[PATCH v7 0/3] perf tools: port UI from GTK2 to GTK4

From: Matt Turner

Date: Sun Sep 06 2026 - 16:13:22 EST


GTK2 is long dead upstream and increasingly hard to keep building on
current distros. This series ports perf's GTK-based report browser to
GTK4 and fixes it up so it's actually loadable at runtime after the
port.

Patch 1 does the mechanical port (build system, widget API changes),
including the leftover-GTK2-call and signal-handling fixes that were a
separate patch 3 in v4. Patch 2 fixes a runtime issue found after the
port that prevented the browser from loading. Patch 3 fixes two stack
buffer overflows in the hierarchy view that predate the port.

Signed-off-by: Matt Turner <mattst88@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v7:
- Add patch 3: fix two stack buffer overflows in the hierarchy view
(perf_gtk__show_hierarchy()'s unbounded strcat() into a 512-byte
buffer, and an advance_hpp() size_t underflow in
perf_gtk__add_hierarchy_entries()). Both predate the GTK4 port
- Link to v6: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260906-perf-gtk2-v6-0-695d1c01aaa1@xxxxxxxxx

Changes in v6:
- Explicitly include <string.h> in annotate.c (strcpy()) and
<stdarg.h>/<stdio.h> in hists.c (va_list, snprintf()) instead of
relying on transitive includes, which isn't guaranteed on musl
- Link to v5: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260906-perf-gtk2-v5-0-e8747a65c240@xxxxxxxxx

Changes in v5:
- Fold v4's patch 3 into patch 1, since sigprocmask() only blocks
delivery to the calling thread: it did nothing to stop the signal
handler from running concurrently on another thread and doesn't make
the handler's GSList calls async-signal-safe either
- Defer perf_gtk__exit() on SIGINT/SIGQUIT/SIGTERM to a GLib source via
g_unix_signal_add() instead of running it straight out of a real
signal handler, so it always runs on the main-loop thread, serialized
with perf_gtk__error()'s updates to perf_gtk__error_loops, instead of
racing them from arbitrary signal-handler context
- Keep a real handler for SIGSEGV/SIGFPE, since those are synchronous
faults with no "later" to defer to, but pare it down to reporting and
reraising the default disposition: there's no safe way to run
GTK/GLib code from the faulting context itself
- Link to v4: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260906-perf-gtk2-v4-0-97e92ee07214@xxxxxxxxx

Changes in v4:
- Fix gtk_widget_show()/gtk_widget_hide() calls left over from the GTK2
port: both were removed in GTK 4. Replace with gtk_widget_set_visible(),
adding a small wrapper for the info-bar "response" signal callback
- Block SIGSEGV/SIGFPE/SIGINT/SIGQUIT/SIGTERM around the
perf_gtk__error_loops list updates in perf_gtk__error(): the signal
handler (perf_gtk__signal() -> perf_gtk__exit() ->
perf_gtk__quit_error_dialog()) walks that same list and could fire
mid-update, corrupting it
- Link to v3: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260906-perf-gtk2-v3-0-e1f2086214a0@xxxxxxxxx

Changes in v3:
- Fix GMainLoop leak if perf_gtk__error() is called re-entrantly: track
active loops in a list instead of a single global pointer
- Add explicit <stdarg.h>/<stdio.h> includes instead of relying on
transitive inclusion, which musl doesn't guarantee
- Drop the gtk4-infobar feature check and HAVE_GTK_INFO_BAR_SUPPORT:
GtkInfoBar has been unconditionally available since well before GTK 4,
and the check was failing outright due to its deprecation warning
- Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260906-perf-gtk2-v2-0-3eccff053cd1@xxxxxxxxx

Changes in v2:
- Fix error dialog's nested GMainLoop hanging if the parent window
closes or a signal arrives while the dialog is open (quit from
"destroy", not just "response")
- Fix build with GTK_INFO_BAR_SUPPORT: gtk_info_bar_get_content_area()
is gone in GTK 4, use gtk_info_bar_add_child() instead
- Fix use-after-free in the progress dialog on manual close
- Fix reuse of an exhausted va_list in the vasprintf() failure path
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260906-perf-gtk2-v1-0-7564bf8523a9@xxxxxxxxx

---
Matt Turner (3):
tools: port perf ui from GTK 2 to GTK 4
perf tools: make the GTK4 report browser actually loadable at runtime
perf tools gtk: fix two hierarchy-view stack buffer overflows

tools/build/Makefile.feature | 4 +-
tools/build/feature/Makefile | 10 +--
tools/build/feature/test-gtk2-infobar.c | 12 ---
tools/build/feature/{test-gtk2.c => test-gtk4.c} | 4 +-
tools/perf/Documentation/perf-report.txt | 2 +-
tools/perf/Makefile | 2 +-
tools/perf/Makefile.config | 27 +++----
tools/perf/Makefile.perf | 6 +-
tools/perf/builtin-annotate.c | 8 +-
tools/perf/builtin-report.c | 8 +-
tools/perf/scripts/install-build-deps.sh | 4 +-
tools/perf/tests/make | 4 +-
tools/perf/ui/gtk/annotate.c | 36 ++++-----
tools/perf/ui/gtk/browser.c | 96 ++++++++++++++++++-----
tools/perf/ui/gtk/gtk.h | 16 ++--
tools/perf/ui/gtk/hists.c | 66 ++++++++--------
tools/perf/ui/gtk/progress.c | 40 +++++++---
tools/perf/ui/gtk/setup.c | 5 +-
tools/perf/ui/gtk/util.c | 97 ++++++++++++++----------
tools/perf/ui/setup.c | 2 +-
tools/perf/util/annotate.c | 11 +++
tools/perf/util/annotate.h | 12 +--
22 files changed, 275 insertions(+), 197 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 9f0346dcbea363787186c94ef94dd01aaa215afa
change-id: 20260906-perf-gtk2-555ca04bb652

Best regards,
--
Matt Turner <mattst88@xxxxxxxxx>