linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 08/12] add trace events for each syscall entry/exit

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Date:	Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:15:08 -0400
From:	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca>
To:	Jason Baron <jbaron@...hat.com>
Cc:	Hendrik Brueckner <brueckner@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, mingo@...e.hu, laijs@...fujitsu.com,
	rostedt@...dmis.org, peterz@...radead.org, jiayingz@...gle.com,
	mbligh@...gle.com, lizf@...fujitsu.com,
	Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@...ibm.com>,
	Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@...ibm.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 08/12] add trace events for each syscall entry/exit

* Jason Baron (jbaron@...hat.com) wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 12:20:04PM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> > 
> > Uh ? kernel threads can invoke a system call. There are rare places
> > where kernel code actually invoke system calls. I don't see why we
> > should not deal with them.
> > 
> > Moreover, the problem you face is more general: if we set the
> > TIF_SYSCALL_FTRACE flag of a standard thread right in the middle of its
> > system call, x86_64 will cause the syscall exit to execute by re-reading
> > the thread flags and run a syscall trace exit.
> > 
> > We could simply initialize the "saved system calls id" number to
> > something like -1, so that if we happen to return from a syscall that
> > did not get its id recorded at syscall entry, we know it because it's
> > not initialized.
> > 
> > We would need to carefully put back the -1 value after clearing the
> > thread flag when we stop tracing too (while still holding a mutex).
> > 
> > Mathieu
> > 
> 
> why can't we have a syscall exit that is unmatched? we calculate
> the exit syscall number for the the pt_regs structure at exit, so we
> don't need to match it up with an entry to know which syscall it is.
> 

Are we certain that it will still be on the pt_regs at system call
exit and not overwritten by the syscall return value ? For every arch ?

Mathieu

> thanks,
> 
> -Jason

-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F  BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68
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