Re: [PATCH v2] tracing: Fix inconsistency in irq tracking on NMIs

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Wed, Jun 25, 2025 at 02:08:22PM +0200, Gabriele Monaco wrote:
> The irq_enable/irq_disable tracepoints fire only when there's an actual
> transition (enabled->disabled and vice versa), this needs special care
> in NMIs, as they can potentially start with interrupts already disabled.
> The current implementation takes care of this by tracking the lockdep
> state on nmi_entry as well as using the variable tracing_irq_cpu to
> synchronise with other calls (e.g. local_irq_disable/enable).
> 
> This can be racy in case of NMIs when lockdep is enabled, and can lead
> to missing events when lockdep is disabled.
> 
> Remove dependency on the lockdep status in the NMI common entry/exit
> code and adapt the tracing code to make sure that:
> 
> - The first call disabling interrupts fires the tracepoint
> - The first non-NMI call enabling interrupts fires the tracepoint
> - The last NMI call enabling interrupts fires the tracepoint unless
>   interrupts were disabled before the NMI
> - All other calls don't fire

I'm not at all convinced this is correct. Nor can I understand anything
much about what you wrote above.


>  arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c |  5 ++---
>  kernel/entry/common.c            |  5 ++---
>  kernel/trace/trace_preemptirq.c  | 12 +++++++-----
>  3 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c b/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c
> index 7c1970b341b8c..7f1844123642e 100644
> --- a/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c
> +++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c
> @@ -213,10 +213,9 @@ static void noinstr arm64_exit_nmi(struct pt_regs *regs)
>  	bool restore = regs->lockdep_hardirqs;
>  
>  	ftrace_nmi_exit();
> -	if (restore) {
> -		trace_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> +	trace_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> +	if (restore)
>  		lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> -	}
>  
>  	ct_nmi_exit();
>  	lockdep_hardirq_exit();
> diff --git a/kernel/entry/common.c b/kernel/entry/common.c
> index a8dd1f27417cf..e234f264fb495 100644
> --- a/kernel/entry/common.c
> +++ b/kernel/entry/common.c
> @@ -343,10 +343,9 @@ void noinstr irqentry_nmi_exit(struct pt_regs *regs, irqentry_state_t irq_state)
>  {
>  	instrumentation_begin();
>  	ftrace_nmi_exit();
> -	if (irq_state.lockdep) {
> -		trace_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> +	trace_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> +	if (irq_state.lockdep)
>  		lockdep_hardirqs_on_prepare();
> -	}
>  	instrumentation_end();
>  
>  	ct_nmi_exit();
> diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_preemptirq.c b/kernel/trace/trace_preemptirq.c
> index 0c42b15c38004..fa45474fc54f1 100644
> --- a/kernel/trace/trace_preemptirq.c
> +++ b/kernel/trace/trace_preemptirq.c
> @@ -58,7 +58,11 @@ static DEFINE_PER_CPU(int, tracing_irq_cpu);
>   */
>  void trace_hardirqs_on_prepare(void)
>  {
> -	if (this_cpu_read(tracing_irq_cpu)) {
> +	int tracing_count = this_cpu_read(tracing_irq_cpu);
> +
> +	if (in_nmi() && tracing_count > 1)
> +		this_cpu_dec(tracing_irq_cpu);
> +	else if (tracing_count) {
>  		trace(irq_enable, TP_ARGS(CALLER_ADDR0, CALLER_ADDR1));
>  		tracer_hardirqs_on(CALLER_ADDR0, CALLER_ADDR1);
>  		this_cpu_write(tracing_irq_cpu, 0);
> @@ -89,8 +93,7 @@ NOKPROBE_SYMBOL(trace_hardirqs_on);
>   */
>  void trace_hardirqs_off_finish(void)
>  {
> -	if (!this_cpu_read(tracing_irq_cpu)) {
> -		this_cpu_write(tracing_irq_cpu, 1);
> +	if (this_cpu_inc_return(tracing_irq_cpu) == 1) {
>  		tracer_hardirqs_off(CALLER_ADDR0, CALLER_ADDR1);
>  		trace(irq_disable, TP_ARGS(CALLER_ADDR0, CALLER_ADDR1));
>  	}
> @@ -103,8 +106,7 @@ void trace_hardirqs_off(void)
>  {
>  	lockdep_hardirqs_off(CALLER_ADDR0);
>  
> -	if (!this_cpu_read(tracing_irq_cpu)) {
> -		this_cpu_write(tracing_irq_cpu, 1);
> +	if (this_cpu_inc_return(tracing_irq_cpu) == 1) {
>  		tracer_hardirqs_off(CALLER_ADDR0, CALLER_ADDR1);
>  		trace(irq_disable, TP_ARGS(CALLER_ADDR0, CALLER_ADDR1));
>  	}

So what about lovely things like:

trace_hardirqs_on_prepare()
  if (tracing_irq_cpu) {
    tracer_hardirqs_on();
    <NMI>
      trace_hardirqs_off_finish();
        if (this_cpu_inc_return() == 1) // will be > 1


So now we've traced IRQs are on, start an NMI, and loose the IRQs off
event. Well done.


This was all safe in that it would occasionally emit a duplicate state,
but no state was wrong. Both your attempts have broken things.

How about you fix you tool to accept duplicate state in the face of NMI
instead?