Re: [PATCH v5 05/13] module: Add printk formats to add module build ID to stacktraces

[Andy Shevchenko]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2021 at 02:49:55PM -0700, Stephen Boyd wrote:
> Let's make kernel stacktraces easier to identify by including the build
> ID[1] of a module if the stacktrace is printing a symbol from a module.
> This makes it simpler for developers to locate a kernel module's full
> debuginfo for a particular stacktrace. Combined with
> scripts/decode_stracktrace.sh, a developer can download the matching
> debuginfo from a debuginfod[2] server and find the exact file and line
> number for the functions plus offsets in a stacktrace that match the
> module. This is especially useful for pstore crash debugging where the
> kernel crashes are recorded in something like console-ramoops and the
> recovery kernel/modules are different or the debuginfo doesn't exist on
> the device due to space concerns (the debuginfo can be too large for
> space limited devices).
> 
> Originally, I put this on the %pS format, but that was quickly rejected
> given that %pS is used in other places such as ftrace where build IDs
> aren't meaningful. There was some discussions on the list to put every
> module build ID into the "Modules linked in:" section of the stacktrace
> message but that quickly becomes very hard to read once you have more
> than three or four modules linked in. It also provides too much
> information when we don't expect each module to be traversed in a
> stacktrace. Having the build ID for modules that aren't important just
> makes things messy. Splitting it to multiple lines for each module
> quickly explodes the number of lines printed in an oops too, possibly
> wrapping the warning off the console. And finally, trying to stash away
> each module used in a callstack to provide the ID of each symbol printed
> is cumbersome and would require changes to each architecture to stash
> away modules and return their build IDs once unwinding has completed.
> 
> Instead, we opt for the simpler approach of introducing new printk
> formats '%pS[R]b' for "pointer symbolic backtrace with module build ID"
> and '%pBb' for "pointer backtrace with module build ID" and then
> updating the few places in the architecture layer where the stacktrace
> is printed to use this new format.
> 
> Example:

Please, shrink the example to leave only meaningful lines.

Why, e.g., do we need to see register dump, is it somehow different?

...

> +#ifdef CONFIG_STACKTRACE_BUILD_ID
> +	/* Module build ID */
> +	unsigned char build_id[BUILD_ID_SIZE_MAX];

Is it really string of characters? Perhaps u8 will be more explicit.

...

> +#include <linux/kernel.h>

What do you need this header for?

-- 
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko