[PATCH 0/1] ring-buffer: disable tracing switch

[PATCH 0/1] ring-buffer: disable tracing switch

[Steven Rostedt]

Stephen and Ingo,

I've been pressured into making this patch for mainline. It is a low risk
patch, but I would like to get it into linux-next.

This patch adds a way for a kernel developer to stop all tracers from
within the kernel and restart it from userspace. The previous APIs that
allowed for kernel stopping the tracer did not allow for userspace to
restart. This was mainly because the stopping could be for areas that
are dangerous to be tracing, and allowing userspace to start them could
risk the system stability.

This switch is made to let userspace interact with the kernel space
in starting and stopping tracers.

The following patches are in:

  git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-2.6-trace.git

    branch: devel


Steven Rostedt (1):
      ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

----
 include/linux/ring_buffer.h |    3 +
 kernel/trace/ftrace.c       |    8 +---
 kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c  |  101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

-- 

[PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Steven Rostedt]

[-- Attachment #1: 0001-ring-buffer-buffer-record-on-off-switch.patch --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 6428 bytes --]

Impact: enable/disable ring buffer recording API added

Several kernel developers have requested that there be a way to stop
recording into the ring buffers with a simple switch that can also
be enabled from userspace. This patch addes a new kernel API to the
ring buffers called:

 tracing_on()
 tracing_off()

When tracing_off() is called, all ring buffers will not be able to record
into their buffers.

tracing_on() will enable the ring buffers again.

These two act like an on/off switch. That is, there is no counting of the
number of times tracing_off or tracing_on has been called.

A new file is added to the debugfs/tracing directory called

  tracing_on

This allows for userspace applications to also flip the switch.

  echo 0 > debugfs/tracing/tracing_on

disables the tracing.

  echo 1 > /debugfs/tracing/tracing_on

enables it.

Note, this does not disable or enable any tracers. It only sets or clears
a flag that needs to be set in order for the ring buffers to write to
their buffers. It is a global flag, and affects all ring buffers.

The buffers start out with tracing_on enabled.

There are now three flags that control recording into the buffers:

 tracing_on: which affects all ring buffer tracers.

 buffer->record_disabled: which affects an allocated buffer, which may be set
     if an anomaly is detected, and tracing is disabled.

 cpu_buffer->record_disabled: which is set by tracing_stop() or if an
     anomaly is detected. tracing_start can not reenable this if
     an anomaly occurred.

The userspace debugfs/tracing/tracing_enabled is implemented with
tracing_stop() but the user space code can not enable it if the kernel
called tracing_stop().

Userspace can enable the tracing_on even if the kernel disabled it.
It is just a switch used to stop tracing if a condition was hit.
tracing_on is not for protecting critical areas in the kernel nor is
it for stopping tracing if an anomaly occurred. This is because userspace
can reenable it at any time.

Side effect: With this patch, I discovered a dead variable in ftrace.c
  called tracing_on. This patch removes it.

Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <srostedt@redhat.com>
---
 include/linux/ring_buffer.h |    3 +
 kernel/trace/ftrace.c       |    8 +---
 kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c  |  101 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 106 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/ring_buffer.h b/include/linux/ring_buffer.h
index 536b0ca..e097c2e 100644
--- a/include/linux/ring_buffer.h
+++ b/include/linux/ring_buffer.h
@@ -120,6 +120,9 @@ unsigned long ring_buffer_overruns(struct ring_buffer *buffer);
 u64 ring_buffer_time_stamp(int cpu);
 void ring_buffer_normalize_time_stamp(int cpu, u64 *ts);
 
+void tracing_on(void);
+void tracing_off(void);
+
 enum ring_buffer_flags {
 	RB_FL_OVERWRITE		= 1 << 0,
 };
diff --git a/kernel/trace/ftrace.c b/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
index 4a39d24..14fa522 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/ftrace.c
@@ -185,7 +185,6 @@ enum {
 };
 
 static int ftrace_filtered;
-static int tracing_on;
 
 static LIST_HEAD(ftrace_new_addrs);
 
@@ -506,13 +505,10 @@ static int __ftrace_modify_code(void *data)
 {
 	int *command = data;
 
-	if (*command & FTRACE_ENABLE_CALLS) {
+	if (*command & FTRACE_ENABLE_CALLS)
 		ftrace_replace_code(1);
-		tracing_on = 1;
-	} else if (*command & FTRACE_DISABLE_CALLS) {
+	else if (*command & FTRACE_DISABLE_CALLS)
 		ftrace_replace_code(0);
-		tracing_on = 0;
-	}
 
 	if (*command & FTRACE_UPDATE_TRACE_FUNC)
 		ftrace_update_ftrace_func(ftrace_trace_function);
diff --git a/kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c b/kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c
index 2f76193..b08ee9f 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/ring_buffer.c
@@ -16,6 +16,35 @@
 #include <linux/list.h>
 #include <linux/fs.h>
 
+#include "trace.h"
+
+/* Global flag to disable all recording to ring buffers */
+static int ring_buffers_off __read_mostly;
+
+/**
+ * tracing_on - enable all tracing buffers
+ *
+ * This function enables all tracing buffers that may have been
+ * disabled with tracing_off.
+ */
+void tracing_on(void)
+{
+	ring_buffers_off = 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * tracing_off - turn off all tracing buffers
+ *
+ * This function stops all tracing buffers from recording data.
+ * It does not disable any overhead the tracers themselves may
+ * be causing. This function simply causes all recording to
+ * the ring buffers to fail.
+ */
+void tracing_off(void)
+{
+	ring_buffers_off = 1;
+}
+
 /* Up this if you want to test the TIME_EXTENTS and normalization */
 #define DEBUG_SHIFT 0
 
@@ -1133,6 +1162,9 @@ ring_buffer_lock_reserve(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 	struct ring_buffer_event *event;
 	int cpu, resched;
 
+	if (ring_buffers_off)
+		return NULL;
+
 	if (atomic_read(&buffer->record_disabled))
 		return NULL;
 
@@ -1249,6 +1281,9 @@ int ring_buffer_write(struct ring_buffer *buffer,
 	int ret = -EBUSY;
 	int cpu, resched;
 
+	if (ring_buffers_off)
+		return -EBUSY;
+
 	if (atomic_read(&buffer->record_disabled))
 		return -EBUSY;
 
@@ -2070,3 +2105,69 @@ int ring_buffer_swap_cpu(struct ring_buffer *buffer_a,
 	return 0;
 }
 
+static ssize_t
+rb_simple_read(struct file *filp, char __user *ubuf,
+	       size_t cnt, loff_t *ppos)
+{
+	int *p = filp->private_data;
+	char buf[64];
+	int r;
+
+	/* !ring_buffers_off == tracing_on */
+	r = sprintf(buf, "%d\n", !*p);
+
+	return simple_read_from_buffer(ubuf, cnt, ppos, buf, r);
+}
+
+static ssize_t
+rb_simple_write(struct file *filp, const char __user *ubuf,
+		size_t cnt, loff_t *ppos)
+{
+	int *p = filp->private_data;
+	char buf[64];
+	long val;
+	int ret;
+
+	if (cnt >= sizeof(buf))
+		return -EINVAL;
+
+	if (copy_from_user(&buf, ubuf, cnt))
+		return -EFAULT;
+
+	buf[cnt] = 0;
+
+	ret = strict_strtoul(buf, 10, &val);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
+	/* !ring_buffers_off == tracing_on */
+	*p = !val;
+
+	(*ppos)++;
+
+	return cnt;
+}
+
+static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {
+	.open		= tracing_open_generic,
+	.read		= rb_simple_read,
+	.write		= rb_simple_write,
+};
+
+
+static __init int rb_init_debugfs(void)
+{
+	struct dentry *d_tracer;
+	struct dentry *entry;
+
+	d_tracer = tracing_init_dentry();
+
+	entry = debugfs_create_file("tracing_on", 0644, d_tracer,
+				    &ring_buffers_off, &rb_simple_fops);
+	if (!entry)
+		pr_warning("Could not create debugfs 'tracing_on' entry\n");
+
+	return 0;
+}
+
+fs_initcall(rb_init_debugfs);
-- 
1.5.6.5

-- 

Re: [PATCH 0/1] ring-buffer: disable tracing switch

[Ingo Molnar]

* Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:

> Stephen and Ingo,
> 
> I've been pressured into making this patch for mainline. It is a low 
> risk patch, but I would like to get it into linux-next.

pulled, and pushed out into tip/auto-ftrace-next, thanks Steve.

	Ingo

Re: [PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Andrew Morton]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:02 -0500
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:

> +static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {

should be const...

Probably it isn't worth fixing.  Someone(tm) should do period sweeps -
10% of our file_operationses aren't const.

Re: [PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Steven Rostedt]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008, Andrew Morton wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:02 -0500
> Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> 
> > +static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {
> 
> should be const...
> 
> Probably it isn't worth fixing.  Someone(tm) should do period sweeps -
> 10% of our file_operationses aren't const.

Thanks, I never really thought about it.

I'll add to my todo list to send out a patch that cleans all of this up. I 
think I'm guilty at doing this in more than one place.

-- Steve

Re: [PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Steven Rostedt]

[ Added Andy on Cc ]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008, Andrew Morton wrote:

> On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:02 -0500
> Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> 
> > +static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {
> 
> should be const...
> 
> Probably it isn't worth fixing.  Someone(tm) should do period sweeps -
> 10% of our file_operationses aren't const.

I wonder if this should be added to checkpatch?

-- Steve

Re: [PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Ingo Molnar]

* Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:

> 
> On Tue, 11 Nov 2008, Andrew Morton wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:02 -0500
> > Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > +static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {
> > 
> > should be const...
> > 
> > Probably it isn't worth fixing.  Someone(tm) should do period sweeps -
> > 10% of our file_operationses aren't const.
> 
> Thanks, I never really thought about it.
> 
> I'll add to my todo list to send out a patch that cleans all of this 
> up. I think I'm guilty at doing this in more than one place.

Perhaps checkpatch.pl could remind us about it? a new file_operations 
struct definition should be const in 99.9% of the cases.

	Ingo

Re: [PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Pavel Machek]

On Tue 2008-11-11 12:56:45, Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:02 -0500
> Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> 
> > +static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {
> 
> should be const...
> 
> Probably it isn't worth fixing.  Someone(tm) should do period sweeps -
> 10% of our file_operationses aren't const.

checkptch rule? struct file_operations .* = { -> needs const?

-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html

Re: [PATCH 1/1] ring-buffer: buffer record on/off switch

[Andy Whitcroft]

On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 10:08:31PM +0100, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> * Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > On Tue, 11 Nov 2008, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > 
> > > On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:06:02 -0500
> > > Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > +static struct file_operations rb_simple_fops = {
> > > 
> > > should be const...
> > > 
> > > Probably it isn't worth fixing.  Someone(tm) should do period sweeps -
> > > 10% of our file_operationses aren't const.
> > 
> > Thanks, I never really thought about it.
> > 
> > I'll add to my todo list to send out a patch that cleans all of this 
> > up. I think I'm guilty at doing this in more than one place.
> 
> Perhaps checkpatch.pl could remind us about it? a new file_operations 
> struct definition should be const in 99.9% of the cases.

Added to my TODO list.

-apw