On 6/29/26 3:27 PM, Wang Han wrote:
Reliable frame-pointer unwinding needs an explicit way to identify
exception boundaries and the final entry frame. The existing unwinder
infers those boundaries from return addresses, which is too loose for a
future reliable unwinder.
Add a small metadata frame record to pt_regs and initialize it on
exception entry, kernel stack overflow, kernel thread fork, user fork,
and early idle task setup. The record uses a zero {fp, ra} sentinel plus
a type field so a later unwinder can distinguish a final user-to-kernel
boundary from a nested kernel pt_regs boundary.
This follows the arm64 metadata frame-record model, adapted to the
RISC-V {fp, ra} frame record convention.
The metadata is established at the RISC-V entry boundaries that need an
explicit unwind marker:
* exception entry clears the metadata {fp, ra} pair and uses SPP
(or MPP in M-mode) to record whether the pt_regs frame is the final
user-to-kernel boundary or a nested kernel boundary;
* the kernel stack overflow path builds a nested pt_regs metadata
record on the overflow stack so an unwinder can resume from the
pre-overflow s0 saved in PT_S0;
* _start_kernel builds the init task's final metadata record, while
the secondary CPU path sets up s0 before smp_callin() so idle-task
unwinding does not inherit an undefined caller frame;
* copy_thread creates matching final metadata records for new kernel
and user tasks, and keeps s0 available for the frame-pointer chain.
Keep the embedded metadata-record field offsets distinct from the
s0-relative STACKFRAME_* offsets used by call_on_irq_stack(), because
the latter describe a frame record relative to s0 rather than to the
record base.
These changes keep s0 reserved for the frame-pointer chain at task and
exception boundaries.
Overall the patch looks good to me. One nit below:
Signed-off-by: Wang Han <[email protected]>
---
arch/riscv/include/asm/ptrace.h | 9 ++++
arch/riscv/include/asm/stacktrace/frame.h | 53 +++++++++++++++++++++++
arch/riscv/kernel/asm-offsets.c | 6 +++
arch/riscv/kernel/entry.S | 39 ++++++++++++++++-
arch/riscv/kernel/head.S | 23 ++++++++++
arch/riscv/kernel/process.c | 33 +++++++++++++-
6 files changed, 159 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 arch/riscv/include/asm/stacktrace/frame.h
diff --git a/arch/riscv/include/asm/ptrace.h b/arch/riscv/include/asm/ptrace.h
index addc8188152f..4b9b0f279214 100644
--- a/arch/riscv/include/asm/ptrace.h
+++ b/arch/riscv/include/asm/ptrace.h
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
#include <uapi/asm/ptrace.h>
#include <asm/csr.h>
+#include <asm/stacktrace/frame.h>
#include <linux/compiler.h>
#ifndef __ASSEMBLER__
@@ -53,6 +54,14 @@ struct pt_regs {
unsigned long cause;
/* a0 value before the syscall */
unsigned long orig_a0;
+
+ /*
+ * This frame record is entirely zeroed on exception entry, allowing the
+ * unwinder to identify exception boundaries. The type field encodes
+ * whether the exception was taken from user (FINAL) or kernel (PT_REGS)
+ * mode.
+ */
+ struct frame_record_meta stackframe;
};
#define PTRACE_SYSEMU 0x1f
diff --git a/arch/riscv/include/asm/stacktrace/frame.h
b/arch/riscv/include/asm/stacktrace/frame.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..5720a6c65fe8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arch/riscv/include/asm/stacktrace/frame.h
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only */
+#ifndef __ASM_RISCV_STACKTRACE_FRAME_H
+#define __ASM_RISCV_STACKTRACE_FRAME_H
+
+/*
+ * See: arch/arm64/include/asm/stacktrace/frame.h for the reference
+ * implementation.
+ */
+
+/*
+ * - FRAME_META_TYPE_NONE
+ *
+ * This value is reserved.
+ *
+ * - FRAME_META_TYPE_FINAL
+ *
+ * The record is the last entry on the stack.
+ * Unwinding should terminate successfully.
+ *
+ * - FRAME_META_TYPE_PT_REGS
+ *
+ * The record is embedded within a struct pt_regs, recording the registers at
+ * an arbitrary point in time.
+ * Unwinding should consume pt_regs::epc, followed by pt_regs::ra.
+ *
+ * Note: all other values are reserved and should result in unwinding
+ * terminating with an error.
+ */
+#define FRAME_META_TYPE_NONE 0
+#define FRAME_META_TYPE_FINAL 1
+#define FRAME_META_TYPE_PT_REGS 2
+
+#ifndef __ASSEMBLER__
+/*
+ * A standard RISC-V frame record.
+ */
+struct frame_record {
+ unsigned long fp;
+ unsigned long ra;
+};
+
+/*
+ * A metadata frame record indicating a special unwind.
+ * The record::{fp,ra} fields must be zero to indicate the presence of
+ * metadata.
+ */
+struct frame_record_meta {
+ struct frame_record record;
+ unsigned long type;
+};
+#endif /* __ASSEMBLER__ */
+
+#endif /* __ASM_RISCV_STACKTRACE_FRAME_H */
diff --git a/arch/riscv/kernel/asm-offsets.c b/arch/riscv/kernel/asm-offsets.c
index a75f0cfea1e9..bc8e8cd7130a 100644
--- a/arch/riscv/kernel/asm-offsets.c
+++ b/arch/riscv/kernel/asm-offsets.c
@@ -131,6 +131,9 @@ void asm_offsets(void)
OFFSET(PT_BADADDR, pt_regs, badaddr);
OFFSET(PT_CAUSE, pt_regs, cause);
+ DEFINE(S_STACKFRAME, offsetof(struct pt_regs, stackframe));
+ DEFINE(S_STACKFRAME_TYPE, offsetof(struct pt_regs,
stackframe.type));
+
OFFSET(SUSPEND_CONTEXT_REGS, suspend_context, regs);
OFFSET(HIBERN_PBE_ADDR, pbe, address);
@@ -503,6 +506,9 @@ void asm_offsets(void)
DEFINE(STACKFRAME_SIZE_ON_STACK, ALIGN(sizeof(struct stackframe),
STACK_ALIGN));
DEFINE(STACKFRAME_FP, offsetof(struct stackframe, fp) - sizeof(struct
stackframe));
DEFINE(STACKFRAME_RA, offsetof(struct stackframe, ra) - sizeof(struct
stackframe));
+ DEFINE(STACKFRAME_RECORD_SIZE, sizeof(struct stackframe));
This should be sizeof(struct frame_record) rather than
sizeof(struct stackframe). STACKFRAME_RECORD_SIZE is used to skip past
the embedded frame_record_meta.record field:
addi s0, sp, S_STACKFRAME + STACKFRAME_RECORD_SIZE
The two structs happen to be identical today, but they are independent
types serving different purposes — struct stackframe is the existing
unwinder frame record, while struct frame_record is the one embedded
in struct frame_record_meta introduced by this patch. If struct
stackframe ever gains an extra field, this offset would silently break.
With that fixed:
Reviewed-by: Shuai Xue <[email protected]>
Thanks.
Shuai
