From: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
To: linux-perf-users@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
live-patching@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2 1/2] perf symbols: skip livepatch symbols when loading kallsyms
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 17:21:39 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260626212140.1380094-2-joe.lawrence@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20260626212140.1380094-1-joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Livepatch modules contain special symbols (prefixed by ".klp.sym.") that
act as relocation placeholders. Once resolved, they point to the same
addresses as the original kernel symbols they reference. [1]
These special symbols confuse the 'vmlinux symtab matches kallsyms' perf
test as kallsyms may report multiple symbols sharing a single kernel
address. For example:
kallsyms (without livepatch)
----------------------------
ffffffff81a41110 T __pfx_arch_release_task_struct
> ffffffff81a41120 T arch_release_task_struct
ffffffff81a41140 T __pfx_exit_thread
ffffffff81a41150 T exit_thread
kallsyms (with livepatch loaded)
---------------------------------
ffffffff81a41110 T __pfx_arch_release_task_struct
> ffffffff81a41120 T arch_release_task_struct
ffffffff81a41140 T __pfx_exit_thread
ffffffff81a41150 T exit_thread
> ffffffff81a41120 w .klp.sym.vmlinux.arch_release_task_struct,0 [kpatch_5_14_0_570_94_1_1_3]
When perf loads kallsyms, both symbols are inserted into the symbol
table at the same address, corrupting symbol end-address calculations
and causing test failures.
Filter out symbols prefixed with ".klp.sym." when loading kallsyms, as
they alias existing kernel symbols.
Link: https://docs.kernel.org/livepatch/module-elf-format.html#livepatch-symbols [1]
Reported-and-tested-by: Ben Procknow <bprockno@redhat.com> [downstream backport]
Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
---
tools/perf/util/symbol.c | 4 ++--
tools/perf/util/symbol.h | 12 ++++++++++++
2 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/symbol.c b/tools/perf/util/symbol.c
index cd379ced19e5..a562702b4841 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/symbol.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/symbol.c
@@ -880,8 +880,8 @@ static int map__process_kallsym_symbol(void *arg, const char *name,
if (!symbol_type__filter(type))
return 0;
- /* Ignore mapping symbols in kallsyms */
- if (is_ignored_kernel_symbol(name))
+ /* Ignore mapping and livepatch symbols in kallsyms */
+ if (is_ignored_kernel_symbol(name) || is_livepatch_symbol(name))
return 0;
/*
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/symbol.h b/tools/perf/util/symbol.h
index a71525335703..d0bac824c79c 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/symbol.h
+++ b/tools/perf/util/symbol.h
@@ -8,7 +8,9 @@
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdatomic.h>
#include <linux/list.h>
+#include <linux/livepatch_external.h>
#include <linux/rbtree.h>
+#include <linux/string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include "addr_location.h"
@@ -45,6 +47,16 @@ static inline bool is_ignored_kernel_symbol(const char *str)
return str[0] == '$';
}
+/*
+ * Livepatch symbols (.klp.sym.*) are relocation placeholders whose resolved
+ * addresses alias existing kernel symbols. They carry a [module] tag which
+ * confuses module boundary tracking and symbol table lookups.
+ */
+static inline bool is_livepatch_symbol(const char *str)
+{
+ return strstarts(str, KLP_SYM_PREFIX);
+}
+
/*
* libelf 0.8.x and earlier do not support ELF_C_READ_MMAP;
* for newer versions we can use mmap to reduce memory usage:
--
2.54.0
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2026-06-26 21:21 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 5+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-26 21:21 [PATCH v2 0/2] perf symbols: skip livepatch symbols Joe Lawrence
2026-06-26 21:21 ` Joe Lawrence [this message]
2026-06-26 21:21 ` [PATCH v2 2/2] perf symbols: skip livepatch symbols in kcore_copy kallsyms processing Joe Lawrence
2026-07-01 23:54 ` [PATCH v2 0/2] perf symbols: skip livepatch symbols Namhyung Kim
2026-07-02 7:59 ` Petr Mladek
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