Re: [PATCH v2 1/3] mm, printk: introduce new format string for flags

Rasmus Villemoes
2015-12-05T20:01:01Z

On Fri, Dec 04 2015, Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz> wrote:

> In mm we use several kinds of flags bitfields that are sometimes printed for
> debugging purposes, or exported to userspace via sysfs. To make them easier to
> interpret independently on kernel version and config, we want to dump also the
> symbolic flag names. So far this has been done with repeated calls to
> pr_cont(), which is unreliable on SMP, and not usable for e.g. sysfs export.
>
> To get a more reliable and universal solution, this patch extends printk()
> format string for pointers to handle the page flags (%pgp), gfp_flags (%pgg)
> and vma flags (%pgv).

Hm, with that $subject, I'd expect the patch to touch little beyond
lib/vsprintf.c and Documentation/printk-formats.txt (plus whatever might
be needed to make the name arrays accessible).

> Existing users of dump_flag_names() are converted and simplified.

If you do a respin, please do that part in a separate patch. That would
make it a lot easier to review.

> diff --git a/Documentation/printk-formats.txt b/Documentation/printk-formats.txt
> index b784c270105f..8b6ab00fcfc9 100644
> --- a/Documentation/printk-formats.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/printk-formats.txt
> @@ -292,6 +292,20 @@ Raw pointer value SHOULD be printed with %p. The kernel supports
>
> Passed by reference.
>
> +Flags bitfields such as page flags, gfp_flags:
> +
> + %pgp referenced|uptodate|lru|active|private
> + %pgg GFP_USER|GFP_DMA32|GFP_NOWARN
> + %pgv read|exec|mayread|maywrite|mayexec|denywrite
> +
> + For printing flags bitfields as a collection of symbolic constants that
> + would construct the value. The type of flags is given by the third
> + character. Currently supported are [p]age flags, [g]fp_flags and
> + [v]ma_flags. The flag names and print order depends on the particular
> + type.
> +
> + Passed by reference.
> +

It should probably be emphasized that %pgp and %pgv expect (unsigned
long*), while %pgg expect (gfp_t*), just as you do in vsprintf.c.

> Network device features:
>
> %pNF 0x000000000000c000
> diff --git a/include/linux/mmdebug.h b/include/linux/mmdebug.h
> index 3b77fab7ad28..2c8286cf162e 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mmdebug.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mmdebug.h
> @@ -2,15 +2,20 @@
> #define LINUX_MM_DEBUG_H 1
>
> #include <linux/stringify.h>
> +#include <linux/types.h>
> +#include <linux/tracepoint.h>
>

How much header bloat does it cause by making all users of mmdebug.h
also include tracepoint.h? Couldn't we put the struct definition in
types.h instead?

> struct page;
> struct vm_area_struct;
> struct mm_struct;
>
> +extern const struct trace_print_flags pageflag_names[];
> +extern const struct trace_print_flags vmaflag_names[];
> +extern const struct trace_print_flags gfpflag_names[];
> +
> extern void dump_page(struct page *page, const char *reason);
> extern void dump_page_badflags(struct page *page, const char *reason,
> unsigned long badflags);
> -extern void dump_gfpflag_names(unsigned long gfp_flags);
> void dump_vma(const struct vm_area_struct *vma);
> void dump_mm(const struct mm_struct *mm);
>
>
> extern int
> diff --git a/lib/vsprintf.c b/lib/vsprintf.c
> index f9cee8e1233c..9a0697b14ea3 100644
> --- a/lib/vsprintf.c
> +++ b/lib/vsprintf.c
> @@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
> #include <linux/dcache.h>
> #include <linux/cred.h>
> #include <net/addrconf.h>
> +#include <linux/mmdebug.h>
>
> #include <asm/page.h> /* for PAGE_SIZE */
> #include <asm/sections.h> /* for dereference_function_descriptor() */
> @@ -1361,6 +1362,73 @@ char *clock(char *buf, char *end, struct clk *clk, struct printf_spec spec,
> }
> }
>
> +static
> +char *format_flags(char *buf, char *end, unsigned long flags,
> + const struct trace_print_flags *names)
> +{
> + unsigned long mask;
> + const struct printf_spec strspec = {
> + .field_width = -1,
> + .precision = -1,
> + };
> + const struct printf_spec numspec = {
> + .flags = SPECIAL|SMALL,
> + .field_width = -1,
> + .precision = -1,
> + .base = 16,
> + };
> +
> + for ( ; flags && (names->mask || names->name); names++) {

Why test both ->mask and ->name? I could imagine some constant being
#defined to 0 due to some CONFIG_* (and stuff that tested "flag & THAT"
would then get compiled away), so maybe ->mask is insufficient. But
->name will always be non-NULL for all but the sentinel entry, right?

> + mask = names->mask;
> + if ((flags & mask) != mask)
> + continue;

And if we have some constant which is 0, this will then actually cause
us to print the corresponding string. Do we want that? If not we should
have a "if (!mask) continue;". And how helpful are these strings really
if their meaning might be .config dependent?

> + buf = string(buf, end, names->name, strspec);

So string() is robust against a NULL string (printing the string
"(null)"), but that seems silly to rely on. So I'd strongly lean towards
making the loop condition just test ->name.

> + flags &= ~mask;
> + if (flags) {
> + if (buf < end)
> + *buf = '|';
> + buf++;
> + }
> + }
> +
> + if (flags)
> + buf = number(buf, end, flags, numspec);
> +
> + return buf;
> +}
> +
> +static noinline_for_stack
> +char *flags_string(char *buf, char *end, void *flags_ptr,
> + struct printf_spec spec, const char *fmt)

Even if the user passed a field width (which is extremely unlikely), we
wouldn't honour it, so there's no reason to pass on the spec. But maybe
gcc realizes that.

> +{
> + unsigned long flags;
> + const struct trace_print_flags *names;
> +
> + switch (fmt[1]) {
> + case 'p':
> + flags = *(unsigned long *)flags_ptr;
> + /* Remove zone id */
> + flags &= (1UL << NR_PAGEFLAGS) - 1;
> + names = pageflag_names;
> + break;
> + case 'v':
> + flags = *(unsigned long *)flags_ptr;
> + names = vmaflag_names;
> + break;
> + case 'g':
> + flags = *(gfp_t *)flags_ptr;
> + names = gfpflag_names;
> + break;
> + default:
> + WARN_ONCE(1, "Unsupported flags modifier: %c\n", fmt[1]);
> + return buf;
> + }
> +
> + return format_flags(buf, end, flags, names);
> +}
> +

OK.

> int kptr_restrict __read_mostly;
>
> /*
> @@ -1448,6 +1516,11 @@ int kptr_restrict __read_mostly;
> * - 'Cn' For a clock, it prints the name (Common Clock Framework) or address
> * (legacy clock framework) of the clock
> * - 'Cr' For a clock, it prints the current rate of the clock
> + * - 'g' For flags to be printed as a collection of symbolic strings that would
> + * construct the specific value. Supported flags given by option:
> + * p page flags (see struct page) given as pointer to unsigned long
> + * g gfp flags (GFP_* and __GFP_*) given as pointer to gfp_t
> + * v vma flags (VM_*) given as pointer to unsigned long
> *
> * ** Please update also Documentation/printk-formats.txt when making changes **
> *
> @@ -1600,6 +1673,8 @@ char *pointer(const char *fmt, char *buf, char *end, void *ptr,
> return dentry_name(buf, end,
> ((const struct file *)ptr)->f_path.dentry,
> spec, fmt);
> + case 'g':
> + return flags_string(buf, end, ptr, spec, fmt);
> }

OK.

I looked briefly at the conversions in mm/ and they seemed fine, but
others are more qualified to comment on that part.

Oh, and while I remember, citing from the end of printk-format.txt:

If you add other %p extensions, please extend lib/test_printf.c with
one or more test cases, if at all feasible.

Maybe I shouldn't have put that note at the end :)

Rasmus