Linux kernel ============ The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware, system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software. Quick Start ----------- * Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst * Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org * Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst * Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/ Essential Documentation ----------------------- All users should be familiar with: * Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst * Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst * License: See COPYING Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/ Who Are You? ============ Find your role below: * New Kernel Developer - Getting started with kernel development * Academic Researcher - Studying kernel internals and architecture * Security Expert - Hardening and vulnerability analysis * Backport/Maintenance Engineer - Maintaining stable kernels * System Administrator - Configuring and troubleshooting * Maintainer - Leading subsystems and reviewing patches * Hardware Vendor - Writing drivers for new hardware * Distribution Maintainer - Packaging kernels for distros * AI Coding Assistant - LLMs and AI-powered development tools For Specific Users ================== New Kernel Developer -------------------- Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here: * Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst * Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst * Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst * Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst * Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst * Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst * Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst Academic Researcher ------------------- Explore the kernel's architecture and internals: * Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst * Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst * Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst * Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst * Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst * RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst * Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst * Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst Security Expert --------------- Security documentation and hardening guides: * Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst * LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst * Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst * Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst * CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst * Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst * Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst Backport/Maintenance Engineer ----------------------------- Maintain and stabilize kernel versions: * Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst * Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst * Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst * Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst * Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst System Administrator -------------------- Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems: * Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst * Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst * Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst * Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst * Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst * Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst Maintainer ---------- Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions: * Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst * Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst * Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst * Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst * Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst * Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst * Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst Hardware Vendor --------------- Write drivers and support new hardware: * Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst * Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst * Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst * Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst * Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/ * Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst * DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst Distribution Maintainer ----------------------- Package and distribute the kernel: * Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst * ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README * Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst * Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst * Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst * Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst AI Coding Assistant ------------------- CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux kernel: * Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution, and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with. Communication and Support ========================= * Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/ * IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net * Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/ * MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists * Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst
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In unplug_oldest_pwq(), the first inactive work item on the
pool_workqueue is activated correctly. However, if multiple inactive
works exist on the same pool_workqueue, subsequent works fail to
activate because wq_node_nr_active.pending_pwqs is empty — the list
insertion is skipped when the pool_workqueue is plugged.
Fix this by checking for additional inactive works in
unplug_oldest_pwq() and updating wq_node_nr_active.pending_pwqs
accordingly.
Fixes: 4c065dbce1e8 ("workqueue: Enable unbound cpumask update on ordered workqueues")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Carlos Santa <carlos.santa@intel.com>
Cc: Ryan Neph <ryanneph@google.com>
Cc: Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@gmail.com>
Cc: Waiman Long <longman@redhat.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Matthew Brost <matthew.brost@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Acked-by: Waiman Long <longman@redhat.com>
Try to be more explicit why the workqueue watchdog does not take
pool->lock by default. Spin locks are full memory barriers which
delay anything. Obviously, they would primary delay operations
on the related worker pools.
Explain why it is enough to prevent the false positive by re-checking
the timestamp under the pool->lock.
Finally, make it clear what would be the alternative solution in
__queue_work() which is a hotter path.
Signed-off-by: Petr Mladek <pmladek@suse.com>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
On weakly ordered architectures (e.g., arm64), the lockless check in
wq_watchdog_timer_fn() can observe a reordering between the worklist
insertion and the last_progress_ts update. Specifically, the watchdog
can see a non-empty worklist (from a list_add) while reading a stale
last_progress_ts value, causing a false positive stall report.
This was confirmed by reading pool->last_progress_ts again after holding
pool->lock in wq_watchdog_timer_fn():
workqueue watchdog: pool 7 false positive detected!
lockless_ts=4784580465 locked_ts=4785033728
diff=453263ms worklist_empty=0
To avoid slowing down the hot path (queue_work, etc.), recheck
last_progress_ts with pool->lock held. This will eliminate the false
positive with minimal overhead.
Remove two extra empty lines in wq_watchdog_timer_fn() as we are on it.
Fixes: 82607adcf9cd ("workqueue: implement lockup detector")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # v4.5+
Assisted-by: claude-code:claude-opus-4-6
Signed-off-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
show_cpu_pool_hog() and show_cpu_pools_hogs() no longer only dump CPU
hogs — since commit 8823eaef45da ("workqueue: Show all busy workers in
stall diagnostics"), they dump every in-flight worker in the pool's
busy_hash.
Rename them to show_cpu_pool_busy_workers() and
show_cpu_pools_busy_workers() to accurately describe what they do.
Also fix the pr_info() message to say "stalled worker pools" instead of
"stalled CPU-bound worker pools", since sleeping/blocked workers are now
included.
No functional change.
Suggested-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Add a sample module under samples/workqueue/stall_detector/ that
reproduces a workqueue stall caused by PF_WQ_WORKER misuse. The
module queues two work items on the same per-CPU pool, then clears
PF_WQ_WORKER and sleeps in wait_event_idle(), hiding from the
concurrency manager and stalling the second work item indefinitely.
This is useful for testing the workqueue watchdog stall diagnostics.
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
show_cpu_pool_hog() only prints workers whose task is currently running
on the CPU (task_is_running()). This misses workers that are busy
processing a work item but are sleeping or blocked — for example, a
worker that clears PF_WQ_WORKER and enters wait_event_idle(). Such a
worker still occupies a pool slot and prevents progress, yet produces
an empty backtrace section in the watchdog output.
This is happening on real arm64 systems, where
toggle_allocation_gate() IPIs every single CPU in the machine (which
lacks NMI), causing workqueue stalls that show empty backtraces because
toggle_allocation_gate() is sleeping in wait_event_idle().
Remove the task_is_running() filter so every in-flight worker in the
pool's busy_hash is dumped. The busy_hash is protected by pool->lock,
which is already held.
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
When diagnosing workqueue stalls, knowing how long each in-flight work
item has been executing is valuable. Add a current_start timestamp
(jiffies) to struct worker, set it when a work item begins execution in
process_one_work(), and print the elapsed wall-clock time in show_pwq().
Unlike current_at (which tracks CPU runtime and resets on wakeup for
CPU-intensive detection), current_start is never reset because the
diagnostic cares about total wall-clock time including sleeps.
Before: in-flight: 165:stall_work_fn [wq_stall]
After: in-flight: 165:stall_work_fn [wq_stall] for 100s
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
The watchdog_ts name doesn't convey what the timestamp actually tracks.
This field tracks the last time a workqueue got progress.
Rename it to last_progress_ts to make it clear that it records when the
pool last made forward progress (started processing new work items).
No functional change.
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
pr_cont_worker_id() checks pool->flags against WQ_BH, which is a
workqueue-level flag (defined in workqueue.h). Pool flags use a
separate namespace with POOL_* constants (defined in workqueue.c).
The correct constant is POOL_BH. Both WQ_BH and POOL_BH are defined
as (1 << 0) so this has no behavioral impact, but it is semantically
wrong and inconsistent with every other pool-level BH check in the
file.
Fixes: 4cb1ef64609f ("workqueue: Implement BH workqueues to eventually replace tasklets")
Signed-off-by: Breno Leitao <leitao@debian.org>
Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
Pull module fixes from Sami Tolvanen:
- Fix a potential kernel panic in the module loader by adding a bounds
check for the ELF section index. This prevents crashes if attempting
to load a module that uses SHN_XINDEX or is corrupted.
- Fix the Kconfig menu layout for module versioning, signing, and
compression options so they correctly appear as submenus in
menuconfig.
- Remove a redundant lockdep_free_key_range() call in the load_module()
error path. This is already handled by module_deallocate() calling
free_mod_mem() since the module_memory rework.
* tag 'modules-7.0-rc3.fixes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/modules/linux:
module: Fix kernel panic when a symbol st_shndx is out of bounds
module: Fix the modversions and signing submenus
module: Remove duplicate freeing of lockdep classes
Pull vfs fixes from Christian Brauner:
- kthread: consolidate kthread exit paths to prevent use-after-free
- iomap:
- don't mark folio uptodate if read IO has bytes pending
- don't report direct-io retries to fserror
- reject delalloc mappings during writeback
- ns: tighten visibility checks
- netfs: Fix unbuffered/DIO writes to dispatch subrequests in strict
sequence
* tag 'vfs-7.0-rc3.fixes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vfs/vfs:
iomap: reject delalloc mappings during writeback
iomap: don't mark folio uptodate if read IO has bytes pending
selftests: fix mntns iteration selftests
nstree: tighten permission checks for listing
nsfs: tighten permission checks for handle opening
nsfs: tighten permission checks for ns iteration ioctls
netfs: Fix unbuffered/DIO writes to dispatch subrequests in strict sequence
kthread: consolidate kthread exit paths to prevent use-after-free
iomap: don't report direct-io retries to fserror
The module loader doesn't check for bounds of the ELF section index in
simplify_symbols():
for (i = 1; i < symsec->sh_size / sizeof(Elf_Sym); i++) {
const char *name = info->strtab + sym[i].st_name;
switch (sym[i].st_shndx) {
case SHN_COMMON:
[...]
default:
/* Divert to percpu allocation if a percpu var. */
if (sym[i].st_shndx == info->index.pcpu)
secbase = (unsigned long)mod_percpu(mod);
else
/** HERE --> **/ secbase = info->sechdrs[sym[i].st_shndx].sh_addr;
sym[i].st_value += secbase;
break;
}
}
A symbol with an out-of-bounds st_shndx value, for example 0xffff
(known as SHN_XINDEX or SHN_HIRESERVE), may cause a kernel panic:
BUG: unable to handle page fault for address: ...
RIP: 0010:simplify_symbols+0x2b2/0x480
...
Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception
This can happen when module ELF is legitimately using SHN_XINDEX or
when it is corrupted.
Add a bounds check in simplify_symbols() to validate that st_shndx is
within the valid range before using it.
This issue was discovered due to a bug in llvm-objcopy, see relevant
discussion for details [1].
[1] https://lore.kernel.org/linux-modules/20251224005752.201911-1-ihor.solodrai@linux.dev/
Signed-off-by: Ihor Solodrai <ihor.solodrai@linux.dev>
Reviewed-by: Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@samsung.com>
Reviewed-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>
Pull sysctl fix from Joel Granados:
- Fix error when reporting jiffies converted values back to user space
Return the converted value instead of "Invalid argument" error
* tag 'sysctl-7.00-fixes-rc3' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/sysctl/sysctl:
time/jiffies: Fix sysctl file error on configurations where USER_HZ < HZ
Filesystems should never provide a delayed allocation mapping to
writeback; they're supposed to allocate the space before replying.
This can lead to weird IO errors and crashes in the block layer if the
filesystem is being malicious, or if it hadn't set iomap->dev because
it's a delalloc mapping.
Fix this by failing writeback on delalloc mappings. Currently no
filesystems actually misbehave in this manner, but we ought to be
stricter about things like that.
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # v5.5
Fixes: 598ecfbaa742ac ("iomap: lift the xfs writeback code to iomap")
Signed-off-by: Darrick J. Wong <djwong@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260302173002.GL13829@frogsfrogsfrogs
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
Reviewed-by: Carlos Maiolino <cmaiolino@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
The module Kconfig file contains a set of options related to "Module
versioning support" (depends on MODVERSIONS) and "Module signature
verification" (depends on MODULE_SIG). The Kconfig tool automatically
creates submenus when an entry for a symbol is followed by consecutive
items that all depend on the symbol. However, this functionality doesn't
work for the mentioned module options. The MODVERSIONS options are
interleaved with ASM_MODVERSIONS, which has no 'depends on MODVERSIONS' but
instead uses 'default HAVE_ASM_MODVERSIONS && MODVERSIONS'. Similarly, the
MODULE_SIG options are interleaved by a comment warning not to forget
signing modules with scripts/sign-file, which uses the condition 'depends
on MODULE_SIG_FORCE && !MODULE_SIG_ALL'.
The result is that the options are confusingly shown when using
a menuconfig tool, as follows:
[*] Module versioning support
Module versioning implementation (genksyms (from source code)) --->
[ ] Extended Module Versioning Support
[*] Basic Module Versioning Support
[*] Source checksum for all modules
[*] Module signature verification
[ ] Require modules to be validly signed
[ ] Automatically sign all modules
Hash algorithm to sign modules (SHA-256) --->
Fix the issue by using if/endif to group related options together in
kernel/module/Kconfig, similarly to how the MODULE_DEBUG options are
already grouped. Note that the signing-related options depend on
'MODULE_SIG || IMA_APPRAISE_MODSIG', with the exception of
MODULE_SIG_FORCE, which is valid only for MODULE_SIG and is therefore kept
separately. For consistency, do the same for the MODULE_COMPRESS entries.
The options are then properly placed into submenus, as follows:
[*] Module versioning support
Module versioning implementation (genksyms (from source code)) --->
[ ] Extended Module Versioning Support
[*] Basic Module Versioning Support
[*] Source checksum for all modules
[*] Module signature verification
[ ] Require modules to be validly signed
[ ] Automatically sign all modules
Hash algorithm to sign modules (SHA-256) --->
Signed-off-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@suse.com>
Reviewed-by: Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@samsung.com>
Signed-off-by: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>
Pull media fix from Mauro Carvalho Chehab:
"Fix for MPEG-TS decoder in dvb-net"
* tag 'media/v7.0-3' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mchehab/linux-media:
media: dvb-net: fix OOB access in ULE extension header tables
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