. This should be as simple as runningi the ``vmlinux`` + binary in the output directory (by default ``./.kunit/vmlinux``) after + building the UML kernel (for example, by using ``kunit.py build``). + Note that UML has some unusual requirements (such as the host having a tmpfs + filesystem mounted), and has had issues in the past when built statically and + the host has KASLR enabled. (On older host kernels, you may need to run + ``setarch `uname -m` -R ./vmlinux`` to disable KASLR.) +4. Try running KUnit on a different architecture by using the ``--arch`` + option. On an x86_64 host, using ``--arch=x86_64`` is a good first step. +5. Make sure the kernel .config has ``CONFIG_KUNIT=y`` and at least one test + (e.g. ``CONFIG_KUNIT_EXAMPLE_TEST=y``). kunit_tool will keep its .config + around, so you can see what config was used after running ``kunit.py run``. + It also preserves any config changes you might make, so you can + enable/disable things with ``make ARCH=um menuconfig`` or similar, and then + re-run kunit_tool. +6. Try to run ``make ARCH=um defconfig`` before running ``kunit.py run``. This + may help clean up any residual config items which could be causing problems. +7. Finally, try running KUnit manually, instead of via ``kunit.py``. KUnit can + be built into any kernel, or can be built as a module and loaded at runtime. + When tests are built-in, they will execute when the kernel boots, and + modules will automatically execute associated tests when loaded. Test results + can be collected from ``/sys/kernel/debug/kunit//results``, and + can be parsed with ``kunit.py parse``. For more details, see + Documentation/dev-tools/kunit/run_manual.rst + +If none of the above tricks help, you are always welcome to email any issues to +kunit-dev@googlegroups.com. -- cgit v1.3.1