Verifier log avoids printing the same source code line multiple times when a consecutive block of BPF assembly instructions are covered by the same original (C) source code line. This greatly improves verifier log legibility. Unfortunately, this check is imperfect and in production applications it quite often happens that verifier log will have multiple duplicated source lines emitted, for no apparently good reason. E.g., this is excerpt from a real-world BPF application (with register states omitted for clarity): BEFORE ====== ; for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:394 5369: (07) r8 += 2 ; 5370: (07) r7 += 16 ; ; for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:394 5371: (07) r9 += 1 ; 5372: (79) r4 = *(u64 *)(r10 -32) ; ; for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:394 5373: (55) if r9 != 0xf goto pc+2 ; if (i >= map->cnt) @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:396 5376: (79) r1 = *(u64 *)(r10 -40) ; 5377: (79) r1 = *(u64 *)(r1 +8) ; ; if (i >= map->cnt) @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:396 5378: (dd) if r1 s<= r9 goto pc-5 ; ; descr->key_lens[i] = 0; @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:398 5379: (b4) w1 = 0 ; 5380: (6b) *(u16 *)(r8 -30) = r1 ; ; task, data, off, STROBE_MAX_STR_LEN, map->entries[i].key); @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:400 5381: (79) r3 = *(u64 *)(r7 -8) ; 5382: (7b) *(u64 *)(r10 -24) = r6 ; ; task, data, off, STROBE_MAX_STR_LEN, map->entries[i].key); @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:400 5383: (bc) w6 = w6 ; ; barrier_var(payload_off); @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:280 5384: (bf) r2 = r6 ; 5385: (bf) r1 = r4 ; As can be seen, line 394 is emitted thrice, 396 is emitted twice, and line 400 is duplicated as well. Note that there are no intermingling other lines of source code in between these duplicates, so the issue is not compiler reordering assembly instruction such that multiple original source code lines are in effect. It becomes more obvious what's going on if we look at *full* original line info information (using btfdump for this, [0]): #2764: line: insn #5363 --> 394:3 @ ./././strobemeta_probe.bpf.c for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { #2765: line: insn #5373 --> 394:21 @ ./././strobemeta_probe.bpf.c for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { #2766: line: insn #5375 --> 394:47 @ ./././strobemeta_probe.bpf.c for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { #2767: line: insn #5377 --> 394:3 @ ./././strobemeta_probe.bpf.c for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { #2768: line: insn #5378 --> 414:10 @ ./././strobemeta_probe.bpf.c return off; We can see that there are four line info records covering instructions #5363 through #5377 (instruction indices are shifted due to subprog instruction being appended to main program), all of them are pointing to the same C source code line #394. But each of them points to a different part of that line, which is denoted by differing column numbers (3, 21, 47, 3). But verifier log doesn't distinguish between parts of the same source code line and doesn't emit this column number information, so for end user it's just a repetitive visual noise. So let's improve the detection of repeated source code line and avoid this. With the changes in this patch, we get this output for the same piece of BPF program log: AFTER ===== ; for (int i = 0; i < STROBE_MAX_MAP_ENTRIES; ++i) { @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:394 5369: (07) r8 += 2 ; 5370: (07) r7 += 16 ; 5371: (07) r9 += 1 ; 5372: (79) r4 = *(u64 *)(r10 -32) ; 5373: (55) if r9 != 0xf goto pc+2 ; if (i >= map->cnt) @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:396 5376: (79) r1 = *(u64 *)(r10 -40) ; 5377: (79) r1 = *(u64 *)(r1 +8) ; 5378: (dd) if r1 s<= r9 goto pc-5 ; ; descr->key_lens[i] = 0; @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:398 5379: (b4) w1 = 0 ; 5380: (6b) *(u16 *)(r8 -30) = r1 ; ; task, data, off, STROBE_MAX_STR_LEN, map->entries[i].key); @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:400 5381: (79) r3 = *(u64 *)(r7 -8) ; 5382: (7b) *(u64 *)(r10 -24) = r6 ; 5383: (bc) w6 = w6 ; ; barrier_var(payload_off); @ strobemeta_probe.bpf.c:280 5384: (bf) r2 = r6 ; 5385: (bf) r1 = r4 ; All the duplication is gone and the log is cleaner and less distracting. [0] https://github.com/anakryiko/btfdump Signed-off-by: Andrii Nakryiko <andrii@kernel.org> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240214174100.2847419-1-andrii@kernel.org Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
Linux kernel ============ There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first. In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/ There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory, several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation. Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.
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