tree 56ca684bc235251c80fdae212b8ca912f4958a35
parent 7984754b99b6c89054edc405e9d9d35810a91d36
author Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@redhat.com> 1390521360 -0800
committer Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> 1390523823 -0800

kdump: fix exported size of vmcoreinfo note

Right now we seem to be exporting the max data size contained inside
vmcoreinfo note.  But this does not include the size of meta data around
vmcore info data.  Like name of the note and starting and ending elf_note.

I think user space expects total size and that size is put in PT_NOTE elf
header.  Things seem to be fine so far because we are not using vmcoreinfo
note to the maximum capacity.  But as it starts filling up, to capacity,
at some point of time, problem will be visible.

I don't think user space will be broken with this change.  So there is no
need to introduce vmcoreinfo2.  This change is safe and backward
compatible.  More explanation on why this change is safe is below.

vmcoreinfo contains information about kernel which user space needs to
know to do things like filtering.  For example, various kernel config
options or information about size or offset of some data structures etc.
All this information is commmunicated to user space with an ELF note
present in ELF /proc/vmcore file.

Currently vmcoreinfo data size is 4096.  With some elf note meta data
around it, actual size is 4132 bytes.  But we are using barely 25% of that
size.  Rest is empty.  So even if we tell user space that size of ELf note
is 4096 and not 4132, nothing will be broken becase after around 1000
bytes, everything is zero anyway.

But once we start filling up the note to the capacity, and not report the
full size of note, bad things will start happening.  Either some data will
be lost or tools will be confused that they did not fine the zero note at
the end.

So I think this change is safe and should not break existing tools.

Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@redhat.com>
Cc: Ken'ichi Ohmichi <oomichi@mxs.nes.nec.co.jp>
Cc: Dan Aloni <da-x@monatomic.org>
Cc: Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>