linux-kernel - [PATCH] ftrace: Add missing check for existing hwlat thread

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Date:   Wed,  1 Aug 2018 12:45:54 +0200
From:   Erica Bugden <erica.bugden@...utronix.de>
To:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     rostedt@...dmis.org, peterz@...radead.org, tglx@...utronix.de,
        anna-maria@...utronix.de, bigeasy@...utronix.de,
        Erica Bugden <erica.bugden@...utronix.de>
Subject: [PATCH] ftrace: Add missing check for existing hwlat thread

The hwlat tracer uses a kernel thread to measure latencies. The function
that creates this kernel thread, start_kthread(), can be called when the
tracer is initialized and when the tracer is explicitly enabled.
start_kthread() does not check if there is an existing hwlat kernel
thread and will create a new one each time it is called.

This causes the reference to the previous thread to be lost. Without the
thread reference, the old kernel thread becomes unstoppable and
continues to use CPU time even after the hwlat tracer has been disabled.
This problem can be observed when a system is booted with tracing
enabled and the hwlat tracer is configured like this:

	echo hwlat > current_tracer; echo 1 > tracing_on

Add the missing check for an existing kernel thread in start_kthread()
to prevent this problem. This function and the rest of the hwlat kernel
thread setup and teardown are already serialized because they are called
through the tracer core code with trace_type_lock held.

Signed-off-by: Erica Bugden <erica.bugden@...utronix.de>
---
 kernel/trace/trace_hwlat.c | 3 +++
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_hwlat.c b/kernel/trace/trace_hwlat.c
index d7c8e4e..2d9d36d 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_hwlat.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_hwlat.c
@@ -354,6 +354,9 @@ static int start_kthread(struct trace_array *tr)
 	struct task_struct *kthread;
 	int next_cpu;

+	if (hwlat_kthread)
+		return 0;
+
 	/* Just pick the first CPU on first iteration */
 	current_mask = &save_cpumask;
 	get_online_cpus();
-- 
2.1.4