Re: Tracing memory leaks (slabs) in 2.6.9+ kernels?

[Alexander Nyberg <alexn@dsv.su.se>]

> I am having a problem with memory leaking on a patched kernel.  In order 
> to pinpoint the leak, I would like to try to trace the allocation points 
> for the memory.
> 
> I have found some vague references to patches that allow the user to 
> dump the caller address for slab allocations, but I cannot find the 
> patch itself.
> 
> Can anybody please point me in the right direction - either for that 
> patch, or any other way to track down leaking slabs?
> 

>From akpm:

Could you please use this patch?  Make sure that you enable
CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER (might not be needed for __builtin_return_address(0),
but let's be sure).  Also enable CONFIG_DEBUG_SLAB.



From: Manfred Spraul <manfred@colorfullife.com>

With the patch applied,

	echo "size-4096 0 0 0" > /proc/slabinfo

walks the objects in the size-4096 slab, printing out the calling address
of whoever allocated that object.

It is for leak detection.


diff -puN mm/slab.c~slab-leak-detector mm/slab.c
--- 25/mm/slab.c~slab-leak-detector	2005-02-15 21:06:44.000000000 -0800
+++ 25-akpm/mm/slab.c	2005-02-15 21:06:44.000000000 -0800
@@ -2116,6 +2116,15 @@ cache_alloc_debugcheck_after(kmem_cache_
 		*dbg_redzone1(cachep, objp) = RED_ACTIVE;
 		*dbg_redzone2(cachep, objp) = RED_ACTIVE;
 	}
+	{
+		int objnr;
+		struct slab *slabp;
+
+		slabp = GET_PAGE_SLAB(virt_to_page(objp));
+
+		objnr = (objp - slabp->s_mem) / cachep->objsize;
+		slab_bufctl(slabp)[objnr] = (unsigned long)caller;
+	}
 	objp += obj_dbghead(cachep);
 	if (cachep->ctor && cachep->flags & SLAB_POISON) {
 		unsigned long	ctor_flags = SLAB_CTOR_CONSTRUCTOR;
@@ -2179,12 +2188,14 @@ static void free_block(kmem_cache_t *cac
 		objnr = (objp - slabp->s_mem) / cachep->objsize;
 		check_slabp(cachep, slabp);
 #if DEBUG
+#if 0
 		if (slab_bufctl(slabp)[objnr] != BUFCTL_FREE) {
 			printk(KERN_ERR "slab: double free detected in cache '%s', objp %p.\n",
 						cachep->name, objp);
 			BUG();
 		}
 #endif
+#endif
 		slab_bufctl(slabp)[objnr] = slabp->free;
 		slabp->free = objnr;
 		STATS_DEC_ACTIVE(cachep);
@@ -2998,6 +3009,29 @@ struct seq_operations slabinfo_op = {
 	.show	= s_show,
 };
 
+static void do_dump_slabp(kmem_cache_t *cachep)
+{
+#if DEBUG
+	struct list_head *q;
+
+	check_irq_on();
+	spin_lock_irq(&cachep->spinlock);
+	list_for_each(q,&cachep->lists.slabs_full) {
+		struct slab *slabp;
+		int i;
+		slabp = list_entry(q, struct slab, list);
+		for (i = 0; i < cachep->num; i++) {
+			unsigned long sym = slab_bufctl(slabp)[i];
+
+			printk("obj %p/%d: %p", slabp, i, (void *)sym);
+			print_symbol(" <%s>", sym);
+			printk("\n");
+		}
+	}
+	spin_unlock_irq(&cachep->spinlock);
+#endif
+}
+
 #define MAX_SLABINFO_WRITE 128
 /**
  * slabinfo_write - Tuning for the slab allocator
@@ -3038,9 +3072,11 @@ ssize_t slabinfo_write(struct file *file
 			    batchcount < 1 ||
 			    batchcount > limit ||
 			    shared < 0) {
-				res = -EINVAL;
+				do_dump_slabp(cachep);
+				res = 0;
 			} else {
-				res = do_tune_cpucache(cachep, limit, batchcount, shared);
+				res = do_tune_cpucache(cachep, limit,
+							batchcount, shared);
 			}
 			break;
 		}
_