Re: bpf/selftests: test_access_variable_array breaks due to sched_domain::span removal

From: Saket Kumar Bhaskar

Date: Wed Apr 08 2026 - 00:53:38 EST


On Tue, Apr 07, 2026 at 10:33:51AM -0700, Alexei Starovoitov wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 7, 2026 at 9:12 AM Venkat Rao Bagalkote
> <venkat88@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> >
> > While running BPF selftests on current linux-next, I noticed that
> > test_access_variable_array fails to build due to reliance on
> > struct sched_domain::span, which is no longer appers to be BTF-visible
> > after recent
> > scheduler refactoring.
> >
> > The Build error I am seeing is:
> >
> > progs/test_access_variable_array.c:14:13: error: no member named 'span'
> > in 'struct sched_domain' CLNG-BPF [test_progs] test_check_mtu.bpf.o
> >
> > 14 | span = sd->span[0];
> > | ~~ ^
> >
> > Below is a proposed update to the test that switches from
> > sched_domain::span to sched_group::cpumask. This preserves the original
> > intent of validating variable-length array access via BTF while avoiding
> > reliance on removed scheduler internals.
> >
> >
> > diff --git
> > a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_access_variable_array.c
> > b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_access_variable_array.c
> > index 326b7d1f496a..c9f345ccde3c 100644
> > --- a/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_access_variable_array.c
> > +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/bpf/progs/test_access_variable_array.c
> > @@ -4,14 +4,18 @@
> > #include "vmlinux.h"
> > #include <bpf/bpf_helpers.h>
> > #include <bpf/bpf_tracing.h>
> > +#include <bpf/bpf_core_read.h>
> >
> > -unsigned long span = 0;
> > +unsigned long cpumask0 = 0;
> >
> > -SEC("fentry/sched_balance_rq")
> > -int BPF_PROG(fentry_fentry, int this_cpu, struct rq *this_rq,
> > - struct sched_domain *sd)
> > +SEC("fentry/sched_balance_find_dst_group_cpu")
> > +int BPF_PROG(fentry_fentry, struct sched_group *sg, struct task_struct *p,
> > + int this_cpu)
> > {
> > - span = sd->span[0];
> > + unsigned long *mask;
> > + /* Read pointer to variable-length CPU mask */
> > + mask = BPF_CORE_READ(sg, cpumask);
> > + cpumask0 = mask[0];
>
> No. That defeats the point of the test.
> It tests [] array in the kernel struct.
> Just make one in testmod.ko and access that.
Hi Alexei,

We do have cpumask as [] array in sched_group:

struct sched_group {
struct sched_group *next; /* Must be a circular list */
atomic_t ref;

unsigned int group_weight;
unsigned int cores;
struct sched_group_capacity *sgc;
int asym_prefer_cpu; /* CPU of highest priority in group */
int flags;

/*
* The CPUs this group covers.
*
* NOTE: this field is variable length. (Allocated dynamically
* by attaching extra space to the end of the structure,
* depending on how many CPUs the kernel has booted up with)
*/
unsigned long cpumask[];
};

Wouldn't be good if it is used as:

cpumask0 = sg->cpumask[0];

Also, there is already a selftest that makes [] in testmod.ko
and access that.

Thanks,
Saket