mirror of
https://github.com/torvalds/linux.git
synced 2026-05-12 16:18:45 +02:00
222edc843c
BTF kind layouts provide information to parse BTF kinds. By separating parsing BTF from using all the information it provides, we allow BTF to encode new features even if they cannot be used by readers. This will be helpful in particular for cases where older tools are used to parse newer BTF with kinds the older tools do not recognize; the BTF can still be parsed in such cases using kind layout. The intent is to support encoding of kind layouts optionally so that tools like pahole can add this information. For each kind, we record - length of singular element following struct btf_type - length of each of the btf_vlen() elements following - a (currently unused) flags field The ideas here were discussed at [1], [2]; hence Suggested-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Alan Maguire <alan.maguire@oracle.com> Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20260326145444.2076244-2-alan.maguire@oracle.com [1] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/CAEf4BzYjWHRdNNw4B=eOXOs_ONrDwrgX4bn=Nuc1g8JPFC34MA@mail.gmail.com/ [2] https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/20230531201936.1992188-1-alan.maguire@oracle.com/ |
||
|---|---|---|
| .. | ||
| asm | ||
| asm-generic | ||
| drm | ||
| linux | ||
| README | ||
Why we want a copy of kernel headers in tools?
==============================================
There used to be no copies, with tools/ code using kernel headers
directly. From time to time tools/perf/ broke due to legitimate kernel
hacking. At some point Linus complained about such direct usage. Then we
adopted the current model.
The way these headers are used in perf are not restricted to just
including them to compile something.
There are sometimes used in scripts that convert defines into string
tables, etc, so some change may break one of these scripts, or new MSRs
may use some different #define pattern, etc.
E.g.:
$ ls -1 tools/perf/trace/beauty/*.sh | head -5
tools/perf/trace/beauty/arch_errno_names.sh
tools/perf/trace/beauty/drm_ioctl.sh
tools/perf/trace/beauty/fadvise.sh
tools/perf/trace/beauty/fsconfig.sh
tools/perf/trace/beauty/fsmount.sh
$
$ tools/perf/trace/beauty/fadvise.sh
static const char *fadvise_advices[] = {
[0] = "NORMAL",
[1] = "RANDOM",
[2] = "SEQUENTIAL",
[3] = "WILLNEED",
[4] = "DONTNEED",
[5] = "NOREUSE",
};
$
The tools/perf/check-headers.sh script, part of the tools/ build
process, points out changes in the original files.
So its important not to touch the copies in tools/ when doing changes in
the original kernel headers, that will be done later, when
check-headers.sh inform about the change to the perf tools hackers.
Another explanation from Ingo Molnar:
It's better than all the alternatives we tried so far:
- Symbolic links and direct #includes: this was the original approach but
was pushed back on from the kernel side, when tooling modified the
headers and broke them accidentally for kernel builds.
- Duplicate self-defined ABI headers like glibc: double the maintenance
burden, double the chance for mistakes, plus there's no tech-driven
notification mechanism to look at new kernel side changes.
What we are doing now is a third option:
- A software-enforced copy-on-write mechanism of kernel headers to
tooling, driven by non-fatal warnings on the tooling side build when
kernel headers get modified:
Warning: Kernel ABI header differences:
diff -u tools/include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h include/uapi/drm/i915_drm.h
diff -u tools/include/uapi/linux/fs.h include/uapi/linux/fs.h
diff -u tools/include/uapi/linux/kvm.h include/uapi/linux/kvm.h
...
The tooling policy is to always pick up the kernel side headers as-is,
and integate them into the tooling build. The warnings above serve as a
notification to tooling maintainers that there's changes on the kernel
side.
We've been using this for many years now, and it might seem hacky, but
works surprisingly well.