Kprobes: The ON/OFF knob thru debugfs

This patch provides a debugfs knob to turn kprobes on/off

o A new file /debug/kprobes/enabled indicates if kprobes is enabled or
  not (default enabled)
o Echoing 0 to this file will disarm all installed probes
o Any new probe registration when disabled will register the probe but
  not arm it. A message will be printed out in such a case.
o When a value 1 is echoed to the file, all probes (including ones
  registered in the intervening period) will be enabled
o Unregistration will happen irrespective of whether probes are globally
  enabled or not.
o Update Documentation/kprobes.txt to reflect these changes. While there
  also update the doc to make it current.

We are also looking at providing sysrq key support to tie to the disabling
feature provided by this patch.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org: Use bool like a bool!]
[akpm@linux-foundation.org: add printk facility levels]
[cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com: Add the missing arch_trampoline_kprobe() for s390]
Signed-off-by: Ananth N Mavinakayanahalli <ananth@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Srinivasa DS <srinivasa@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 31 insertions, 3 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/kprobes.txt b/Documentation/kprobes.txt
index d71faff..da5404ab 100644
--- a/Documentation/kprobes.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kprobes.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ CONTENTS
 8. Kprobes Example
 9. Jprobes Example
 10. Kretprobes Example
+Appendix A: The kprobes debugfs interface
 
 1. Concepts: Kprobes, Jprobes, Return Probes
 
@@ -349,9 +350,12 @@ for instrumentation and error reporting.)
 
 If the number of times a function is called does not match the number
 of times it returns, registering a return probe on that function may
-produce undesirable results.  We have the do_exit() case covered.
-do_execve() and do_fork() are not an issue.  We're unaware of other
-specific cases where this could be a problem.
+produce undesirable results. In such a case, a line:
+kretprobe BUG!: Processing kretprobe d000000000041aa8 @ c00000000004f48c
+gets printed. With this information, one will be able to correlate the
+exact instance of the kretprobe that caused the problem. We have the
+do_exit() case covered. do_execve() and do_fork() are not an issue.
+We're unaware of other specific cases where this could be a problem.
 
 If, upon entry to or exit from a function, the CPU is running on
 a stack other than that of the current task, registering a return
@@ -614,3 +618,27 @@ http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-kprobes.html?ca=dgr-lnxw42Kprobe
 http://www.redhat.com/magazine/005mar05/features/kprobes/
 http://www-users.cs.umn.edu/~boutcher/kprobes/
 http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2006/linuxsymposium_procv2.pdf (pages 101-115)
+
+
+Appendix A: The kprobes debugfs interface
+
+With recent kernels (> 2.6.20) the list of registered kprobes is visible
+under the /debug/kprobes/ directory (assuming debugfs is mounted at /debug).
+
+/debug/kprobes/list: Lists all registered probes on the system
+
+c015d71a  k  vfs_read+0x0
+c011a316  j  do_fork+0x0
+c03dedc5  r  tcp_v4_rcv+0x0
+
+The first column provides the kernel address where the probe is inserted.
+The second column identifies the type of probe (k - kprobe, r - kretprobe
+and j - jprobe), while the third column specifies the symbol+offset of
+the probe. If the probed function belongs to a module, the module name
+is also specified.
+
+/debug/kprobes/enabled: Turn kprobes ON/OFF
+
+Provides a knob to globally turn registered kprobes ON or OFF. By default,
+all kprobes are enabled. By echoing "0" to this file, all registered probes
+will be disarmed, till such time a "1" is echoed to this file.