tracing: Print nasty banner when trace_printk() is in use

trace_printk() is used to debug fast paths within the kernel. Places
that gets called in any context (interrupt or NMI) or thousands of
times a second. Something you do not want to do with a printk().

In order to make it completely lockless as it needs a temporary buffer
to handle some of the string formatting, a page is created per cpu for
every context (four per cpu; normal, softirq, irq, NMI).

Since trace_printk() should only be used for debugging purposes,
there's no reason to waste memory on these buffers on a production
system. That means, trace_printk() should never be used unless a
developer is debugging their kernel. There's macro magic to allocate
the buffers if trace_printk() is used anywhere in the kernel.

To help enforce that trace_printk() isn't used outside of development,
when it is used, a nasty banner is displayed on bootup (or when a module
is loaded that uses trace_printk() and the kernel core does not).

Here's the banner:

 **********************************************************
 **   NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE   **
 **                                                      **
 ** trace_printk() being used. Allocating extra memory.  **
 **                                                      **
 ** This means that this is a DEBUG kernel and it is     **
 ** unsafe for produciton use.                           **
 **                                                      **
 ** If you see this message and you are not debugging    **
 ** the kernel, report this immediately to your vendor!  **
 **                                                      **
 **   NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE   **
 **********************************************************

That should hopefully keep developers from trying to sneak in a
trace_printk() or two.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/p/20140528131440.2283213c@gandalf.local.home
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index 05431696b10c2e73baeeb69f0cd5e91ebf4bee22..eb228b9de17095418e738d5e5f1ec664d3f2caa1 100644 (file)
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c
@@ -1975,7 +1975,21 @@ void trace_printk_init_buffers(void)
        if (alloc_percpu_trace_buffer())
                return;
 
-       pr_info("ftrace: Allocated trace_printk buffers\n");
+       /* trace_printk() is for debug use only. Don't use it in production. */
+
+       pr_warning("\n**********************************************************\n");
+       pr_warning("**   NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE   **\n");
+       pr_warning("**                                                      **\n");
+       pr_warning("** trace_printk() being used. Allocating extra memory.  **\n");
+       pr_warning("**                                                      **\n");
+       pr_warning("** This means that this is a DEBUG kernel and it is     **\n");
+       pr_warning("** unsafe for produciton use.                           **\n");
+       pr_warning("**                                                      **\n");
+       pr_warning("** If you see this message and you are not debugging    **\n");
+       pr_warning("** the kernel, report this immediately to your vendor!  **\n");
+       pr_warning("**                                                      **\n");
+       pr_warning("**   NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE   **\n");
+       pr_warning("**********************************************************\n");
 
        /* Expand the buffers to set size */
        tracing_update_buffers();