Re: [PATCH] lockdep: add a hint for "INFO: trying to register non-static key." message

From: Waiman Long
Date: Mon Mar 22 2021 - 13:20:08 EST


On 3/21/21 2:49 AM, Tetsuo Handa wrote:
Since this message is printed when dynamically allocated spinlocks (e.g.
kzalloc()) are used without initialization (e.g. spin_lock_init()),
suggest developers to check whether initialization functions for objects
are called, before making developers wonder what annotation is missing.

Signed-off-by: Tetsuo Handa <penguin-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/locking/lockdep.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/kernel/locking/lockdep.c b/kernel/locking/lockdep.c
index c6d0c1dc6253..44c549f5c061 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/lockdep.c
+++ b/kernel/locking/lockdep.c
@@ -931,6 +931,7 @@ static bool assign_lock_key(struct lockdep_map *lock)
debug_locks_off();
pr_err("INFO: trying to register non-static key.\n");
pr_err("the code is fine but needs lockdep annotation.\n");
+ pr_err("maybe you didn't initialize this object before you use?\n");
pr_err("turning off the locking correctness validator.\n");
dump_stack();
return false;

The only way this message is written is when the appropriate lock init function isn't called for locks in dynamically allocated objects. I think you can just say so without the word "maybe". Like "the code is fine but needs lockdep annotation by calling appropriate lock initialization function.".

Cheers,
Longman