Re: [PATCH 0/2] Enable new kprobe event at boot

Masami Hiramatsu
2019-05-22T08:02:53Z

On Wed, 22 May 2019 16:30:21 +0900
Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 22 May 2019 00:39:32 +0900
> Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org> wrote:
>
> > > Perhaps we could enable kprobes at early init?
> >
> > It should be possible, I will try to find what blocks it. I guess after we
> > switch early_text_poke() to text_poke(), we can use kprobes on x86. But
> > for other archs, I need to investigate more.
>
> OK, I just follow the kernel init related to kprobes
>
> start_kernel()
> -> trace_init()
> -> rcu_init_nohz()
> -> perf_event_init()
> -> arch_call_rest_init()
> -> rest_init()
> -> rcu_scheduler_starting()
> -> kernel_thread(kernel_init)
> kernel_init()
> -> kernel_init_freeable()
> -> wait_for_completion(&kthreadd_done);
> -> workqueue_init()
> -> smp_init()
> -> do_basic_setup()
> -> do_initcalls()
> -> do_initcall_level()
> (in subsys-level)
> -> init_kprobes()
>
> Since optprobe uses workqueue, we can not move it before workqueue_init().
> (but maybe we can disable it in early stage)
> Also, since kprobes depends on rcu, I guess we can not move it before
> rcu_scheduler_starting().

It seems rcu is not initialized yet at this point. It is initialized fully
at core_initcall.

> for kretprobe, we need to get the possible cpus, we need a fix if we move
> it before before smp_init().
> However, there is no reason we need to run it in subsys level. We can
> move init_kprobes() in core or pure level safely.

Also, I missed ftrace (function tracer) is initialized at core_initcall().
So we can move init_kprobes() at postcore_initcall() safely.

Thank you,

--
Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>