[PATCH 02/10] tracing/filters: Fix false success return in process_system_preds()

From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google)

Date: Sat Oct 24 2026 - 12:26:41 EST


From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>

In process_system_preds(), "fail" is initialized to true to indicate
whether any event in the subsystem successfully applied the filter.
However, "fail = false;" was placed at the end of the event loop outside
the error check, unconditionally clearing "fail" on every iteration even
when process_preds() returned an error.

As a result, if every event in the subsystem fails to match the filter
(e.g., an invalid field), process_system_preds() returns 0 (success)
instead of -EINVAL. Consequently, create_system_filter() considers the
operation successful and silently resets the subsystem filter display to
the default global filter message instead of reporting the parse error.

Move "fail = false;" into the else branch of the error check so that
"fail" is only cleared when at least one event filter succeeds. Because
file->filter is still replaced even when process_preds() fails, check
!list_empty(&filter_list->list) on the fail and fail_mem paths so any
replaced old filters are freed after an RCU grace period via
delay_free_filter().

Fixes: 80765597bc58 ("tracing: Rewrite filter logic to be simpler and faster")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c | 15 +++++++++------
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
index 18ce3ec00d34..c2c35b4de85e 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
@@ -2332,8 +2332,10 @@ static int process_system_preds(struct trace_subsystem_dir *dir,
filter_disable(file);
parse_error(pe, FILT_ERR_BAD_SUBSYS_FILTER, 0);
append_filter_err(tr, pe, filter);
- } else
+ } else {
event_set_filtered_flag(file);
+ fail = false;
+ }


filter_item = kzalloc_obj(*filter_item);
@@ -2348,8 +2350,6 @@ static int process_system_preds(struct trace_subsystem_dir *dir,
filter_item->filter = event_filter(file);
event_set_filter(file, filter);
filter = NULL;
-
- fail = false;
}

if (fail)
@@ -2364,14 +2364,17 @@ static int process_system_preds(struct trace_subsystem_dir *dir,
return 0;
fail:
/* No call succeeded */
- free_filter_list(filter_list);
+ if (!list_empty(&filter_list->list))
+ delay_free_filter(filter_list);
+ else
+ free_filter_list(filter_list);
parse_error(pe, FILT_ERR_BAD_SUBSYS_FILTER, 0);
return -EINVAL;
fail_mem:
__free_filter(filter);

- /* If any call succeeded, we still need to sync */
- if (!fail)
+ /* If any filter was replaced, we still need to sync */
+ if (!list_empty(&filter_list->list))
delay_free_filter(filter_list);
else
free_filter_list(filter_list);