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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2021-04-27 18:09:44 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2021-04-27 18:09:44 -0700
commit7f3d08b255d1806502e45fe70ca2ba9646eb3aa1 (patch)
treeb05f285f31a37dac5910c40a643c7d38b19dfe3c /Documentation/core-api
parent916a75965e5236f9e353416a703a0f4c8de2f56c (diff)
parentc8dbea6df351df211216b5f8877b020f21ecf75f (diff)
Merge tag 'printk-for-5.13' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/printk/linux
Pull printk updates from Petr Mladek: - Stop synchronizing kernel log buffer readers by logbuf_lock. As a result, the access to the buffer is fully lockless now. Note that printk() itself still uses locks because it tries to flush the messages to the console immediately. Also the per-CPU temporary buffers are still there because they prevent infinite recursion and serialize backtraces from NMI. All this is going to change in the future. - kmsg_dump API rework and cleanup as a side effect of the logbuf_lock removal. - Make bstr_printf() aware that %pf and %pF formats could deference the given pointer. - Show also page flags by %pGp format. - Clarify the documentation for plain pointer printing. - Do not show no_hash_pointers warning multiple times. - Update Senozhatsky email address. - Some clean up. * tag 'printk-for-5.13' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/printk/linux: (24 commits) lib/vsprintf.c: remove leftover 'f' and 'F' cases from bstr_printf() printk: clarify the documentation for plain pointer printing kernel/printk.c: Fixed mundane typos printk: rename vprintk_func to vprintk vsprintf: dump full information of page flags in pGp mm, slub: don't combine pr_err with INFO mm, slub: use pGp to print page flags MAINTAINERS: update Senozhatsky email address lib/vsprintf: do not show no_hash_pointers message multiple times printk: console: remove unnecessary safe buffer usage printk: kmsg_dump: remove _nolock() variants printk: remove logbuf_lock printk: introduce a kmsg_dump iterator printk: kmsg_dumper: remove @active field printk: add syslog_lock printk: use atomic64_t for devkmsg_user.seq printk: use seqcount_latch for clear_seq printk: introduce CONSOLE_LOG_MAX printk: consolidate kmsg_dump_get_buffer/syslog_print_all code printk: refactor kmsg_dump_get_buffer() ...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/core-api')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/core-api/printk-formats.rst28
1 files changed, 26 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/printk-formats.rst b/Documentation/core-api/printk-formats.rst
index 160e710d992f..9be6de402cb9 100644
--- a/Documentation/core-api/printk-formats.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/printk-formats.rst
@@ -79,7 +79,19 @@ Pointers printed without a specifier extension (i.e unadorned %p) are
hashed to prevent leaking information about the kernel memory layout. This
has the added benefit of providing a unique identifier. On 64-bit machines
the first 32 bits are zeroed. The kernel will print ``(ptrval)`` until it
-gathers enough entropy. If you *really* want the address see %px below.
+gathers enough entropy.
+
+When possible, use specialised modifiers such as %pS or %pB (described below)
+to avoid the need of providing an unhashed address that has to be interpreted
+post-hoc. If not possible, and the aim of printing the address is to provide
+more information for debugging, use %p and boot the kernel with the
+``no_hash_pointers`` parameter during debugging, which will print all %p
+addresses unmodified. If you *really* always want the unmodified address, see
+%px below.
+
+If (and only if) you are printing addresses as a content of a virtual file in
+e.g. procfs or sysfs (using e.g. seq_printf(), not printk()) read by a
+userspace process, use the %pK modifier described below instead of %p or %px.
Error Pointers
--------------
@@ -139,6 +151,11 @@ For printing kernel pointers which should be hidden from unprivileged
users. The behaviour of %pK depends on the kptr_restrict sysctl - see
Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst for more details.
+This modifier is *only* intended when producing content of a file read by
+userspace from e.g. procfs or sysfs, not for dmesg. Please refer to the
+section about %p above for discussion about how to manage hashing pointers
+in printk().
+
Unmodified Addresses
--------------------
@@ -153,6 +170,13 @@ equivalent to %lx (or %lu). %px is preferred because it is more uniquely
grep'able. If in the future we need to modify the way the kernel handles
printing pointers we will be better equipped to find the call sites.
+Before using %px, consider if using %p is sufficient together with enabling the
+``no_hash_pointers`` kernel parameter during debugging sessions (see the %p
+description above). One valid scenario for %px might be printing information
+immediately before a panic, which prevents any sensitive information to be
+exploited anyway, and with %px there would be no need to reproduce the panic
+with no_hash_pointers.
+
Pointer Differences
-------------------
@@ -540,7 +564,7 @@ Flags bitfields such as page flags, gfp_flags
::
- %pGp referenced|uptodate|lru|active|private
+ %pGp referenced|uptodate|lru|active|private|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff
%pGg GFP_USER|GFP_DMA32|GFP_NOWARN
%pGv read|exec|mayread|maywrite|mayexec|denywrite