linux_dsm_epyc7002/Documentation/ABI
Josh Poimboeuf d83a7cb375 livepatch: change to a per-task consistency model
Change livepatch to use a basic per-task consistency model.  This is the
foundation which will eventually enable us to patch those ~10% of
security patches which change function or data semantics.  This is the
biggest remaining piece needed to make livepatch more generally useful.

This code stems from the design proposal made by Vojtech [1] in November
2014.  It's a hybrid of kGraft and kpatch: it uses kGraft's per-task
consistency and syscall barrier switching combined with kpatch's stack
trace switching.  There are also a number of fallback options which make
it quite flexible.

Patches are applied on a per-task basis, when the task is deemed safe to
switch over.  When a patch is enabled, livepatch enters into a
transition state where tasks are converging to the patched state.
Usually this transition state can complete in a few seconds.  The same
sequence occurs when a patch is disabled, except the tasks converge from
the patched state to the unpatched state.

An interrupt handler inherits the patched state of the task it
interrupts.  The same is true for forked tasks: the child inherits the
patched state of the parent.

Livepatch uses several complementary approaches to determine when it's
safe to patch tasks:

1. The first and most effective approach is stack checking of sleeping
   tasks.  If no affected functions are on the stack of a given task,
   the task is patched.  In most cases this will patch most or all of
   the tasks on the first try.  Otherwise it'll keep trying
   periodically.  This option is only available if the architecture has
   reliable stacks (HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE).

2. The second approach, if needed, is kernel exit switching.  A
   task is switched when it returns to user space from a system call, a
   user space IRQ, or a signal.  It's useful in the following cases:

   a) Patching I/O-bound user tasks which are sleeping on an affected
      function.  In this case you have to send SIGSTOP and SIGCONT to
      force it to exit the kernel and be patched.
   b) Patching CPU-bound user tasks.  If the task is highly CPU-bound
      then it will get patched the next time it gets interrupted by an
      IRQ.
   c) In the future it could be useful for applying patches for
      architectures which don't yet have HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE.  In
      this case you would have to signal most of the tasks on the
      system.  However this isn't supported yet because there's
      currently no way to patch kthreads without
      HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE.

3. For idle "swapper" tasks, since they don't ever exit the kernel, they
   instead have a klp_update_patch_state() call in the idle loop which
   allows them to be patched before the CPU enters the idle state.

   (Note there's not yet such an approach for kthreads.)

All the above approaches may be skipped by setting the 'immediate' flag
in the 'klp_patch' struct, which will disable per-task consistency and
patch all tasks immediately.  This can be useful if the patch doesn't
change any function or data semantics.  Note that, even with this flag
set, it's possible that some tasks may still be running with an old
version of the function, until that function returns.

There's also an 'immediate' flag in the 'klp_func' struct which allows
you to specify that certain functions in the patch can be applied
without per-task consistency.  This might be useful if you want to patch
a common function like schedule(), and the function change doesn't need
consistency but the rest of the patch does.

For architectures which don't have HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE, the user
must set patch->immediate which causes all tasks to be patched
immediately.  This option should be used with care, only when the patch
doesn't change any function or data semantics.

In the future, architectures which don't have HAVE_RELIABLE_STACKTRACE
may be allowed to use per-task consistency if we can come up with
another way to patch kthreads.

The /sys/kernel/livepatch/<patch>/transition file shows whether a patch
is in transition.  Only a single patch (the topmost patch on the stack)
can be in transition at a given time.  A patch can remain in transition
indefinitely, if any of the tasks are stuck in the initial patch state.

A transition can be reversed and effectively canceled by writing the
opposite value to the /sys/kernel/livepatch/<patch>/enabled file while
the transition is in progress.  Then all the tasks will attempt to
converge back to the original patch state.

[1] https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20141107140458.GA21774@suse.cz

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Miroslav Benes <mbenes@suse.cz>
Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>        # for the scheduler changes
Signed-off-by: Jiri Kosina <jkosina@suse.cz>
2017-03-08 09:36:21 +01:00
..
obsolete zram: remove obsolete sysfs attrs 2017-02-22 16:41:30 -08:00
removed
stable
testing livepatch: change to a per-task consistency model 2017-03-08 09:36:21 +01:00
README

This directory attempts to document the ABI between the Linux kernel and
userspace, and the relative stability of these interfaces.  Due to the
everchanging nature of Linux, and the differing maturity levels, these
interfaces should be used by userspace programs in different ways.

We have four different levels of ABI stability, as shown by the four
different subdirectories in this location.  Interfaces may change levels
of stability according to the rules described below.

The different levels of stability are:

  stable/
	This directory documents the interfaces that the developer has
	defined to be stable.  Userspace programs are free to use these
	interfaces with no restrictions, and backward compatibility for
	them will be guaranteed for at least 2 years.  Most interfaces
	(like syscalls) are expected to never change and always be
	available.

  testing/
	This directory documents interfaces that are felt to be stable,
	as the main development of this interface has been completed.
	The interface can be changed to add new features, but the
	current interface will not break by doing this, unless grave
	errors or security problems are found in them.  Userspace
	programs can start to rely on these interfaces, but they must be
	aware of changes that can occur before these interfaces move to
	be marked stable.  Programs that use these interfaces are
	strongly encouraged to add their name to the description of
	these interfaces, so that the kernel developers can easily
	notify them if any changes occur (see the description of the
	layout of the files below for details on how to do this.)

  obsolete/
  	This directory documents interfaces that are still remaining in
	the kernel, but are marked to be removed at some later point in
	time.  The description of the interface will document the reason
	why it is obsolete and when it can be expected to be removed.

  removed/
	This directory contains a list of the old interfaces that have
	been removed from the kernel.

Every file in these directories will contain the following information:

What:		Short description of the interface
Date:		Date created
KernelVersion:	Kernel version this feature first showed up in.
Contact:	Primary contact for this interface (may be a mailing list)
Description:	Long description of the interface and how to use it.
Users:		All users of this interface who wish to be notified when
		it changes.  This is very important for interfaces in
		the "testing" stage, so that kernel developers can work
		with userspace developers to ensure that things do not
		break in ways that are unacceptable.  It is also
		important to get feedback for these interfaces to make
		sure they are working in a proper way and do not need to
		be changed further.


How things move between levels:

Interfaces in stable may move to obsolete, as long as the proper
notification is given.

Interfaces may be removed from obsolete and the kernel as long as the
documented amount of time has gone by.

Interfaces in the testing state can move to the stable state when the
developers feel they are finished.  They cannot be removed from the
kernel tree without going through the obsolete state first.

It's up to the developer to place their interfaces in the category they
wish for it to start out in.


Notable bits of non-ABI, which should not under any circumstances be considered
stable:

- Kconfig.  Userspace should not rely on the presence or absence of any
  particular Kconfig symbol, in /proc/config.gz, in the copy of .config
  commonly installed to /boot, or in any invocation of the kernel build
  process.

- Kernel-internal symbols.  Do not rely on the presence, absence, location, or
  type of any kernel symbol, either in System.map files or the kernel binary
  itself.  See Documentation/process/stable-api-nonsense.rst.