Re: [PATCH v11 00/11] tracing: wprobe: x86: Add wprobe for watchpoint
From: Google
Date: Mon Aug 03 2026 - 08:33:53 EST
On Sun, 2 Aug 2026 17:18:25 +0900
"Masami Hiramatsu (Google)" <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Here is the 11th version of the series for adding new wprobe (watch probe)
> which provides memory access tracing event. Moreover, this can be used
> via event trigger. Thus it can trace memory access on dynamically
> allocated objects too.
> The previous version is here:
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/178476134787.26117.10094977293012760490.stgit@devnote2/
>
> The major changes in this version is to use Jinchao's new
> modify_local_hw_breakpoint_addr() API, add count option support to
> wprobe trigger, skip wprobe trigger during another wprobe trigger is
> working and rewrite selftests for wprobe trigger with
> trace-events-sample module.
>
> Changes in v11:
> - Updated hardware breakpoint modification API:
> - Replaced arch_reinstall_hw_breakpoint() with
> arch_modify_local_hw_breakpoint_addr() and
> modify_local_hw_breakpoint_addr() API.
> - Made DR7 updates NMI safe by using atomic cmpxchg for slot management
> and per-CPU sequence number (cpu_dr7_seq) to detect concurrent NMI
> updates.
> - Refactored wprobe trigger implementation:
> - Updated set_wprobe/clear_wprobe trigger to use
> modify_local_hw_breakpoint_addr().
> - Added tracepoint_synchronize_unregister() in wprobe_unregister_trigger()
> and parse error path.
> - Added NULL check for tw->bp_event in trace_wprobe_update_local() to
> prevent race conditions.
> - Switched trigger data freeing to use event_trigger_data::private_data_free.
> - Added count option support (count=N) for wprobe triggers.
> - Fixed trigger address calculation (cast rec to char *).
> - Added work_pending flag to avoid update conflicts between CPUs.
> - Fixed wprobe_trigger_find_same() to check wprobe_data->clear flag.
> - Update trigger-wprobe*.tc to use trace-events-sample kernel module.
> - Fixed selftest:
> - Updated trigger-wprobe.tc assertion logic for clear_wprobe trigger
> test to check trace log instead of sysfs enable file (which remains 1
> under soft-disable).
>
> Public branch
> -------------
> I will push this branch as topic/wprobe-v2 to my tree so that it
> can be easily tested.
>
> https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mhiramat/linux.git/log/?h=topic/wprobe-v2
>
> This is based on linux-trace tree's probes/for-next.
>
> Usage
> -----
>
> The basic usage of this wprobe is similar to other probes;
>
> w:[GRP/][EVENT] [r|w|rw]@<ADDRESS|SYMBOL[+OFFS]> [FETCHARGS]
>
> This defines a new wprobe event. For example, to trace jiffies update,
> you can do;
>
> echo 'w:my_jiffies w@jiffies:8 value=+0($addr)' >> dynamic_events
> echo 1 > events/wprobes/my_jiffies/enable
>
> Moreover, this can be combined with event trigger to trace the memory
> access on slab objects. The trigger syntax is;
>
> set_wprobe:WPROBE_EVENT:FIELD[+OFFSET] [if FILTER]
> clear_wprobe:WPROBE_EVENT[:FIELD[+OFFSET]] [if FILTER]
>
> set_wprobe sets WPROBE_EVENT's watch address on FIELD[+OFFSET].
> clear_wprobe clears WPROBE_EVENT's watch address if it is set to
> FIELD[+OFFSET]. If FIELD is omitted, forcibly clear the watch address
> when trigger event is hit.
>
> For example, trace the first 8 byte of the dentry data structure passed
> to do_truncate() until it is deleted by dentry_kill().
> (Note: all tracefs setup uses '>>' so that it does not kick do_truncate())
>
> # echo 'w:watch rw@0:8 address=$addr value=+0($addr)' > dynamic_events
>
> # echo 'f:truncate do_truncate dentry=$arg2' >> dynamic_events
> # echo 'set_wprobe:watch:dentry' >> events/fprobes/truncate/trigger
>
> # echo 'f:dentry_kill dentry_kill dentry=$arg1' >> dynamic_events
> # echo 'clear_wprobe:watch:dentry' >> events/fprobes/dentry_kill/trigger
>
> # echo 1 >> events/fprobes/truncate/enable
> # echo 1 >> events/fprobes/dentry_kill/enable
>
> # echo aaa > /tmp/hoge
> # echo bbb > /tmp/hoge
> # echo ccc > /tmp/hoge
> # rm /tmp/hoge
>
> Then, the trace data will show;
>
> # tracer: nop
> #
> # entries-in-buffer/entries-written: 32/32 #P:8
> #
> # _-----=> irqs-off/BH-disabled
> # / _----=> need-resched
> # | / _---=> hardirq/softirq
> # || / _--=> preempt-depth
> # ||| / _-=> migrate-disable
> # |||| / delay
> # TASK-PID CPU# ||||| TIMESTAMP FUNCTION
> # | | | ||||| | |
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.990418: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004ad6618
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.990914: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004b3de78
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.993175: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880049ddd40
> sh-107 [004] ..... 9.995198: truncate: (do_truncate+0x4/0x120) dentry=0xffff8880048083a8
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.995389: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880049db998
> sh-107 [004] ..Zff 9.997503: watch: (lookup_fast+0xaa/0x150) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> sh-107 [004] ..Zff 9.997509: watch: (path_openat+0x211/0xda0) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> sh-107 [004] ..Zff 9.997514: watch: (path_openat+0xa56/0xda0) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> sh-107 [004] ..Zff 9.997518: watch: (path_openat+0xae2/0xda0) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> sh-107 [004] ..... 9.997521: truncate: (do_truncate+0x4/0x120) dentry=0xffff8880048083a8
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.997582: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004808270
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.999365: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880049db728
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 9.999388: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004b1c000
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.000965: watch: (lookup_fast+0xaa/0x150) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.000971: watch: (path_lookupat+0x97/0x1e0) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.000984: watch: (lookup_fast+0xaa/0x150) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.000988: watch: (path_lookupat+0x97/0x1e0) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.001010: watch: (lookup_one_qstr_excl+0x28/0x140) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.001014: watch: (lookup_one_qstr_excl+0xd1/0x140) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.001018: watch: (may_delete_dentry+0x1c/0x200) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.001021: watch: (may_delete_dentry+0x195/0x200) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] ..Zff 10.001031: watch: (vfs_unlink+0x5e/0x260) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] d.Z.. 10.001067: watch: (d_make_discardable+0x1b/0x40) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x8200080
> rm-113 [005] d.Z.. 10.001071: watch: (d_make_discardable+0x29/0x40) address=0xffff8880048083a8 value=0x200080
> rm-113 [005] ...1. 10.001072: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880048083a8
> rm-113 [005] ...1. 10.001218: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880048083a8
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 10.001416: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880049db110
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 10.001444: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff8880049db248
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 10.001500: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004ad6618
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 10.002067: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004b41e78
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 10.904920: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004b41e78
> sh-107 [004] ...1. 10.905129: dentry_kill: (dentry_kill+0x0/0x2c0) dentry=0xffff888004ad6618
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> ---
Oops, I found I missed base-commit: tag here...
I'll update my tool to add it automatically.
Thanks,
>
> Jinchao Wang (2):
> x86/hw_breakpoints: Make DR7 updates NMI safe
> x86/hw_breakpoints: Add arch_modify_local_hw_breakpoint_addr() API
>
> Masami Hiramatsu (Google) (9):
> HWBP: Add modify_local_hw_breakpoint_addr() API
> tracing: wprobe: Add watchpoint probe event based on hardware breakpoint
> x86: hw_breakpoint: Add a kconfig to clarify when a breakpoint fires
> selftests: tracing: Add a basic testcase for wprobe
> selftests: tracing: Add syntax testcase for wprobe
> tracing: wprobe: Add wprobe event trigger
> selftests: ftrace: Add wprobe trigger testcase
> tracing/wprobe: Support BTF typecast in fetchargs
> tracing/wprobe: Support BTF typecast in wprobe trigger command
>
>
> Documentation/trace/index.rst | 1
> Documentation/trace/wprobetrace.rst | 163 ++
> arch/Kconfig | 18
> arch/x86/Kconfig | 2
> arch/x86/include/asm/debugreg.h | 36 -
> arch/x86/include/asm/hw_breakpoint.h | 2
> arch/x86/kernel/cpu/mce/core.c | 20
> arch/x86/kernel/hw_breakpoint.c | 125 +-
> arch/x86/kernel/nmi.c | 10
> arch/x86/kernel/traps.c | 10
> include/linux/hw_breakpoint.h | 6
> include/linux/trace_events.h | 3
> kernel/events/hw_breakpoint.c | 35 +
> kernel/trace/Kconfig | 24
> kernel/trace/Makefile | 1
> kernel/trace/trace.c | 9
> kernel/trace/trace.h | 6
> kernel/trace/trace_events_trigger.c | 2
> kernel/trace/trace_probe.c | 34
> kernel/trace/trace_probe.h | 15
> kernel/trace/trace_wprobe.c | 1392 ++++++++++++++++++++
> tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/config | 3
> .../ftrace/test.d/dynevent/add_remove_wprobe.tc | 63 +
> .../test.d/dynevent/wprobes_syntax_errors.tc | 21
> .../test.d/trigger/trigger-wprobe-btf-offset.tc | 74 +
> .../test.d/trigger/trigger-wprobe-btf-typecast.tc | 72 +
> .../ftrace/test.d/trigger/trigger-wprobe.tc | 85 +
> 27 files changed, 2156 insertions(+), 76 deletions(-)
> create mode 100644 Documentation/trace/wprobetrace.rst
> create mode 100644 kernel/trace/trace_wprobe.c
> create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/dynevent/add_remove_wprobe.tc
> create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/dynevent/wprobes_syntax_errors.tc
> create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/trigger-wprobe-btf-offset.tc
> create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/trigger-wprobe-btf-typecast.tc
> create mode 100644 tools/testing/selftests/ftrace/test.d/trigger/trigger-wprobe.tc
>
> --
> Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>
--
Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>