From: Pengpeng Hou <pengpeng@iscas.ac.cn>
To: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@kernel.org>,
Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>,
linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: Harry Yoo <harry@kernel.org>, Hao Li <hao.li@linux.dev>,
Christoph Lameter <cl@gentwo.org>,
David Rientjes <rientjes@google.com>,
Roman Gushchin <roman.gushchin@linux.dev>,
David Hildenbrand <david@kernel.org>,
Lorenzo Stoakes <ljs@kernel.org>,
"Liam R. Howlett" <liam@infradead.org>,
Mike Rapoport <rppt@kernel.org>,
Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@google.com>,
Michal Hocko <mhocko@suse.com>, Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
Shuah Khan <skhan@linuxfoundation.org>,
linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Pengpeng Hou <pengpeng@iscas.ac.cn>
Subject: [PATCH v2 4/4] Documentation/mm: describe SLUB previous lifetime tracking
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:17:48 +0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260813161748.76447-1-pengpeng@iscas.ac.cn> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260813160825.73031-1-pengpeng@iscas.ac.cn>
Document that SLAB_STORE_USER now retains one previous completed
allocation/free pair, show the additional report section, and state that
address history is diagnostic evidence rather than semantic ownership
attribution.
Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5
Signed-off-by: Pengpeng Hou <pengpeng@iscas.ac.cn>
---
Documentation/admin-guide/mm/slab.rst | 13 ++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/slab.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/slab.rst
index 14429ab90611..5f60904b1e0b 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/slab.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/mm/slab.rst
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ Possible debug options are::
Sorry SLAB legacy issues)
Z Red zoning
P Poisoning (object and padding)
- U User tracking (free and alloc)
+ U User tracking (free and alloc, plus one previous
+ completed object lifetime)
T Trace (please only use on single slabs)
A Enable failslab filter mark for the cache
O Switch debugging off for caches that would have
@@ -245,10 +246,20 @@ into the syslog:
cpu> pid=<pid of the process>
INFO: Freed in <kernel function> age=<jiffies since free> cpu=<freed by cpu>
pid=<pid of the process>
+ INFO: Previous object lifetime:
+ INFO: Allocated in <kernel function> age=<jiffies since alloc> cpu=<allocated by
+ cpu> pid=<pid of the process>
+ INFO: Freed in <kernel function> age=<jiffies since free> cpu=<freed by cpu>
+ pid=<pid of the process>
(Object allocation / free information is only available if SLAB_STORE_USER is
set for the slab. slab_debug sets that option)
+ If an object with a completed allocation/free pair is reused, user tracking
+ also retains that pair as the previous object lifetime. This address history
+ can help diagnose stale references after reuse, but it does not establish
+ semantic ownership or identify a use-after-free root cause by itself.
+
2. The object contents if an object was involved.
Various types of lines can follow the BUG SLUB line:
--
2.50.1 (Apple Git-155)
prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-08-13 16:18 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-08-13 16:08 [PATCH v2 0/4] mm/slub: preserve previous object lifetime Pengpeng Hou
2026-08-13 16:10 ` [PATCH v2 1/4] mm/slub: use a track count for user metadata sizing Pengpeng Hou
2026-08-17 10:04 ` Hao Li
2026-08-13 16:12 ` [PATCH v2 2/4] mm/slub: preserve one previous object lifetime Pengpeng Hou
2026-08-17 10:30 ` Hao Li
2026-08-13 16:14 ` [PATCH v2 3/4] mm/slub: test previous lifetime tracking Pengpeng Hou
2026-08-13 16:17 ` Pengpeng Hou [this message]
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