[PATCH -next 8/8] rcutorture: Add --kill-previous option to terminate previous kvm.sh runs

From: Joel Fernandes
Date: Thu Jan 01 2026 - 11:37:17 EST


When kvm.sh is killed, its child processes (make, gcc, qemu, etc.) may
continue running. This prevents new kvm.sh instances from starting even
though the parent is gone.

Add a --kill-previous option that uses fuser(1) to terminate all
processes holding the flock file before attempting to acquire it. This
provides a clean way to recover from stale/zombie kvm.sh runs which
sometimes may have lots of qemu and compiler processes still disturbing.

Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <joelagnelf@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/testing/selftests/rcutorture/bin/kvm.sh | 25 ++++++++++++++++++-
1 file changed, 24 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/rcutorture/bin/kvm.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/rcutorture/bin/kvm.sh
index d1fbd092e22a..65b04b832733 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/rcutorture/bin/kvm.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/rcutorture/bin/kvm.sh
@@ -80,6 +80,7 @@ usage () {
echo " --kasan"
echo " --kconfig Kconfig-options"
echo " --kcsan"
+ echo " --kill-previous"
echo " --kmake-arg kernel-make-arguments"
echo " --mac nn:nn:nn:nn:nn:nn"
echo " --memory megabytes|nnnG"
@@ -206,6 +207,9 @@ do
--kcsan)
TORTURE_KCONFIG_KCSAN_ARG="$debuginfo CONFIG_KCSAN=y CONFIG_KCSAN_STRICT=y CONFIG_KCSAN_REPORT_ONCE_IN_MS=100000 CONFIG_KCSAN_VERBOSE=y CONFIG_DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC=y CONFIG_PROVE_LOCKING=y"; export TORTURE_KCONFIG_KCSAN_ARG
;;
+ --kill-previous)
+ TORTURE_KILL_PREVIOUS=1
+ ;;
--kmake-arg|--kmake-args)
checkarg --kmake-arg "(kernel make arguments)" $# "$2" '.*' '^error$'
TORTURE_KMAKE_ARG="`echo "$TORTURE_KMAKE_ARG $2" | sed -e 's/^ *//' -e 's/ *$//'`"
@@ -278,6 +282,25 @@ done
# Prevent concurrent kvm.sh runs on the same source tree. The flock
# is automatically released when the script exits, even if killed.
TORTURE_LOCK="$RCUTORTURE/.kvm.sh.lock"
+
+# Terminate any processes holding the lock file, if requested.
+if test -n "$TORTURE_KILL_PREVIOUS"
+then
+ if test -e "$TORTURE_LOCK"
+ then
+ echo "Killing processes holding $TORTURE_LOCK..."
+ if fuser -k "$TORTURE_LOCK" >/dev/null 2>&1
+ then
+ sleep 2
+ echo "Previous kvm.sh processes killed."
+ else
+ echo "No processes were holding the lock."
+ fi
+ else
+ echo "No lock file exists, nothing to kill."
+ fi
+fi
+
if test -z "$dryrun"
then
# Create a file descriptor and flock it, so that when kvm.sh (and its
@@ -287,7 +310,7 @@ then
then
echo "ERROR: Another kvm.sh instance is already running on this tree."
echo " Lock file: $TORTURE_LOCK"
- echo " To run kvm.sh, kill all existing kvm.sh runs first."
+ echo " To run kvm.sh, kill all existing kvm.sh runs first (--kill-previous)."
exit 1
fi
fi
--
2.34.1