[PATCH v2 4/4] tracing: Free up file->private_data for use by individual events

From: Petr Pavlu

Date: Mon Feb 16 2026 - 08:52:35 EST


The tracing_open_file_tr() function currently copies the trace_event_file
pointer from inode->i_private to file->private_data when the file is
successfully opened. This duplication is not particularly useful, as all
event code should utilize event_file_file() or event_file_data() to
retrieve a trace_event_file pointer from a file struct and these access
functions read file->f_inode->i_private. Moreover, this setup requires the
code for opening hist files to explicitly clear file->private_data before
calling single_open(), since this function expects the private_data member
to be set to NULL and uses it to store a pointer to a seq_file.

Remove the unnecessary setting of file->private_data in
tracing_open_file_tr() and simplify the hist code.

Signed-off-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@xxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/trace/trace.c | 2 --
kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c | 4 ----
2 files changed, 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index b1cb30a7b83d..01af8d88a468 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c
@@ -4804,8 +4804,6 @@ int tracing_open_file_tr(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
event_file_get(file);
}

- filp->private_data = inode->i_private;
-
return 0;
}

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
index 744c2aa3d668..1ca3e14d7531 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_hist.c
@@ -5831,8 +5831,6 @@ static int event_hist_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *file)
hist_file->file = file;
hist_file->last_act = get_hist_hit_count(event_file);

- /* Clear private_data to avoid warning in single_open() */
- file->private_data = NULL;
ret = single_open(file, hist_show, hist_file);
if (ret) {
kfree(hist_file);
@@ -6114,8 +6112,6 @@ static int event_hist_debug_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *file)
if (ret)
return ret;

- /* Clear private_data to avoid warning in single_open() */
- file->private_data = NULL;
ret = single_open(file, hist_debug_show, file);
if (ret)
tracing_release_file_tr(inode, file);
--
2.52.0