perf_counter: Add forward/backward attribute ABI compatibility

Provide for means of extending the perf_counter_attr in a 'natural' way.

We allow growing the structure by appending fields at the end by specifying
the full structure size inside it.

When a new kernel sees a smaller (old) structure, it will 0 pad the tail.
When an old kernel sees a larger (new) structure, it will verify the tail
consists of 0s, otherwise fail.

If we fail due to a size-mismatch, we return -E2BIG and write the kernel's
native attribe size back into the provided structure.

Furthermore, add some attribute verification, so that we'll fail counter
creation when unknown bits are present (PERF_SAMPLE, PERF_FORMAT, or in
the __reserved fields).

(This ABI detail is introduced while keeping the existing syscall ABI.)

Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Cc: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@redhat.com>
LKML-Reference: <new-submission>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
4 files changed