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Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -07001Short users guide for SLUB
2--------------------------
3
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -07004The basic philosophy of SLUB is very different from SLAB. SLAB
5requires rebuilding the kernel to activate debug options for all
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -07006slab caches. SLUB always includes full debugging but it is off by default.
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -07007SLUB can enable debugging only for selected slabs in order to avoid
8an impact on overall system performance which may make a bug more
9difficult to find.
10
11In order to switch debugging on one can add a option "slub_debug"
12to the kernel command line. That will enable full debugging for
13all slabs.
14
15Typically one would then use the "slabinfo" command to get statistical
16data and perform operation on the slabs. By default slabinfo only lists
17slabs that have data in them. See "slabinfo -h" for more options when
18running the command. slabinfo can be compiled with
19
Paul Bolle395cf962011-08-15 02:02:26 +020020gcc -o slabinfo tools/slub/slabinfo.c
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070021
22Some of the modes of operation of slabinfo require that slub debugging
23be enabled on the command line. F.e. no tracking information will be
24available without debugging on and validation can only partially
25be performed if debugging was not switched on.
26
27Some more sophisticated uses of slub_debug:
28-------------------------------------------
29
30Parameters may be given to slub_debug. If none is specified then full
31debugging is enabled. Format:
32
33slub_debug=<Debug-Options> Enable options for all slabs
34slub_debug=<Debug-Options>,<slab name>
35 Enable options only for select slabs
36
37Possible debug options are
38 F Sanity checks on (enables SLAB_DEBUG_FREE. Sorry
39 SLAB legacy issues)
40 Z Red zoning
41 P Poisoning (object and padding)
42 U User tracking (free and alloc)
43 T Trace (please only use on single slabs)
Dmitry Monakhov4c13dd32010-02-26 09:36:12 +030044 A Toggle failslab filter mark for the cache
David Rientjesfa5ec8a2009-07-07 00:14:14 -070045 O Switch debugging off for caches that would have
46 caused higher minimum slab orders
Christoph Lameterf0630ff2007-07-15 23:38:14 -070047 - Switch all debugging off (useful if the kernel is
48 configured with CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG_ON)
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070049
50F.e. in order to boot just with sanity checks and red zoning one would specify:
51
52 slub_debug=FZ
53
54Trying to find an issue in the dentry cache? Try
55
Itaru Kitayama989a7242008-03-05 15:07:30 -080056 slub_debug=,dentry
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070057
58to only enable debugging on the dentry cache.
59
60Red zoning and tracking may realign the slab. We can just apply sanity checks
61to the dentry cache with
62
Itaru Kitayama989a7242008-03-05 15:07:30 -080063 slub_debug=F,dentry
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070064
David Rientjesfa5ec8a2009-07-07 00:14:14 -070065Debugging options may require the minimum possible slab order to increase as
66a result of storing the metadata (for example, caches with PAGE_SIZE object
67sizes). This has a higher liklihood of resulting in slab allocation errors
68in low memory situations or if there's high fragmentation of memory. To
69switch off debugging for such caches by default, use
70
71 slub_debug=O
72
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070073In case you forgot to enable debugging on the kernel command line: It is
74possible to enable debugging manually when the kernel is up. Look at the
75contents of:
76
Greg Kroah-Hartman081248d2007-11-01 09:29:06 -060077/sys/kernel/slab/<slab name>/
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070078
79Look at the writable files. Writing 1 to them will enable the
80corresponding debug option. All options can be set on a slab that does
81not contain objects. If the slab already contains objects then sanity checks
82and tracing may only be enabled. The other options may cause the realignment
83of objects.
84
85Careful with tracing: It may spew out lots of information and never stop if
86used on the wrong slab.
87
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -070088Slab merging
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070089------------
90
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -070091If no debug options are specified then SLUB may merge similar slabs together
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -070092in order to reduce overhead and increase cache hotness of objects.
93slabinfo -a displays which slabs were merged together.
94
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -070095Slab validation
96---------------
97
98SLUB can validate all object if the kernel was booted with slub_debug. In
99order to do so you must have the slabinfo tool. Then you can do
100
101slabinfo -v
102
103which will test all objects. Output will be generated to the syslog.
104
105This also works in a more limited way if boot was without slab debug.
106In that case slabinfo -v simply tests all reachable objects. Usually
107these are in the cpu slabs and the partial slabs. Full slabs are not
108tracked by SLUB in a non debug situation.
109
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -0700110Getting more performance
111------------------------
112
113To some degree SLUB's performance is limited by the need to take the
114list_lock once in a while to deal with partial slabs. That overhead is
115governed by the order of the allocation for each slab. The allocations
116can be influenced by kernel parameters:
117
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700118slub_min_objects=x (default 4)
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -0700119slub_min_order=x (default 0)
Eric Dumazet25f43792011-11-22 06:59:09 +0100120slub_max_order=x (default 3 (PAGE_ALLOC_COSTLY_ORDER))
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -0700121
122slub_min_objects allows to specify how many objects must at least fit
123into one slab in order for the allocation order to be acceptable.
124In general slub will be able to perform this number of allocations
125on a slab without consulting centralized resources (list_lock) where
126contention may occur.
127
128slub_min_order specifies a minim order of slabs. A similar effect like
129slub_min_objects.
130
131slub_max_order specified the order at which slub_min_objects should no
132longer be checked. This is useful to avoid SLUB trying to generate
133super large order pages to fit slub_min_objects of a slab cache with
Stanislaw Gruszka888a2142012-01-12 17:17:39 -0800134large object sizes into one high order page. Setting command line
135parameter debug_guardpage_minorder=N (N > 0), forces setting
136slub_max_order to 0, what cause minimum possible order of slabs
137allocation.
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -0700138
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700139SLUB Debug output
140-----------------
Christoph Lameter35243422007-05-06 14:49:47 -0700141
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700142Here is a sample of slub debug output:
143
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700144====================================================================
145BUG kmalloc-8: Redzone overwritten
146--------------------------------------------------------------------
147
148INFO: 0xc90f6d28-0xc90f6d2b. First byte 0x00 instead of 0xcc
149INFO: Slab 0xc528c530 flags=0x400000c3 inuse=61 fp=0xc90f6d58
150INFO: Object 0xc90f6d20 @offset=3360 fp=0xc90f6d58
151INFO: Allocated in get_modalias+0x61/0xf5 age=53 cpu=1 pid=554
152
153Bytes b4 0xc90f6d10: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a ........ZZZZZZZZ
154 Object 0xc90f6d20: 31 30 31 39 2e 30 30 35 1019.005
155 Redzone 0xc90f6d28: 00 cc cc cc .
156 Padding 0xc90f6d50: 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a 5a ZZZZZZZZ
157
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700158 [<c010523d>] dump_trace+0x63/0x1eb
159 [<c01053df>] show_trace_log_lvl+0x1a/0x2f
160 [<c010601d>] show_trace+0x12/0x14
161 [<c0106035>] dump_stack+0x16/0x18
162 [<c017e0fa>] object_err+0x143/0x14b
163 [<c017e2cc>] check_object+0x66/0x234
164 [<c017eb43>] __slab_free+0x239/0x384
165 [<c017f446>] kfree+0xa6/0xc6
166 [<c02e2335>] get_modalias+0xb9/0xf5
167 [<c02e23b7>] dmi_dev_uevent+0x27/0x3c
168 [<c027866a>] dev_uevent+0x1ad/0x1da
169 [<c0205024>] kobject_uevent_env+0x20a/0x45b
170 [<c020527f>] kobject_uevent+0xa/0xf
171 [<c02779f1>] store_uevent+0x4f/0x58
172 [<c027758e>] dev_attr_store+0x29/0x2f
173 [<c01bec4f>] sysfs_write_file+0x16e/0x19c
174 [<c0183ba7>] vfs_write+0xd1/0x15a
175 [<c01841d7>] sys_write+0x3d/0x72
176 [<c0104112>] sysenter_past_esp+0x5f/0x99
177 [<b7f7b410>] 0xb7f7b410
178 =======================
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700179
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700180FIX kmalloc-8: Restoring Redzone 0xc90f6d28-0xc90f6d2b=0xcc
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700181
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700182If SLUB encounters a corrupted object (full detection requires the kernel
183to be booted with slub_debug) then the following output will be dumped
184into the syslog:
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700185
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -07001861. Description of the problem encountered
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700187
188This will be a message in the system log starting with
189
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700190===============================================
191BUG <slab cache affected>: <What went wrong>
192-----------------------------------------------
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700193
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700194INFO: <corruption start>-<corruption_end> <more info>
195INFO: Slab <address> <slab information>
196INFO: Object <address> <object information>
197INFO: Allocated in <kernel function> age=<jiffies since alloc> cpu=<allocated by
198 cpu> pid=<pid of the process>
199INFO: Freed in <kernel function> age=<jiffies since free> cpu=<freed by cpu>
200 pid=<pid of the process>
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700201
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700202(Object allocation / free information is only available if SLAB_STORE_USER is
203set for the slab. slub_debug sets that option)
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700204
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -07002052. The object contents if an object was involved.
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700206
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700207Various types of lines can follow the BUG SLUB line:
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700208
209Bytes b4 <address> : <bytes>
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700210 Shows a few bytes before the object where the problem was detected.
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700211 Can be useful if the corruption does not stop with the start of the
212 object.
213
214Object <address> : <bytes>
215 The bytes of the object. If the object is inactive then the bytes
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700216 typically contain poison values. Any non-poison value shows a
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700217 corruption by a write after free.
218
219Redzone <address> : <bytes>
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700220 The Redzone following the object. The Redzone is used to detect
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700221 writes after the object. All bytes should always have the same
222 value. If there is any deviation then it is due to a write after
223 the object boundary.
224
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700225 (Redzone information is only available if SLAB_RED_ZONE is set.
226 slub_debug sets that option)
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700227
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700228Padding <address> : <bytes>
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700229 Unused data to fill up the space in order to get the next object
230 properly aligned. In the debug case we make sure that there are
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700231 at least 4 bytes of padding. This allows the detection of writes
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700232 before the object.
233
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -07002343. A stackdump
Christoph Lameterc1aee212007-05-31 00:40:47 -0700235
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700236The stackdump describes the location where the error was detected. The cause
237of the corruption is may be more likely found by looking at the function that
238allocated or freed the object.
239
2404. Report on how the problem was dealt with in order to ensure the continued
241operation of the system.
242
243These are messages in the system log beginning with
244
245FIX <slab cache affected>: <corrective action taken>
246
247In the above sample SLUB found that the Redzone of an active object has
248been overwritten. Here a string of 8 characters was written into a slab that
249has the length of 8 characters. However, a 8 character string needs a
250terminating 0. That zero has overwritten the first byte of the Redzone field.
251After reporting the details of the issue encountered the FIX SLUB message
Justin P. Mattocke02f0e82009-12-04 00:36:35 -0800252tells us that SLUB has restored the Redzone to its proper value and then
Christoph Lameter24922682007-07-17 04:03:18 -0700253system operations continue.
254
255Emergency operations:
256---------------------
257
258Minimal debugging (sanity checks alone) can be enabled by booting with
259
260 slub_debug=F
261
262This will be generally be enough to enable the resiliency features of slub
263which will keep the system running even if a bad kernel component will
264keep corrupting objects. This may be important for production systems.
265Performance will be impacted by the sanity checks and there will be a
266continual stream of error messages to the syslog but no additional memory
267will be used (unlike full debugging).
268
269No guarantees. The kernel component still needs to be fixed. Performance
270may be optimized further by locating the slab that experiences corruption
271and enabling debugging only for that cache
272
273I.e.
274
275 slub_debug=F,dentry
276
277If the corruption occurs by writing after the end of the object then it
278may be advisable to enable a Redzone to avoid corrupting the beginning
279of other objects.
280
281 slub_debug=FZ,dentry
282
Christoph Lametercde53532008-07-04 09:59:22 -0700283Christoph Lameter, May 30, 2007