linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 1/2] tracing: ring_buffer: Rewind persistent ring buffer when reboot

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Message-Id: <20250526124403.3bf41a0634733b640620ad8a@kernel.org>
Date: Mon, 26 May 2025 12:44:03 +0900
From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@...nel.org>
To: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>,
 linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-trace-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/2] tracing: ring_buffer: Rewind persistent ring
 buffer when reboot

On Fri, 23 May 2025 19:20:53 -0400
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org> wrote:

> On Fri, 23 May 2025 16:54:25 -0400
> Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org> wrote:
> 
> > >   spin:
> > > @@ -6642,7 +6739,6 @@ int ring_buffer_read_page(struct trace_buffer *buffer,
> > >  		cpu_buffer->read_bytes += rb_page_size(reader);
> > >  
> > >  		/* swap the pages */
> > > -		rb_init_page(bpage);  
> > 
> > This isn't needed, because the persistent ring buffer is never swapped. And
> > this is what caused my test to fail. For some reason (and I'm still trying
> > to figure out exactly why), it causes my stress test that runs:
> > 
> >   perf record -o perf-test.dat -a -- trace-cmd record -e all -p function /work/c/hackbench 10 || exit -1
> > 
> > To never end after tracing is stopped, and it fills up all the disk space.

Thanks for sharing the test code. So it means perf reads the ring buffer
endlessly?

[reader commit=X1, ts=1]

[head commit=X2, ts=2]...[tail commit=Xn, ts=n]
  |                           |
  |---------------------------|

I thought that the read will end when it hits tail or ts < ts_current.


> > 
> > But again, this part isn't needed because the persistent ring buffer
> > doesn't do the swapping. This replaces what the user passed in with the
> > current page.
> > 
> > >  		bpage = reader->page;
> > >  		reader->page = data_page->data;
> > >  		local_set(&reader->write, 0);  
> 
> So I analyzed why this fails and we need to reset the commit here.
> 
> Adding a bunch of trace_printk() (and using the new trace_printk_dest
> option where I can have trace_printk go into an instance) I was able to see
> why this was an issue.
> 
> This part of the code swaps the reader page with what was passed in by the
> caller. The page doesn't go back into the write part of the ring buffer.
> The "commit" field is used to know if there's more data or not.
> 
> By not resetting the "commit" field, we have:
> 
> 	reader = rb_get_reader_page(cpu_buffer)
> 		if (cpu_buffer->reader_page->read < rb_page_size(reader))
> 			return reader;
> 	// swap passed in page with reader
> 
> Without resetting "commit", the caller consumes the page and then uses that
> same page to pass back to this function. Since the "commit" field is never
> zero'd, it the above if statement always returns true! And this function
> just keeps swapping the reader each time and goes into an infinite loop
> (this loop requires user space to do a read or splice on this page so it's
> not a kernel infinite loop).


Ah, in rb_get_reader_page(cpu_buffer),

	/* If there's more to read, return this page */
	if (cpu_buffer->reader_page->read < rb_page_size(reader))
		goto out;

	/* Never should we have an index greater than the size */
	if (RB_WARN_ON(cpu_buffer,
		       cpu_buffer->reader_page->read > rb_page_size(reader)))
		goto out;

	/* check if we caught up to the tail */
	reader = NULL;
	if (cpu_buffer->commit_page == cpu_buffer->reader_page)
		goto out;

It checks remaining (unread) data first, and move to the next.

> 
> Now the question is, can this affect the persistent ring buffer too? I'll
> memory map the buffer and see if it causes the same issue.

Yeah, it can happen, but I didn't hit that.
Let me test it too.

Hmm, BTW, is there any possible solution? records the consumed
bytes in meta data?


> 
> -- Steve


-- 
Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@...nel.org>