[PATCH v2 0/2] tracing: Override trace_instance parameter

From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google)

Date: Fri Oct 02 2026 - 01:45:02 EST


Hi,

Here is the 2nd version of the patches to change the "trace_instance="
kernel parameter to be overriden by latter parameters.
The previous version is here:

https://lore.kernel.org/all/178982869661.289221.2143320719673148321.stgit@devnote2/

In this version, I just rebased it on probes/core.

Currently if the user specifies the same name trace_instance at
boot time, the later one is skipped.
However, this does not allow user to override the trace_instance
setting via bootloader if user specifies the default trace_instance
in the bootconfig, because the bootconfig parameter is prepend to
the kernel cmdline. (IOW, the bootconfig expects kernel parameters
are LAST_WIN policy.)

To fix this issue, the [1/2] splits the command line parsing loop
and trace instance initialization loop. The parser checks the
overlap of the trace instance name and override by the later one
if those have the same name.

This series also have a test set as [2/2], which is based on
ftrace boottime test patchset [1], which is currently on
probes/core branch.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/all/178649540853.438282.4271870161169100680.stgit@devnote2/

Thank you,

---
base-commit: b15df7805dc52555e7c867d33a496edf5be11289

Masami Hiramatsu (Google) (2):
tracing: Override the same name trace_instance= by latter one
selftests/ftrace: Add test case for overriding trace_instance parameter


Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt | 7 +
Documentation/trace/debugging.rst | 15 ++
kernel/trace/trace.c | 130 ++++++++++++++------
.../cmdline-07-trace-instance-override.bconf | 2
.../cmdline-07-trace-instance-override.cmdline | 1
.../tests/cmdline-07-trace-instance-override.sh | 56 +++++++++
6 files changed, 173 insertions(+), 38 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/boottime/bootconfigs/cmdline-07-trace-instance-override.bconf
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/boottime/cmdlines/cmdline-07-trace-instance-override.cmdline
create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/boottime/tests/cmdline-07-trace-instance-override.sh

--
Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>