diff --git a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt b/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst similarity index 73% rename from Documentation/kmemleak.txt rename to Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst index 18e24abb3ecf..1788722d5495 100644 --- a/Documentation/kmemleak.txt +++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst @@ -1,15 +1,12 @@ Kernel Memory Leak Detector =========================== -Introduction ------------- - Kmemleak provides a way of detecting possible kernel memory leaks in a way similar to a tracing garbage collector (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_%28computer_science%29#Tracing_garbage_collectors), with the difference that the orphan objects are not freed but only reported via /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak. A similar method is used by the -Valgrind tool (memcheck --leak-check) to detect the memory leaks in +Valgrind tool (``memcheck --leak-check``) to detect the memory leaks in user-space applications. Kmemleak is supported on x86, arm, powerpc, sparc, sh, microblaze, ppc, mips, s390, metag and tile. @@ -19,20 +16,20 @@ Usage CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK in "Kernel hacking" has to be enabled. A kernel thread scans the memory every 10 minutes (by default) and prints the number of new unreferenced objects found. To display the details of all -the possible memory leaks: +the possible memory leaks:: # mount -t debugfs nodev /sys/kernel/debug/ # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak -To trigger an intermediate memory scan: +To trigger an intermediate memory scan:: # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak -To clear the list of all current possible memory leaks: +To clear the list of all current possible memory leaks:: # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak -New leaks will then come up upon reading /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak +New leaks will then come up upon reading ``/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak`` again. Note that the orphan objects are listed in the order they were allocated @@ -40,22 +37,31 @@ and one object at the beginning of the list may cause other subsequent objects to be reported as orphan. Memory scanning parameters can be modified at run-time by writing to the -/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak file. The following parameters are supported: +``/sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak`` file. The following parameters are supported: - off - disable kmemleak (irreversible) - stack=on - enable the task stacks scanning (default) - stack=off - disable the tasks stacks scanning - scan=on - start the automatic memory scanning thread (default) - scan=off - stop the automatic memory scanning thread - scan= - set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds - (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning) - scan - trigger a memory scan - clear - clear list of current memory leak suspects, done by - marking all current reported unreferenced objects grey, - or free all kmemleak objects if kmemleak has been disabled. - dump= - dump information about the object found at +- off + disable kmemleak (irreversible) +- stack=on + enable the task stacks scanning (default) +- stack=off + disable the tasks stacks scanning +- scan=on + start the automatic memory scanning thread (default) +- scan=off + stop the automatic memory scanning thread +- scan= + set the automatic memory scanning period in seconds + (default 600, 0 to stop the automatic scanning) +- scan + trigger a memory scan +- clear + clear list of current memory leak suspects, done by + marking all current reported unreferenced objects grey, + or free all kmemleak objects if kmemleak has been disabled. +- dump= + dump information about the object found at -Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing "kmemleak=off" on +Kmemleak can also be disabled at boot-time by passing ``kmemleak=off`` on the kernel command line. Memory may be allocated or freed before kmemleak is initialised and @@ -63,13 +69,14 @@ these actions are stored in an early log buffer. The size of this buffer is configured via the CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_EARLY_LOG_SIZE option. If CONFIG_DEBUG_KMEMLEAK_DEFAULT_OFF are enabled, the kmemleak is -disabled by default. Passing "kmemleak=on" on the kernel command +disabled by default. Passing ``kmemleak=on`` on the kernel command line enables the function. Basic Algorithm --------------- -The memory allocations via kmalloc, vmalloc, kmem_cache_alloc and +The memory allocations via :c:func:`kmalloc`, :c:func:`vmalloc`, +:c:func:`kmem_cache_alloc` and friends are traced and the pointers, together with additional information like size and stack trace, are stored in a rbtree. The corresponding freeing function calls are tracked and the pointers @@ -113,13 +120,13 @@ when doing development. To work around these situations you can use the you can find new unreferenced objects; this should help with testing specific sections of code. -To test a critical section on demand with a clean kmemleak do: +To test a critical section on demand with a clean kmemleak do:: # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak ... test your kernel or modules ... # echo scan > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak -Then as usual to get your report with: +Then as usual to get your report with:: # cat /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak @@ -131,7 +138,7 @@ disabled by the user or due to an fatal error, internal kmemleak objects won't be freed when kmemleak is disabled, and those objects may occupy a large part of physical memory. -In this situation, you may reclaim memory with: +In this situation, you may reclaim memory with:: # echo clear > /sys/kernel/debug/kmemleak @@ -140,20 +147,20 @@ Kmemleak API See the include/linux/kmemleak.h header for the functions prototype. -kmemleak_init - initialize kmemleak -kmemleak_alloc - notify of a memory block allocation -kmemleak_alloc_percpu - notify of a percpu memory block allocation -kmemleak_free - notify of a memory block freeing -kmemleak_free_part - notify of a partial memory block freeing -kmemleak_free_percpu - notify of a percpu memory block freeing -kmemleak_update_trace - update object allocation stack trace -kmemleak_not_leak - mark an object as not a leak -kmemleak_ignore - do not scan or report an object as leak -kmemleak_scan_area - add scan areas inside a memory block -kmemleak_no_scan - do not scan a memory block -kmemleak_erase - erase an old value in a pointer variable -kmemleak_alloc_recursive - as kmemleak_alloc but checks the recursiveness -kmemleak_free_recursive - as kmemleak_free but checks the recursiveness +- ``kmemleak_init`` - initialize kmemleak +- ``kmemleak_alloc`` - notify of a memory block allocation +- ``kmemleak_alloc_percpu`` - notify of a percpu memory block allocation +- ``kmemleak_free`` - notify of a memory block freeing +- ``kmemleak_free_part`` - notify of a partial memory block freeing +- ``kmemleak_free_percpu`` - notify of a percpu memory block freeing +- ``kmemleak_update_trace`` - update object allocation stack trace +- ``kmemleak_not_leak`` - mark an object as not a leak +- ``kmemleak_ignore`` - do not scan or report an object as leak +- ``kmemleak_scan_area`` - add scan areas inside a memory block +- ``kmemleak_no_scan`` - do not scan a memory block +- ``kmemleak_erase`` - erase an old value in a pointer variable +- ``kmemleak_alloc_recursive`` - as kmemleak_alloc but checks the recursiveness +- ``kmemleak_free_recursive`` - as kmemleak_free but checks the recursiveness Dealing with false positives/negatives -------------------------------------- diff --git a/Documentation/dev-tools/tools.rst b/Documentation/dev-tools/tools.rst index 2d1129789753..3b6382a58301 100644 --- a/Documentation/dev-tools/tools.rst +++ b/Documentation/dev-tools/tools.rst @@ -20,3 +20,4 @@ whole; patches welcome! gcov kasan ubsan + kmemleak diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS index 2ffd7ed40162..b235e0d53449 100644 --- a/MAINTAINERS +++ b/MAINTAINERS @@ -6812,7 +6812,7 @@ F: mm/kmemcheck.c KMEMLEAK M: Catalin Marinas S: Maintained -F: Documentation/kmemleak.txt +F: Documentation/dev-tools/kmemleak.rst F: include/linux/kmemleak.h F: mm/kmemleak.c F: mm/kmemleak-test.c