[PATCH v2 3/3] kernel: add sysctl kernel.nr_taints

From: Konstantin Khlebnikov
Date: Mon Jan 27 2020 - 09:03:55 EST


Raised taint flag is never cleared. Following taint could be detected only
via parsing kernel log messages which are different for each occasion.

For repeatable taints like TAINT_MACHINE_CHECK, TAINT_BAD_PAGE, TAINT_DIE,
TAINT_WARN, TAINT_LOCKUP it would be good to know count to see their rate.

This patch adds sysctl with vector of counters. One for each taint flag.
Counters are non-atomic in favor of simplicity. Exact count doesn't matter.

Writing vector of zeroes resets counters:
# tr 1-9 0 < /proc/sys/kernel/nr_taints > /proc/sys/kernel/nr_taints

This is useful for detecting frequent problems with automatic monitoring.
Also tests could use this for separating expected and unexpected taints.

Signed-off-by: Konstantin Khlebnikov <khlebnikov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/157503370887.8187.1663761929323284758.stgit@buzz/ (v1)
---
Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst | 10 ++++++++++
Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst | 10 ++++++++++
include/linux/kernel.h | 1 +
kernel/panic.c | 5 +++++
kernel/sysctl.c | 9 +++++++++
5 files changed, 35 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst
index 8456c8ed0ca5..6250575bec9f 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst
@@ -56,6 +56,7 @@ show up in /proc/sys/kernel:
- msgmnb
- msgmni
- nmi_watchdog
+- nr_taints ==> Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst
- osrelease
- ostype
- overflowgid
@@ -495,6 +496,15 @@ in a KVM virtual machine. This default can be overridden by adding::
to the guest kernel command line (see Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst).


+nr_taints:
+==========
+
+This shows vector of counters for taint flags.
+Writing vector of zeroes resets counters.
+
+See Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst for more information.
+
+
numa_balancing:
===============

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst
index 13249240283c..2c5181d5e8ae 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst
@@ -166,3 +166,13 @@ More detailed explanation for tainting
produce extremely unusual kernel structure layouts (even performance
pathological ones), which is important to know when debugging. Set at
build time.
+
+
+Taint flag counters
+-------------------
+
+For detecting repeatedly set taint flags kernel counts them in sysctl:
+``cat /proc/sys/kernel/nr_taints``
+
+Writing vector of zeros resets counters but not taint flags itself:
+``tr 1-9 0 < /proc/sys/kernel/nr_taints > /proc/sys/kernel/nr_taints``
diff --git a/include/linux/kernel.h b/include/linux/kernel.h
index 3554456b2d40..2e2c4d008ac1 100644
--- a/include/linux/kernel.h
+++ b/include/linux/kernel.h
@@ -597,6 +597,7 @@ struct taint_flag {
};

extern const struct taint_flag taint_flags[TAINT_FLAGS_COUNT];
+extern int sysctl_nr_taints[TAINT_FLAGS_COUNT];

extern const char hex_asc[];
#define hex_asc_lo(x) hex_asc[((x) & 0x0f)]
diff --git a/kernel/panic.c b/kernel/panic.c
index a0ea0c6992b9..2e86387bbea0 100644
--- a/kernel/panic.c
+++ b/kernel/panic.c
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
int panic_on_oops = CONFIG_PANIC_ON_OOPS_VALUE;
static unsigned long tainted_mask =
IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_GCC_PLUGIN_RANDSTRUCT) ? (1 << TAINT_RANDSTRUCT) : 0;
+int sysctl_nr_taints[TAINT_FLAGS_COUNT];
static int pause_on_oops;
static int pause_on_oops_flag;
static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(pause_on_oops_lock);
@@ -434,6 +435,10 @@ void add_taint(unsigned flag, enum lockdep_ok lockdep_ok)
pr_warn("Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint\n");

set_bit(flag, &tainted_mask);
+
+ /* proc_taint() could set unknown taint flag */
+ if (flag < ARRAY_SIZE(sysctl_nr_taints))
+ sysctl_nr_taints[flag]++;
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(add_taint);

diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
index 70665934d53e..21911a79305b 100644
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c
+++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -553,6 +553,15 @@ static struct ctl_table kern_table[] = {
.mode = 0644,
.proc_handler = proc_taint,
},
+ {
+ .procname = "nr_taints",
+ .data = &sysctl_nr_taints,
+ .maxlen = sizeof(sysctl_nr_taints),
+ .mode = 0644,
+ .proc_handler = proc_dointvec_minmax,
+ .extra1 = SYSCTL_ZERO,
+ .extra2 = SYSCTL_ZERO,
+ },
{
.procname = "sysctl_writes_strict",
.data = &sysctl_writes_strict,