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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2015-02-10 18:35:40 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2015-02-10 18:35:40 -0800
commit1d9c5d79e6e4385aea6f69c23ba543717434ed70 (patch)
treed5bbe45e95f85c8a8b5d980b4a619c0ca82a9da6 /Documentation/ABI
parent870fd0f5df4e131467612cc46db46fc3b69fd706 (diff)
parentf638f4dc0880d515c807a67b8210885a4a4f18bb (diff)
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Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/livepatching
Pull live patching infrastructure from Jiri Kosina: "Let me provide a bit of history first, before describing what is in this pile. Originally, there was kSplice as a standalone project that implemented stop_machine()-based patching for the linux kernel. This project got later acquired, and the current owner is providing live patching as a proprietary service, without any intentions to have their implementation merged. Then, due to rising user/customer demand, both Red Hat and SUSE started working on their own implementation (not knowing about each other), and announced first versions roughly at the same time [1] [2]. The principle difference between the two solutions is how they are making sure that the patching is performed in a consistent way when it comes to different execution threads with respect to the semantic nature of the change that is being introduced. In a nutshell, kPatch is issuing stop_machine(), then looking at stacks of all existing processess, and if it decides that the system is in a state that can be patched safely, it proceeds insterting code redirection machinery to the patched functions. On the other hand, kGraft provides a per-thread consistency during one single pass of a process through the kernel and performs a lazy contignuous migration of threads from "unpatched" universe to the "patched" one at safe checkpoints. If interested in a more detailed discussion about the consistency models and its possible combinations, please see the thread that evolved around [3]. It pretty quickly became obvious to the interested parties that it's absolutely impractical in this case to have several isolated solutions for one task to co-exist in the kernel. During a dedicated Live Kernel Patching track at LPC in Dusseldorf, all the interested parties sat together and came up with a joint aproach that would work for both distro vendors. Steven Rostedt took notes [4] from this meeting. And the foundation for that aproach is what's present in this pull request. It provides a basic infrastructure for function "live patching" (i.e. code redirection), including API for kernel modules containing the actual patches, and API/ABI for userspace to be able to operate on the patches (look up what patches are applied, enable/disable them, etc). It's relatively simple and minimalistic, as it's making use of existing kernel infrastructure (namely ftrace) as much as possible. It's also self-contained, in a sense that it doesn't hook itself in any other kernel subsystem (it doesn't even touch any other code). It's now implemented for x86 only as a reference architecture, but support for powerpc, s390 and arm is already in the works (adding arch-specific support basically boils down to teaching ftrace about regs-saving). Once this common infrastructure gets merged, both Red Hat and SUSE have agreed to immediately start porting their current solutions on top of this, abandoning their out-of-tree code. The plan basically is that each patch will be marked by flag(s) that would indicate which consistency model it is willing to use (again, the details have been sketched out already in the thread at [3]). Before this happens, the current codebase can be used to patch a large group of secruity/stability problems the patches for which are not too complex (in a sense that they don't introduce non-trivial change of function's return value semantics, they don't change layout of data structures, etc) -- this corresponds to LEAVE_FUNCTION && SWITCH_FUNCTION semantics described at [3]. This tree has been in linux-next since December. [1] https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/4/30/477 [2] https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/7/14/857 [3] https://lkml.org/lkml/2014/11/7/354 [4] http://linuxplumbersconf.org/2014/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/LPC2014_LivePatching.txt [ The core code is introduced by the three commits authored by Seth Jennings, which got a lot of changes incorporated during numerous respins and reviews of the initial implementation. All the followup commits have materialized only after public tree has been created, so they were not folded into initial three commits so that the public tree doesn't get rebased ]" * 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jikos/livepatching: livepatch: add missing newline to error message livepatch: rename config to CONFIG_LIVEPATCH livepatch: fix uninitialized return value livepatch: support for repatching a function livepatch: enforce patch stacking semantics livepatch: change ARCH_HAVE_LIVE_PATCHING to HAVE_LIVE_PATCHING livepatch: fix deferred module patching order livepatch: handle ancient compilers with more grace livepatch: kconfig: use bool instead of boolean livepatch: samples: fix usage example comments livepatch: MAINTAINERS: add git tree location livepatch: use FTRACE_OPS_FL_IPMODIFY livepatch: move x86 specific ftrace handler code to arch/x86 livepatch: samples: add sample live patching module livepatch: kernel: add support for live patching livepatch: kernel: add TAINT_LIVEPATCH
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/ABI')
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+What: /sys/kernel/livepatch
+Date: Nov 2014
+KernelVersion: 3.19.0
+Contact: live-patching@vger.kernel.org
+Description:
+ Interface for kernel live patching
+
+ The /sys/kernel/livepatch directory contains subdirectories for
+ each loaded live patch module.
+
+What: /sys/kernel/livepatch/<patch>
+Date: Nov 2014
+KernelVersion: 3.19.0
+Contact: live-patching@vger.kernel.org
+Description:
+ The patch directory contains subdirectories for each kernel
+ object (vmlinux or a module) in which it patched functions.
+
+What: /sys/kernel/livepatch/<patch>/enabled
+Date: Nov 2014
+KernelVersion: 3.19.0
+Contact: live-patching@vger.kernel.org
+Description:
+ A writable attribute that indicates whether the patched
+ code is currently applied. Writing 0 will disable the patch
+ while writing 1 will re-enable the patch.
+
+What: /sys/kernel/livepatch/<patch>/<object>
+Date: Nov 2014
+KernelVersion: 3.19.0
+Contact: live-patching@vger.kernel.org
+Description:
+ The object directory contains subdirectories for each function
+ that is patched within the object.
+
+What: /sys/kernel/livepatch/<patch>/<object>/<function>
+Date: Nov 2014
+KernelVersion: 3.19.0
+Contact: live-patching@vger.kernel.org
+Description:
+ The function directory contains attributes regarding the
+ properties and state of the patched function.
+
+ There are currently no such attributes.
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