Re: [PATCH v3 0/7] riscv: ftrace: atmoic patching and preempt improvements

Steven Rostedt
2024-12-24T03:15:06Z

On Wed, 27 Nov 2024 22:25:57 +0100
Björn Töpel <bjorn@kernel.org> wrote:

> Adding Steven.

And this has been in my draft folder for almost a month :-p

I kept coming to this email, but then got distracted by something else.

>
> Andy Chiu <andybnac@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > This series makes atmoic code patching possible in riscv ftrace. A
> > direct benefit of this is that we can get rid of stop_machine() when
> > patching function entries. This also makes it possible to run ftrace
> > with full kernel preemption. Before this series, the kernel initializes
> > patchable function entries to NOP4 + NOP4. To start tracing, it updates
> > entries to AUIPC + JALR while holding other cores in stop_machine.
> > stop_machine() is required because it is impossible to update 2
> > instructions, and be seen atomically. And preemption must have to be
> > prevented, as kernel preemption allows process to be scheduled out while
> > executing on one of these instruction pairs.
> >
> > This series addresses the problem by initializing the first NOP4 to
> > AUIPC. So, atmoic patching is possible because the kernel only has to
> > update one instruction. As long as the instruction is naturally aligned,
> > then it is expected to be updated atomically.
> >
> > However, the address range of the ftrace trampoline is limited to +-2K
> > from ftrace_caller after appplying this series. This issue is expected
> > to be solved by Puranjay's CALL_OPS, where it adds 8B naturally align
> > data in front of pacthable functions and can use it to direct execution
> > out to any custom trampolines.
> >
> > The series is composed by three parts. The first part cleans up the
> > existing issues when the kernel is compiled with clang.The second part
> > modifies the ftrace code patching mechanism (2-4) as mentioned above.
> > Then prepare ftrace to be able to run with kernel preemption (5,6)
> >
> > An ongoing fix:
> >
> > Since there is no room for marking *kernel_text_address as notrace[1] at
> > source code level, there is a significant performance regression when
> > using function_graph with TRACE_IRQFLAGS enabled. There can be as much as
> > 8 graph handler being called in each function-entry. The current
> > workaround requires us echo "*kernel_text_address" into
> > set_ftrace_notrace before starting the trace. However, we observed that
> > the kernel still enables the patch site in some cases even with
> > *kernel_text_address properly added in the file While the root cause is
> > still under investagtion, we consider that it should not be the reason
> > for holding back the code patching, in order to unblock the call_ops
> > part.
>
> Maybe Steven knows this from the top of his head!
>
> As Andy points out, "*kernel_text_address" is used in the stack
> unwinding on RISC-V. So, if you do a tracing without filtering *and*
> TRACE_IRQFLAGS, one will drown in traces.

I tested set_ftrace_notrace on x86 and the function graph tracer does honor
it. I wonder if there's a kernel

>
> E.g. the ftrace selftest:
> | $ ./ftracetest -vvv test.d/ftrace/fgraph-multi.tc
>
> will generate a lot of traces.
>
> Now, if we add:
> --8<--
> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/ftrace/fgraph-multi.tc b/tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/ftrace/fgraph-multi.tc
> index ff88f97e41fb..4f30a4d81d99 100644
> --- a/tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/ftrace/fgraph-multi.tc
> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/ftrace/fgraph-multi.tc
> @@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ cd $INSTANCE2
> do_test '*rcu*' 'rcu'
> cd $WD
> cd $INSTANCE3
> +echo '*kernel_text_address' > set_ftrace_notrace
> echo function_graph > current_tracer
>
> sleep 1
> -->8--
>
> The graph tracer will not honor the "set_ftrace_notrace" in $INSTANCE3,
> but still enable the *kernel_text_address traces. (Note that there are
> no filters in the test, so *all* ftrace recs will be enabled.)
>
> Are we holding the graph tracer wrong?

What do you get when you do:

# grep kernel_text_address available_filter_functions

?

>
>
> Happy thanksgiving!
> Björn

And Merry Christmas!

-- Steve