Re: [PATCH v2] exit: move and extend sched_process_exit() tracepoint

[Steven Rostedt]

On Wed,  2 Apr 2025 11:09:25 -0700
Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> It is useful to be able to access current->mm at task exit to, say,
> record a bunch of VMA information right before the task exits (e.g., for
> stack symbolization reasons when dealing with short-lived processes that
> exit in the middle of profiling session). Currently,
> trace_sched_process_exit() is triggered after exit_mm() which resets
> current->mm to NULL making this tracepoint unsuitable for inspecting
> and recording task's mm_struct-related data when tracing process
> lifetimes.
> 
> There is a particularly suitable place, though, right after
> taskstats_exit() is called, but before we do exit_mm() and other
> exit_*() resource teardowns. taskstats performs a similar kind of
> accounting that some applications do with BPF, and so co-locating them
> seems like a good fit. So that's where trace_sched_process_exit() is
> moved with this patch.
> 
> Also, existing trace_sched_process_exit() tracepoint is notoriously
> missing `group_dead` flag that is certainly useful in practice and some
> of our production applications have to work around this. So plumb
> `group_dead` through while at it, to have a richer and more complete
> tracepoint.
> 
> Note that we can't use sched_process_template anymore, and so we use
> TRACE_EVENT()-based tracepoint definition. But all the field names and
> order, as well as assign and output logic remain intact. We just add one
> extra field at the end in backwards-compatible way.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  include/trace/events/sched.h | 28 +++++++++++++++++++++++++---
>  kernel/exit.c                |  2 +-
>  2 files changed, 26 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

Acked-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

-- Steve