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Groups > linux.kernel > #1191841

Re: Dealing with the NMI mess

From Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Newsgroups linux.kernel
Subject Re: Dealing with the NMI mess
Date 2015-07-24 15:40 +0200
Message-ID <pPLmG-7cG-15@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References (5 earlier) <pPGmZ-8tY-7@gated-at.bofh.it> <pPJNW-4T4-35@gated-at.bofh.it> <pPKAh-62N-15@gated-at.bofh.it> <pPKTE-6EB-11@gated-at.bofh.it> <pPLd1-71j-23@gated-at.bofh.it>
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On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 03:21:28PM +0200, Willy Tarreau wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 09:03:42AM -0400, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> > On Fri, 24 Jul 2015 14:43:04 +0200
> > Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> wrote:
> > 
> >  
> > > > I'm not too familiar with how to use hw breakpoints, but I'm guessing
> > > > (correct me if I'm wrong) that breakpoints on code that trigger when
> > > > executed, but watchpoints on data trigger when accessed. Then
> > > > copy_from_user_inatomic() would only trigger on watchpoints (it's not
> > > > executing that code, at least I hope it isn't!), and those wont bother
> > > > us.
> > > 
> > > These things can be: RW, W, X.
> > > 
> > > Sure, hitting a user X watchpoint is going to be 'interesting', but its
> > > fairly easy to hit a RW one.
> > 
> > But do we care if we do hit one? The return from the #DB handler can
> > use a RET. Right?

Look at do_debug(), it has lovely bits like:

	preempt_conditional_sti();

in it, we do _NOT_ want to be re-enabling interrupts if we're called
from an !IF context, that'd be _bad_.

> My understanding is that by using RET we can't set the RF flag and #DB
> will immediately strike again when the operation is attempted again. Thus
> we have to completely disable the breakpoints on leaving after the first
> one strikes, resulting in some userland breakpoints being missed. Maybe
> it can be accepted as a limitation when perf is running. I don't know if
> the output of perf is that relevant when a debugger is present BTW.

The patch I posted will re-enable the breakpoints before returning to
userspace. So userspace will only 'miss' events generated by the kernel.

Missing reads from the kernel is not a problem -- and maybe even
expected, but certainly unavoidable.

Missing updates from the kernel might be a problem, you'd get a variable
change content even though you have a W watchpoint on it, that'd be
surprising.

Then again, I suppose we can argue the variable changed through another
mapping and watchpoints work on the virtual address, so tough cookies or
somesuch -- the kernel could in fact do this on highmem kernel anyway.
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Thread

Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> - 2015-07-23 23:40 +0200
  Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> - 2015-07-23 23:50 +0200
    Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net> - 2015-07-24 00:00 +0200
      Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> - 2015-07-24 00:10 +0200
        Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2015-07-24 10:20 +0200
          Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu> - 2015-07-24 11:10 +0200
          Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> - 2015-07-24 14:00 +0200
            Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2015-07-24 14:50 +0200
              Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> - 2015-07-24 15:10 +0200
                Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu> - 2015-07-24 15:30 +0200
                Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2015-07-24 15:40 +0200
                Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2015-07-24 15:40 +0200
                Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> - 2015-07-30 17:50 +0200
                Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Borislav Petkov <bp@alien8.de> - 2015-07-31 06:30 +0200
          Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> - 2015-07-30 18:00 +0200
  Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Andy Lutomirski <luto@amacapital.net> - 2015-07-23 23:50 +0200
    Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu> - 2015-07-24 00:00 +0200
  Re: Dealing with the NMI mess Willy Tarreau <w@1wt.eu> - 2015-07-23 23:50 +0200

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