Re: [PATCH v2 7/7] mm/tracing: introduce max_vma_count_exceeded trace event

[Kalesh Singh <kaleshsingh@google.com>]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2025 at 10:47 AM Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 16 Sep 2025 10:36:57 -0700
> Kalesh Singh <kaleshsingh@google.com> wrote:
>
> > I completely agree with the principle that static tracepoints
> > shouldn't be used as markers if a dynamic probe will suffice. The
> > intent here is to avoid introducing overhead in the common case to
> > avoid regressing mmap, munmap, and other syscall latencies; while
> > still providing observability for the max vma_count exceeded failure
> > condition.
> >
> > The original centralized check (before previous review rounds) was
> > indeed in a dedicated function, exceeds_max_map_count(), where a
> > kprobe/fprobe could have been easily attached without impacting the
> > common path. This was changed due to previous review feedback to the
> > capacity based vma_count_remaining() which necessitated the check to
> > be done externally by the callers:
> >
> > https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250903232437.1454293-1-kaleshsingh@google.com/
> >
> > Would you be ok with something like:
> >
> > trace_max_vma_count_exceeded(mm);
> >
> > TP_STRUCT__entry(
> > __field(unsigned int, mm_id)
> > __field(unsigned int vma_count)
> > )
> >
> > mm_id would be the hash of the mm_struct ptr similar to rss_stat and
> > the vma_count is the current vma count (some syscalls have different
> > requirements on the capacity remaining: mremap requires 6 available
> > slots, other syscalls require 1).
> >
>
> BTW, why the hash of the mm pointer and not the pointer itself? We save
> pointers in lots of places, and if it is the pointer, you could use an
> eprobe to attache to the trace event to dereference its fields.

In Android we try to avoid exposing raw kernel pointers to userspace
for security reasons: raising /proc/sys/kernel/kptr_restrict to 2
immediately after symbols are resolved for necessary telemetry tooling
during early boot. I believe this is also why rss_stat uses the hash
and not the raw pointer.

Thanks,
Kalesh

>
> -- Steve
>
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