I've been asked a few times about how to find out what is calling
some location in the kernel. One way is to use dynamic function tracing
and implement the func_stack_trace. But this only finds out who is
calling a particular function. It does not tell you who is calling
that function and entering a specific if conditional.
I have myself implemented a quick version of trace_dump_stack() for
this purpose a few times, and just needed it now. This is when I realized
that this would be a good tool to have in the kernel like trace_printk().
Using trace_dump_stack() is similar to dump_stack() except that it
writes to the trace buffer instead and can be used in critical locations.
For example:
@@ -5485,8 +5485,12 @@ need_resched_nonpreemptible:
if (prev->state && !(preempt_count() & PREEMPT_ACTIVE)) {
if (unlikely(signal_pending_state(prev->state, prev)))
prev->state = TASK_RUNNING;
- else
+ else {
deactivate_task(rq, prev, 1);
+ trace_printk("Deactivating task %s:%d\n",
+ prev->comm, prev->pid);
+ trace_dump_stack();
+ }
switch_count = &prev->nvcsw;
}
Produces:
<...>-3249 [001] 296.105269: schedule: Deactivating task ntpd:3249
<...>-3249 [001] 296.105270: <stack trace>
=> schedule
=> schedule_hrtimeout_range
=> poll_schedule_timeout
=> do_select
=> core_sys_select
=> sys_select
=> system_call_fastpath
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
03889384ce