Documentation/kprobes: Add how to change the execution path

Add a section that explaining how to change the execution
path with kprobes and warnings for some arch.

Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Ananth N Mavinakayanahalli <ananth@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/152942500680.15209.12374262914863044775.stgit@devbox
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
This commit is contained in:
Masami Hiramatsu 2018-06-20 01:16:46 +09:00 committed by Ingo Molnar
parent 2bbda764d7
commit dcce32d952
1 changed files with 20 additions and 0 deletions

View File

@ -80,6 +80,26 @@ After the instruction is single-stepped, Kprobes executes the
"post_handler," if any, that is associated with the kprobe.
Execution then continues with the instruction following the probepoint.
Changing Execution Path
-----------------------
Since the kprobes can probe into a running kernel code, it can change
the register set, including instruction pointer. This operation
requires maximum attention, such as keeping the stack frame, recovering
execution path etc. Since it is operated on running kernel and need deep
knowladge of the archtecture and concurrent computing, you can easily
shot your foot.
If you change the instruction pointer (and set up other related
registers) in pre_handler, you must return !0 so that the kprobes
stops single stepping and just returns to given address.
This also means post_handler should not be called anymore.
Note that this operation may be harder on some architectures which
use TOC (Table of Contents) for function call, since you have to
setup new TOC for your function in your module, and recover old
one after back from it.
Return Probes
-------------