[PATCH RESEND 2/3] perf/core: Fix MMAP event path names with backing files

From: Adrian Hunter

Date: Mon Oct 13 2025 - 03:23:17 EST


Some file systems like FUSE-based ones or overlayfs may record the backing
file in struct vm_area_struct vm_file, instead of the user file that the
user mmapped.

Since commit def3ae83da02f ("fs: store real path instead of fake path in
backing file f_path"), file_path() no longer returns the user file path
when applied to a backing file. There is an existing helper
file_user_path() for that situation.

Use file_user_path() instead of file_path() to get the path for MMAP
and MMAP2 events.

Example:

Setup:

# cd /root
# mkdir test ; cd test ; mkdir lower upper work merged
# cp `which cat` lower
# mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=lower,upperdir=upper,workdir=work merged
# perf record -e intel_pt//u -- /root/test/merged/cat /proc/self/maps
...
55b0ba399000-55b0ba434000 r-xp 00018000 00:1a 3419 /root/test/merged/cat
...
[ perf record: Woken up 1 times to write data ]
[ perf record: Captured and wrote 0.060 MB perf.data ]
#

Before:

File name is wrong (/cat), so decoding fails:

# perf script --no-itrace --show-mmap-events
cat 367 [016] 100.491492: PERF_RECORD_MMAP2 367/367: [0x55b0ba399000(0x9b000) @ 0x18000 00:02 3419 489959280]: r-xp /cat
...
# perf script --itrace=e | wc -l
Warning:
19 instruction trace errors
19
#

After:

File name is correct (/root/test/merged/cat), so decoding is ok:

# perf script --no-itrace --show-mmap-events
cat 364 [016] 72.153006: PERF_RECORD_MMAP2 364/364: [0x55ce4003d000(0x9b000) @ 0x18000 00:02 3419 3132534314]: r-xp /root/test/merged/cat
# perf script --itrace=e
# perf script --itrace=e | wc -l
0
#

Fixes: def3ae83da02f ("fs: store real path instead of fake path in backing file f_path")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Adrian Hunter <adrian.hunter@xxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/events/core.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index cd63ec84e386..7b5c2373a8d7 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -9416,7 +9416,7 @@ static void perf_event_mmap_event(struct perf_mmap_event *mmap_event)
* need to add enough zero bytes after the string to handle
* the 64bit alignment we do later.
*/
- name = file_path(file, buf, PATH_MAX - sizeof(u64));
+ name = d_path(file_user_path(file), buf, PATH_MAX - sizeof(u64));
if (IS_ERR(name)) {
name = "//toolong";
goto cpy_name;
--
2.48.1