From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1752942AbbE0OSi (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 May 2015 10:18:38 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([198.137.202.10]:36039 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751537AbbE0OSd (ORCPT ); Wed, 27 May 2015 10:18:33 -0400 Date: Wed, 27 May 2015 07:17:37 -0700 From: tip-bot for Borislav Petkov Message-ID: Cc: hpa@zytor.com, brgerst@gmail.com, bp@alien8.de, peterz@infradead.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org, mingo@kernel.org, mmarek@suse.cz, luto@amacapital.net, dvlasenk@redhat.com, tglx@linutronix.de, jpoimboe@redhat.com, luto@kernel.org, akpm@linux-foundation.org, a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl, bp@suse.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Reply-To: dvlasenk@redhat.com, luto@amacapital.net, tglx@linutronix.de, luto@kernel.org, jpoimboe@redhat.com, akpm@linux-foundation.org, a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl, bp@suse.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, hpa@zytor.com, brgerst@gmail.com, bp@alien8.de, peterz@infradead.org, torvalds@linux-foundation.org, mingo@kernel.org, mmarek@suse.cz In-Reply-To: <20150521101614.GA10889@gmail.com> References: <1432628901-18044-18-git-send-email-bp@alien8.de> <20150521101614.GA10889@gmail.com> To: linux-tip-commits@vger.kernel.org Subject: [tip:x86/debug] x86/Documentation: Adapt Ingo' s explanation on printing backtraces Git-Commit-ID: 113b5e3720e79ad938374163c1b8e295521dc9cf X-Mailer: tip-git-log-daemon Robot-ID: Robot-Unsubscribe: Contact to get blacklisted from these emails MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Commit-ID: 113b5e3720e79ad938374163c1b8e295521dc9cf Gitweb: http://git.kernel.org/tip/113b5e3720e79ad938374163c1b8e295521dc9cf Author: Borislav Petkov AuthorDate: Tue, 26 May 2015 10:28:20 +0200 Committer: Ingo Molnar CommitDate: Wed, 27 May 2015 14:39:47 +0200 x86/Documentation: Adapt Ingo's explanation on printing backtraces Hold it down for future reference, as the question about the question mark in stack traces keeps popping up. Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov Cc: Andrew Morton Cc: Andy Lutomirski Cc: Andy Lutomirski Cc: Borislav Petkov Cc: Brian Gerst Cc: Denys Vlasenko Cc: H. Peter Anvin Cc: Josh Poimboeuf Cc: Linus Torvalds Cc: Michal Marek Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Thomas Gleixner Cc: live-patching@vger.kernel.org Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1432628901-18044-18-git-send-email-bp@alien8.de Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20150521101614.GA10889@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar --- Documentation/x86/kernel-stacks | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/x86/kernel-stacks b/Documentation/x86/kernel-stacks index c3c935b..0f3a6c2 100644 --- a/Documentation/x86/kernel-stacks +++ b/Documentation/x86/kernel-stacks @@ -95,3 +95,47 @@ The currently assigned IST stacks are :- assumptions about the previous state of the kernel stack. For more details see the Intel IA32 or AMD AMD64 architecture manuals. + + +Printing backtraces on x86 +-------------------------- + +The question about the '?' preceding function names in an x86 stacktrace +keeps popping up, here's an indepth explanation. It helps if the reader +stares at print_context_stack() and the whole machinery in and around +arch/x86/kernel/dumpstack.c. + +Adapted from Ingo's mail, Message-ID: <20150521101614.GA10889@gmail.com>: + +We always scan the full kernel stack for return addresses stored on +the kernel stack(s) [*], from stack top to stack bottom, and print out +anything that 'looks like' a kernel text address. + +If it fits into the frame pointer chain, we print it without a question +mark, knowing that it's part of the real backtrace. + +If the address does not fit into our expected frame pointer chain we +still print it, but we print a '?'. It can mean two things: + + - either the address is not part of the call chain: it's just stale + values on the kernel stack, from earlier function calls. This is + the common case. + + - or it is part of the call chain, but the frame pointer was not set + up properly within the function, so we don't recognize it. + +This way we will always print out the real call chain (plus a few more +entries), regardless of whether the frame pointer was set up correctly +or not - but in most cases we'll get the call chain right as well. The +entries printed are strictly in stack order, so you can deduce more +information from that as well. + +The most important property of this method is that we _never_ lose +information: we always strive to print _all_ addresses on the stack(s) +that look like kernel text addresses, so if debug information is wrong, +we still print out the real call chain as well - just with more question +marks than ideal. + +[*] For things like IRQ and IST stacks, we also scan those stacks, in + the right order, and try to cross from one stack into another + reconstructing the call chain. This works most of the time.