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Re: [PATCH 05/05] Linux Kernel Markers, non optimised architectures


Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
* Nick Piggin (nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au) wrote:

Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:


+#define MARK(name, format, args...) \
+	do { \
+		static marker_probe_func *__mark_call_##name = \
+					__mark_empty_function; \
+		volatile static char __marker_enable_##name = 0; \
+		static const struct __mark_marker_c __mark_c_##name \
+			__attribute__((section(".markers.c"))) = \
+			{ #name, &__mark_call_##name, format } ; \
+		static const struct __mark_marker __mark_##name \
+			__attribute__((section(".markers"))) = \
+			{ &__mark_c_##name, &__marker_enable_##name } ; \
+		asm volatile ( "" : : "i" (&__mark_##name)); \
+		__mark_check_format(format, ## args); \
+		if (unlikely(__marker_enable_##name)) { \
+			preempt_disable(); \
+			(*__mark_call_##name)(format, ## args); \
+			preempt_enable_no_resched(); \

Why not just preempt_enable() here?




Because the preempt_enable() macro contains preempt_check_resched(), which
may call preempt_schedule() which leads us to a call to schedule(). Therefore,
all those very interesting scheduler functions would cause an infinite
recursive scheduler call if we marked schedule() and used preempt_enable() in
the marker.

The vast majority of schedule() has preempt turned off, so that shouldn't be a problem, if you provide a comment.

The primary goal for the markers (and the probes that attaches to them) is to
have the fewest side-effects possible : any kernel method called from an
instrumentation site adds this precise kernel method to the "cannot be
instrumented" list, which I want to keep as small possible.

OK, well one problem is that it can cause a resched event to be lost, so you might say it has more side-effects without checking resched.

--
SUSE Labs, Novell Inc.
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