kernel: add panic_on_warn

There have been several times where I have had to rebuild a kernel to
cause a panic when hitting a WARN() in the code in order to get a crash
dump from a system.  Sometimes this is easy to do, other times (such as
in the case of a remote admin) it is not trivial to send new images to
the user.

A much easier method would be a switch to change the WARN() over to a
panic.  This makes debugging easier in that I can now test the actual
image the WARN() was seen on and I do not have to engage in remote
debugging.

This patch adds a panic_on_warn kernel parameter and
/proc/sys/kernel/panic_on_warn calls panic() in the
warn_slowpath_common() path.  The function will still print out the
location of the warning.

An example of the panic_on_warn output:

The first line below is from the WARN_ON() to output the WARN_ON()'s
location.  After that the panic() output is displayed.

    WARNING: CPU: 30 PID: 11698 at /home/prarit/dummy_module/dummy-module.c:25 init_dummy+0x1f/0x30 [dummy_module]()
    Kernel panic - not syncing: panic_on_warn set ...

    CPU: 30 PID: 11698 Comm: insmod Tainted: G        W  OE  3.17.0+ #57
    Hardware name: Intel Corporation S2600CP/S2600CP, BIOS RMLSDP.86I.00.29.D696.1311111329 11/11/2013
     0000000000000000 000000008e3f87df ffff88080f093c38 ffffffff81665190
     0000000000000000 ffffffff818aea3d ffff88080f093cb8 ffffffff8165e2ec
     ffffffff00000008 ffff88080f093cc8 ffff88080f093c68 000000008e3f87df
    Call Trace:
     [<ffffffff81665190>] dump_stack+0x46/0x58
     [<ffffffff8165e2ec>] panic+0xd0/0x204
     [<ffffffffa038e05f>] ? init_dummy+0x1f/0x30 [dummy_module]
     [<ffffffff81076b90>] warn_slowpath_common+0xd0/0xd0
     [<ffffffffa038e040>] ? dummy_greetings+0x40/0x40 [dummy_module]
     [<ffffffff81076c8a>] warn_slowpath_null+0x1a/0x20
     [<ffffffffa038e05f>] init_dummy+0x1f/0x30 [dummy_module]
     [<ffffffff81002144>] do_one_initcall+0xd4/0x210
     [<ffffffff811b52c2>] ? __vunmap+0xc2/0x110
     [<ffffffff810f8889>] load_module+0x16a9/0x1b30
     [<ffffffff810f3d30>] ? store_uevent+0x70/0x70
     [<ffffffff810f49b9>] ? copy_module_from_fd.isra.44+0x129/0x180
     [<ffffffff810f8ec6>] SyS_finit_module+0xa6/0xd0
     [<ffffffff8166cf29>] system_call_fastpath+0x12/0x17

Successfully tested by me.

hpa said: There is another very valid use for this: many operators would
rather a machine shuts down than being potentially compromised either
functionally or security-wise.

Signed-off-by: Prarit Bhargava <prarit@redhat.com>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
Cc: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <masami.hiramatsu.pt@hitachi.com>
Acked-by: Yasuaki Ishimatsu <isimatu.yasuaki@jp.fujitsu.com>
Cc: Fabian Frederick <fabf@skynet.be>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/sysctl.c b/kernel/sysctl.c
index 15f2511..7c54ff7 100644
--- a/kernel/sysctl.c
+++ b/kernel/sysctl.c
@@ -1104,6 +1104,15 @@ static struct ctl_table kern_table[] = {
 		.proc_handler	= proc_dointvec,
 	},
 #endif
+	{
+		.procname	= "panic_on_warn",
+		.data		= &panic_on_warn,
+		.maxlen		= sizeof(int),
+		.mode		= 0644,
+		.proc_handler	= proc_dointvec_minmax,
+		.extra1		= &zero,
+		.extra2		= &one,
+	},
 	{ }
 };