Linux Kernel Daily: Probe Subsystem Fixes
Linus Torvalds merged critical fixes for the Linux kernel's probe subsystem, addressing memory safety issues with kprobes and fprobe functionality. The updates resolve problems with module loading, test isolation, and RCU grace period handling.
Duration: PT1M57S
Episode overview
This episode is a short developer briefing from Linux Kernel Daily.
It explains recent repository work in plain language.
- Show: Linux Kernel Daily
- Published: 2026-05-13T10:01:30Z
- Audio duration: PT1M57S
Transcript excerpt
This excerpt keeps the crawler page concise. Listen to the episode or use the RSS feed for the full update.
Good morning, this is Linux Kernel Daily for Friday, May 13th, 2026.
Linus Torvalds merged a significant fix set for the kernel's probe subsystem from Masami Hiramatsu's tracing tree. The merge addresses three critical issues in the probing infrastructure that handles dynamic instrumentation and debugging.
The first fix resolves a problem where kprobes incorrectly processed non-symbol addresses in the blacklist function. This issue occurred because ftrace was adding NOPs to the kprobes.text section, causing wrong entries when loading modules with the __kprobes attribute. The solution adds "notrace" annotations to…
The second fix improves the kprobes test suite by ensuring proper cleanup between test runs. The test framework now clears all kprobes after each test set, which is essential since Kunit tests can run multiple times and leftover probes could interfere with subsequent runs.
The third and most critical fix addresses a memory safety issue in the fprobe subsystem. The unregister_fprobe function now properly waits for RCU grace periods before cleanup. Previously, the function used hlist_del_rcu to remove data structures but didn't wait for the required grace period, potentially…
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