linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 2/4] x86/dumpstack: remove kernel text addresses from stack dump

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Date:   Fri, 25 Nov 2016 15:26:04 +0300
From:   "Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill@...temov.name>
To:     Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...hat.com>
Cc:     x86@...nel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Sasha Levin <alexander.levin@...izon.com>,
        Konstantin Khlebnikov <koct9i@...il.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/4] x86/dumpstack: remove kernel text addresses from
 stack dump

On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 09:51:12AM -0500, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:
> Printing kernel text addresses in stack dumps is of questionable value,
> especially now that address randomization is becoming common.
> 
> It can be a security issue because it leaks kernel addresses.  It also
> affects the usefulness of the stack dump.  Linus says:
> 
>   "I actually spend time cleaning up commit messages in logs, because
>   useless data that isn't actually information (random hex numbers) is
>   actively detrimental.
> 
>   It makes commit logs less legible.
> 
>   It also makes it harder to parse dumps.
> 
>   It's not useful. That makes it actively bad.
> 
>   I probably look at more oops reports than most people. I have not
>   found the hex numbers useful for the last five years, because they are
>   just randomized crap.
> 
>   The stack content thing just makes code scroll off the screen etc, for
>   example."
> 
> The only real downside to removing these addresses is that they can be
> used to disambiguate duplicate symbol names.  However such cases are
> rare, and the context of the stack dump should be enough to be able to
> figure it out.
> 
> There's now a 'faddr2line' script which can be used to convert a
> function address to a file name and line:
> 
>   $ ./scripts/faddr2line ~/k/vmlinux write_sysrq_trigger+0x51/0x60
>   write_sysrq_trigger+0x51/0x60:
>   write_sysrq_trigger at drivers/tty/sysrq.c:1098
> 
> Or gdb can be used:
> 
>   $ echo "list *write_sysrq_trigger+0x51" |gdb ~/k/vmlinux |grep "is in"
>   (gdb) 0xffffffff815b5d83 is in driver_probe_device (/home/jpoimboe/git/linux/drivers/base/dd.c:378).
> 
> (But note that when there are duplicate symbol names, gdb will only show
> the first symbol it finds.  faddr2line is recommended over gdb because
> it handles duplicates and it also does function size checking.)

The commit breaks scripts/decode_stacktrace.sh.

Not sure if it's possible to fix it only on decode_stacktrace.sh side: we
seems don't have a way to clearly distinguish stack trace line of any
other.

May be we should mark stack lines with some prefix to simplify decoding?

-- 
 Kirill A. Shutemov