Re: [PATCH] scripts/decode_stacktrace.sh update usage to show vmlinux is mandatory

Luca Ceresoli
2026-01-13T07:57:08Z

Hello Jinchao,

On Mon Jan 12, 2026 at 10:10 AM CET, Jinchao Wang wrote:
> The script currently errors out if vmlinux is not provided, but the
> usage string implies it is optional. Remove the square brackets to
> correctly indicate that <vmlinux> is a required argument.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jinchao Wang <wangjinchao600@gmail.com>

Thanks for your patch, but it is not correct.

The vmlinux argument is optional when debuginfod info is found:

# Can we use debuginfod-find?
if type debuginfod-find >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
debuginfod=${1-only}
fi

if [[ $vmlinux == "" && -z $debuginfod ]] ; then
echo "ERROR! vmlinux image must be specified" >&2
usage
exit 1
fi

(https://elixir.bootlin.com/linux/v6.19-rc4/source/scripts/decode_stacktrace.sh#L65-L74)

However I realize improving the error message might make sense, something
like:

echo "ERROR! vmlinux image must be specified or debuginfo must be accessible" >&2

Best regards,
Luca

--
Luca Ceresoli, Bootlin
Embedded Linux and Kernel engineering