Re: [PATCH 1/2 v2] tracing/arm64: Have max stack tracer handle the case of return address after data

Mark Rutland
2019-08-09T08:55:28Z

On Wed, Aug 07, 2019 at 01:28:27PM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> From: "Steven Rostedt (VMware)" <rostedt@goodmis.org>
>
> Most archs (well at least x86) store the function call return address on the
> stack before storing the local variables for the function. The max stack
> tracer depends on this in its algorithm to display the stack size of each
> function it finds in the back trace.
>
> Some archs (arm64), may store the return address (from its link register)
> just before calling a nested function. There's no reason to save the link
> register on leaf functions, as it wont be updated. This breaks the algorithm
> of the max stack tracer.
>
> Add a new define ARCH_RET_ADDR_AFTER_LOCAL_VARS that an architecture may set
> if it stores the return address (link register) after it stores the
> function's local variables, and have the stack trace shift the values of the
> mapped stack size to the appropriate functions.
>
> Link: 20190802094103.163576-1-jiping.ma2@windriver.com
>
> Reported-by: Jiping Ma <jiping.ma2@windriver.com>
> Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
> ---
> arch/arm64/include/asm/ftrace.h | 13 +++++++++++++
> kernel/trace/trace_stack.c | 14 ++++++++++++++
> 2 files changed, 27 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/ftrace.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/ftrace.h
> index 5ab5200b2bdc..961e98618db4 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/ftrace.h
> +++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/ftrace.h
> @@ -14,6 +14,19 @@
> #define MCOUNT_ADDR ((unsigned long)_mcount)
> #define MCOUNT_INSN_SIZE AARCH64_INSN_SIZE
>
> +/*
> + * Currently, gcc tends to save the link register after the local variables
> + * on the stack. This causes the max stack tracer to report the function
> + * frame sizes for the wrong functions. By defining
> + * ARCH_RET_ADDR_AFTER_LOCAL_VARS, it will tell the stack tracer to expect
> + * to find the return address on the stack after the local variables have
> + * been set up.
> + *
> + * Note, this may change in the future, and we will need to deal with that
> + * if it were to happen.
> + */
> +#define ARCH_RET_ADDR_AFTER_LOCAL_VARS 1

FWIW (with whatever this got renamed to):

Acked-by: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>

Thanks,
Mark.