Re: [PATCH 2/3] tracing: Add bulk garbage collection of freeing event_trigger_data

[Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2025 15:56:02 -0500
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@kernel.org> wrote:

> From: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
> 
> The event trigger data requires a full tracepoint_synchronize_unregister()
> call before freeing. That call can take 100s of milliseconds to complete.
> In order to allow for bulk freeing of the trigger data, it can not call
> the tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() for every individual trigger data
> being free.
> 
> Create a kthread that gets created the first time a trigger data is freed,
> and have it use the lockless llist to get the list of data to free, run
> the tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() then free everything in the list.
> 
> By freeing hundreds of event_trigger_data elements together, it only
> requires two runs of the synchronization function, and not hundreds of
> runs. This speeds up the operation by orders of magnitude (milliseconds
> instead of several seconds).
> 

I have some nitpicks, but basically looks good to me.

Acked-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>

> Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
> ---
>  kernel/trace/trace.h                |  1 +
>  kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c | 56 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>  2 files changed, 54 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.h b/kernel/trace/trace.h
> index 5863800b1ab3..fd5a6daa6c25 100644
> --- a/kernel/trace/trace.h
> +++ b/kernel/trace/trace.h
> @@ -1808,6 +1808,7 @@ struct event_trigger_data {
>  	char				*name;
>  	struct list_head		named_list;
>  	struct event_trigger_data	*named_data;
> +	struct llist_node		llist;
>  };
>  
>  /* Avoid typos */
> diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c
> index e5dcfcbb2cd5..16e3449f3cfe 100644
> --- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c
> +++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c
> @@ -6,26 +6,76 @@
>   */
>  
>  #include <linux/security.h>
> +#include <linux/kthread.h>
>  #include <linux/module.h>
>  #include <linux/ctype.h>
>  #include <linux/mutex.h>
>  #include <linux/slab.h>
>  #include <linux/rculist.h>
> +#include <linux/llist.h>

nit: Shouldn't we include this in "trace.h" too, because llist_node is used?

>  
>  #include "trace.h"
>  
>  static LIST_HEAD(trigger_commands);
>  static DEFINE_MUTEX(trigger_cmd_mutex);
>  
> +static struct task_struct *trigger_kthread;
> +static struct llist_head trigger_data_free_list;
> +static DEFINE_MUTEX(trigger_data_kthread_mutex);
> +
> +/* Bulk garbage collection of event_trigger_data elements */
> +static int trigger_kthread_fn(void *ignore)
> +{
> +	struct event_trigger_data *data, *tmp;
> +	struct llist_node *llnodes;
> +
> +	/* Once this task starts, it lives forever */
> +	for (;;) {
> +		set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
> +		if (llist_empty(&trigger_data_free_list))
> +			schedule();
> +
> +		__set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);
> +
> +		llnodes = llist_del_all(&trigger_data_free_list);
> +
> +		/* make sure current triggers exit before free */
> +		tracepoint_synchronize_unregister();
> +
> +		llist_for_each_entry_safe(data, tmp, llnodes, llist)
> +			kfree(data);
> +	}
> +
> +	return 0;
> +}
> +
>  void trigger_data_free(struct event_trigger_data *data)
>  {
>  	if (data->cmd_ops->set_filter)
>  		data->cmd_ops->set_filter(NULL, data, NULL);
>  
> -	/* make sure current triggers exit before free */
> -	tracepoint_synchronize_unregister();
> +	if (unlikely(!trigger_kthread)) {
> +		guard(mutex)(&trigger_data_kthread_mutex);
> +		/* Check again after taking mutex */
> +		if (!trigger_kthread) {
> +			struct task_struct *kthread;
> +
> +			kthread = kthread_create(trigger_kthread_fn, NULL,
> +						 "trigger_data_free");
> +			if (!IS_ERR(kthread))
> +				WRITE_ONCE(trigger_kthread, kthread);
> +		}
> +	}
> +

Hmm,
	/* This continues above error case, but we should do it without lock. */
?

> +	if (!trigger_kthread) {
> +		/* Do it the slow way */
> +		tracepoint_synchronize_unregister();
> +		kfree(data);
> +		return;
> +	}
>  
> -	kfree(data);
> +	llist_add(&data->llist, &trigger_data_free_list);
> +	wake_up_process(trigger_kthread);
>  }
>  
>  static inline void data_ops_trigger(struct event_trigger_data *data,
> -- 
> 2.51.0
> 
> 


-- 
Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>