Introduce in-kernel headers which are made available as an archive
through proc (/proc/kheaders.tar.xz file). This archive makes it
possible to run eBPF and other tracing programs that need to extend the
kernel for tracing purposes without any dependency on the file system
having headers.
A github PR is sent for the corresponding BCC patch at:
https://github.com/iovisor/bcc/pull/2312
On Android and embedded systems, it is common to switch kernels but not
have kernel headers available on the file system. Further once a
different kernel is booted, any headers stored on the file system will
no longer be useful. This is an issue even well known to distros.
By storing the headers as a compressed archive within the kernel, we can
avoid these issues that have been a hindrance for a long time.
The best way to use this feature is by building it in. Several users
have a need for this, when they switch debug kernels, they do not want to
update the filesystem or worry about it where to store the headers on
it. However, the feature is also buildable as a module in case the user
desires it not being part of the kernel image. This makes it possible to
load and unload the headers from memory on demand. A tracing program can
load the module, do its operations, and then unload the module to save
kernel memory. The total memory needed is 3.3MB.
By having the archive available at a fixed location independent of
filesystem dependencies and conventions, all debugging tools can
directly refer to the fixed location for the archive, without concerning
with where the headers on a typical filesystem which significantly
simplifies tooling that needs kernel headers.
The code to read the headers is based on /proc/config.gz code and uses
the same technique to embed the headers.
Other approaches were discussed such as having an in-memory mountable
filesystem, but that has drawbacks such as requiring an in-kernel xz
decompressor which we don't have today, and requiring usage of 42 MB of
kernel memory to host the decompressed headers at anytime. Also this
approach is simpler than such approaches.
(Resolved minor conflicts in Makefile)
(cherry picked from commit 43d8ce9d65a54846d378545770991e65838981e0)
Bug: 78013494
Change-Id: Id40724018c0c68d5ea159822c269e23897d43826
Reviewed-by: Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@socionext.com>
Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) <joel@joelfernandes.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Currently we see this in "git status" if we build in the source dir:
Untracked files:
(use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
certs/x509_certificate_list
It looks like it used to live in kernel/ so we squash that .gitignore
entry at the same time. I didn't bother to dig through git history to
see when it moved, since it is just a minor annoyance at most.
Cc: David Woodhouse <dwmw2@infradead.org>
Cc: keyrings@linux-nfs.org
Signed-off-by: Paul Gortmaker <paul.gortmaker@windriver.com>
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
$ git status
# On branch pending-rebases
# Untracked files:
# (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)
#
# kernel/x509_certificate_list
nothing added to commit but untracked files present (use "git add" to track)
$
Signed-off-by: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
