Re: [RFC] ftrace: Add support to keep some functions out of ftrace

Steven Rostedt
2022-08-13T19:03:06Z

On Fri, 12 Aug 2022 23:18:15 +0200
Jiri Olsa <olsajiri@gmail.com> wrote:

> the patch below moves the bpf function into sepatate object and switches
> off the -mrecord-mcount for it.. so the function gets profile call
> generated but it's not visible to ftrace
>
> this seems to work, but it depends on -mrecord-mcount support in gcc and
> it's x86 specific... other archs seems to use -fpatchable-function-entry,
> which does not seem to have option to omit symbol from being collected
> to the section

As I stated. the __mcount_loc section was created by ftrace. It has
nothing to do with -fpatchable-function-entry. It's just that the archs
that use that, do not have a gcc that creates the __mcount_loc section.

>
> disabling specific ftrace symbol with FTRACE_FL_DISABLED flag seems to
> be easir and generic solution.. I'll send RFC for that

It's not easier.

Here, I have a POC for you and some more history.

The recordmcount.pl Perl script was the first to create the
__mcount_loc section in all objects that ftrace needed to hook to. It
did an objdump, found the locations of the calls to mcount, created
another file that had a section __mcount_loc that referenced all those
locations. Compiled and relinked that back into the original object.

This was performed on all object files during the build, and had an
impact on build times. But this is when I also created and introduced
"make localmodconfig", which shrunk the build times for many people, so
nobody noticed the build time increase! :-)

Then John Reiser sent me a patch that created recordmcount.c that did
the same work but directly modified the ELF object files without having
to run scripts. This got rid of that horrible overhead from the scripts.

Then, the gcc folks decided to be helpful here as well and created the
--mrecord-mcount option that would create the __mcount_loc section for
us, where we no longer needed the recordmcount scripts/C program. But
is not available across the board.

Today, objtool has also got involved, and added an "--mcount" option
that will create the section too.

Below is a patch that extends yours by adding a NO_MCOUNT_FILES list,
that you add the object file to and it will prevent the other methods
from adding an mcount_loc location.

I'm adding the objtool folks to make sure this is fine with them.
Again, this is a proof of concept, but works. It may need to be cleaned
a bit before it is final.

-- Steve

Index: linux-trace.git/scripts/Makefile.build
===================================================================
--- linux-trace.git.orig/scripts/Makefile.build
+++ linux-trace.git/scripts/Makefile.build
@@ -206,8 +206,10 @@ sub_cmd_record_mcount = perl $(srctree)/
"$(if $(part-of-module),1,0)" "$(@)";
recordmcount_source := $(srctree)/scripts/recordmcount.pl
endif # BUILD_C_RECORDMCOUNT
-cmd_record_mcount = $(if $(findstring $(strip $(CC_FLAGS_FTRACE)),$(_c_flags)), \
+chk_sub_cmd_record_mcount = $(if $(filter $(shell basename $@),$(NO_MCOUNT_FILES)),, \
$(sub_cmd_record_mcount))
+cmd_record_mcount = $(if $(findstring $(strip $(CC_FLAGS_FTRACE)),$(_c_flags)), \
+ $(chk_sub_cmd_record_mcount))
endif # CONFIG_FTRACE_MCOUNT_USE_RECORDMCOUNT

# 'OBJECT_FILES_NON_STANDARD := y': skip objtool checking for a directory
Index: linux-trace.git/scripts/Makefile.lib
===================================================================
--- linux-trace.git.orig/scripts/Makefile.lib
+++ linux-trace.git/scripts/Makefile.lib
@@ -233,7 +233,8 @@ objtool_args = \
$(if $(CONFIG_HAVE_JUMP_LABEL_HACK), --hacks=jump_label) \
$(if $(CONFIG_HAVE_NOINSTR_HACK), --hacks=noinstr) \
$(if $(CONFIG_X86_KERNEL_IBT), --ibt) \
- $(if $(CONFIG_FTRACE_MCOUNT_USE_OBJTOOL), --mcount) \
+ $(if $(filter $(shell basename $@),$(NO_MCOUNT_FILES)),, \
+ $(if $(CONFIG_FTRACE_MCOUNT_USE_OBJTOOL), --mcount)) \
$(if $(CONFIG_UNWINDER_ORC), --orc) \
$(if $(CONFIG_RETPOLINE), --retpoline) \
$(if $(CONFIG_SLS), --sls) \
Index: linux-trace.git/net/core/Makefile
===================================================================
--- linux-trace.git.orig/net/core/Makefile
+++ linux-trace.git/net/core/Makefile
@@ -11,10 +11,15 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_SYSCTL) += sysctl_net_core.
obj-y += dev.o dev_addr_lists.o dst.o netevent.o \
neighbour.o rtnetlink.o utils.o link_watch.o filter.o \
sock_diag.o dev_ioctl.o tso.o sock_reuseport.o \
- fib_notifier.o xdp.o flow_offload.o gro.o
+ fib_notifier.o xdp.o flow_offload.o gro.o \
+ dispatcher.o

obj-$(CONFIG_NETDEV_ADDR_LIST_TEST) += dev_addr_lists_test.o

+# remove dispatcher function from ftrace sight
+CFLAGS_REMOVE_dispatcher.o = -mrecord-mcount
+NO_MCOUNT_FILES += dispatcher.o
+
obj-y += net-sysfs.o
obj-$(CONFIG_PAGE_POOL) += page_pool.o
obj-$(CONFIG_PROC_FS) += net-procfs.o
Index: linux-trace.git/net/core/dispatcher.c
===================================================================
--- /dev/null
+++ linux-trace.git/net/core/dispatcher.c
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+#include <linux/bpf.h>
+
+DEFINE_BPF_DISPATCHER(xdp)
Index: linux-trace.git/net/core/filter.c
===================================================================
--- linux-trace.git.orig/net/core/filter.c
+++ linux-trace.git/net/core/filter.c
@@ -11162,8 +11162,6 @@ const struct bpf_verifier_ops sk_lookup_

#endif /* CONFIG_INET */

-DEFINE_BPF_DISPATCHER(xdp)
-
void bpf_prog_change_xdp(struct bpf_prog *prev_prog, struct bpf_prog *prog)
{
bpf_dispatcher_change_prog(BPF_DISPATCHER_PTR(xdp), prev_prog, prog);