linux/scripts
Steven Rostedt e30f8e61e2 tracing: Add a tracepoint verification check at build time
If a tracepoint is defined via DECLARE_TRACE() or TRACE_EVENT() but never
called (via the trace_<tracepoint>() function), its metadata is still
around in memory and not discarded.

When created via TRACE_EVENT() the situation is worse because the
TRACE_EVENT() creates metadata that can be around 5k per trace event.
Having unused trace events causes several thousand of wasted bytes.

Add a verifier that injects a string of the name of the tracepoint it
calls that is added to the discarded section "__tracepoint_check".
For every builtin tracepoint, its name (which is saved in the in-memory
section "__tracepoint_strings") will have its name also in the
"__tracepoint_check" section if it is used.

Add a new program that is run on build called tracepoint-update. This is
executed on the vmlinux.o before the __tracepoint_check section is
discarded (the section is discarded before vmlinux is created). This
program will create an array of each string in the __tracepoint_check
section and then sort it. Then it will walk the strings in the
__tracepoint_strings section and do a binary search to check if its name
is in the __tracepoint_check section. If it is not, then it is unused and
a warning is printed.

Note, this currently only handles tracepoints that are builtin and not in
modules.

Enabling this currently with a given config produces:

warning: tracepoint 'sched_move_numa' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'sched_stick_numa' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'sched_swap_numa' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'pelt_hw_tp' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'pelt_irq_tp' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'rcu_preempt_task' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'rcu_unlock_preempted_task' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xdp_bulk_tx' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xdp_redirect_map' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xdp_redirect_map_err' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'vma_mas_szero' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'vma_store' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'hugepage_set_pmd' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'hugepage_set_pud' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'hugepage_update_pmd' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'hugepage_update_pud' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'block_rq_remap' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_handle_event' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_handle_transfer' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_gadget_ep_queue' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_alloc_request' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_free_request' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_queue_request' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'xhci_dbc_giveback_request' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_wrong_maclen' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_mismatch' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_key_not_found' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_rnext_request' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_synack_no_key' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_snd_sne_update' is unused.
warning: tracepoint 'tcp_ao_rcv_sne_update' is unused.

Some of the above is totally unused but others are not used due to their
"trace_" functions being inside configs, in which case, the defined
tracepoints should also be inside those same configs. Others are
architecture specific but defined in generic code, where they should
either be moved to the architecture or be surrounded by #ifdef for the
architectures they are for.

This tool could be updated to process modules in the future.

I'd like to thank Mathieu Desnoyers for suggesting using strings instead
of pointers, as using pointers in vmlinux.o required handling relocations
and it required implementing almost a full feature linker to do so.

To enable this check, run the build with: make UT=1

Note, when all the existing unused tracepoints are removed from the build,
the "UT=1" will be removed and this will always be enabled when
tracepoints are configured to warn on any new tracepoints. The reason this
isn't always enabled now is because it will introduce a lot of warnings
for the current unused tracepoints, and all bisects would end at this
commit for those warnings.

Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20250528114549.4d8a5e03@gandalf.local.home/

Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>
Cc: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@kernel.org>
Cc: Nicolas Schier <nicolas.schier@linux.dev>
Cc: Nick Desaulniers <nick.desaulniers+lkml@gmail.com>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Cc: Stephen Rothwell <sfr@canb.auug.org.au>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/20251022004452.920728129@kernel.org
Suggested-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com> # for using strings instead of pointers
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
..
atomic rust: Introduce atomic API helpers 2025-09-15 09:38:32 +02:00
bash-completion kbuild: add Kbuild bash completion 2025-03-15 21:22:52 +09:00
basic integer-wrap: Force full rebuild when .scl file changes 2025-05-08 09:42:06 -07:00
clang-tools gen_compile_commands.py: remove code for '\#' replacement 2025-03-15 21:16:21 +09:00
coccinelle Patch series in this pull request: 2025-10-02 18:44:54 -07:00
crypto lib/crypto: tests: Add KUnit tests for BLAKE2s 2025-08-29 09:50:19 -07:00
dtc scripts: dt_to_config: fix grammar and a typo in --help text 2025-09-26 15:53:30 -05:00
dummy-tools kbuild: dummy-tools: pretend we understand -fpatchable-function-entry 2023-11-01 23:24:56 +09:00
gcc-plugins gcc-plugins: Remove TODO_verify_il for GCC >= 16 2025-09-23 13:59:39 -07:00
gdb hrtimer: Remove hrtimer_clock_base:: Get_time 2025-09-09 12:27:18 +02:00
gendwarfksyms gendwarfksyms: order -T symtypes output by name 2025-07-26 15:31:30 +09:00
genksyms genksyms: Fix enum consts from a reference affecting new values 2025-06-07 14:38:07 +09:00
include scripts: import more list macros 2024-10-07 02:12:27 +09:00
ipe scripts: ipe: polgen: remove redundant close and error exit path 2024-11-19 13:57:03 -08:00
kconfig kconfig: Avoid prompting for transitional symbols 2025-10-07 08:21:23 -07:00
ksymoops
lib docs: kdoc: a few more dump_typedef() tweaks 2025-09-18 10:19:54 -06:00
mod modpost: Initialize builtin_modname to stop SIGSEGVs 2025-09-28 07:54:07 -04:00
package kbuild: rpm-pkg: Add (elfutils-devel or libdw-devel) to BuildRequires 2025-05-12 15:03:17 +09:00
selinux docs: Remove remainders of reiserfs 2025-08-18 10:45:43 -06:00
tracing scripts/tracing: Remove scripts/tracing/draw_functrace.py 2025-03-20 07:02:21 -04:00
.gitignore lib: packing: add pack_fields() and unpack_fields() 2024-12-11 20:13:00 -08:00
Kbuild.include kbuild: add $(objtree)/ prefix to some in-kernel build artifacts 2024-11-27 09:38:27 +09:00
Kconfig.include kbuild: rust: add `CONFIG_RUSTC_LLVM_VERSION` 2024-10-13 22:22:28 +02:00
Lindent
Makefile tracing: Add a tracepoint verification check at build time 2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
Makefile.asm-headers kbuild: fix rebuild of generic syscall headers 2024-07-18 10:01:55 -07:00
Makefile.autofdo AutoFDO: Enable machine function split optimization for AutoFDO 2024-11-27 09:38:27 +09:00
Makefile.btf kbuild, bpf: Enable --btf_features=attributes 2025-04-15 11:17:50 -07:00
Makefile.build Rust changes for v6.17 2025-08-03 13:49:10 -07:00
Makefile.clang kbuild: clang: Support building UM with SUBARCH=i386 2025-03-04 09:40:13 -08:00
Makefile.clean kbuild: change working directory to external module directory with M= 2024-11-28 08:10:23 +09:00
Makefile.compiler require gcc-8 and binutils-2.30 2025-05-31 08:16:52 -07:00
Makefile.debug kbuild: rust: use `-Zdebuginfo-compression` 2024-04-02 17:41:22 +02:00
Makefile.defconf kbuild: suppress stdout from merge_config for silent builds 2025-01-10 23:01:21 +09:00
Makefile.dtbinst kbuild: Install dtb files as 0644 in Makefile.dtbinst 2024-06-26 00:18:57 +09:00
Makefile.dtbs scripts/dtc: Update to upstream version v1.7.2-35-g52f07dcca47c 2025-08-11 08:08:51 -05:00
Makefile.extrawarn scripts/Makefile.extrawarn: Respect CONFIG_WERROR / W=e for hostprogs 2025-10-07 09:46:04 -07:00
Makefile.gcc-plugins stackleak: Split KSTACK_ERASE_CFLAGS from GCC_PLUGINS_CFLAGS 2025-07-21 21:40:57 -07:00
Makefile.headersinst
Makefile.host kbuild: support building external modules in a separate build directory 2024-11-28 08:11:55 +09:00
Makefile.kasan kasan: fix GCC mem-intrinsic prefix with sw tags 2025-08-27 22:45:43 -07:00
Makefile.kcov - The 2 patch series "zram: support algorithm-specific parameters" from 2025-06-02 16:00:26 -07:00
Makefile.kcsan
Makefile.kmsan
Makefile.kstack_erase kstack_erase: Fix missed export of renamed KSTACK_ERASE_CFLAGS 2025-07-29 17:17:46 -07:00
Makefile.lib Kbuild updates for v6.16 2025-06-07 10:05:35 -07:00
Makefile.modfinal kbuild: re-enable KCSAN for autogenerated *.mod.c intermediaries 2024-11-28 08:11:55 +09:00
Makefile.modinst kbuild: Fix signing issue for external modules 2025-01-18 08:52:09 +09:00
Makefile.modpost modpost: Allow extended modversions without basic MODVERSIONS 2025-01-11 02:36:32 +09:00
Makefile.package kbuild: rpm-pkg: disable kernel-devel package when cross-compiling 2024-10-31 21:40:46 +09:00
Makefile.propeller kbuild: Fix Propeller build option 2024-11-27 09:38:27 +09:00
Makefile.randstruct
Makefile.ubsan ARM: 2025-05-29 08:10:01 -07:00
Makefile.userprogs kbuild: support 'userldlibs' syntax 2023-11-01 23:26:01 +09:00
Makefile.vdsoinst more s390 updates for 6.10 merge window 2024-05-21 12:09:36 -07:00
Makefile.vmlinux kbuild: Use '--strip-unneeded-symbol' for removing module device table symbols 2025-10-10 14:50:35 -07:00
Makefile.vmlinux_o kbuild: extract modules.builtin.modinfo from vmlinux.unstripped 2025-09-24 09:10:44 -07:00
as-version.sh
asn1_compiler.c
bloat-o-meter scripts/bloat-o-meter: count weak symbol sizes 2023-08-21 13:46:25 -07:00
bootgraph.pl
bpf_doc.py bpf: Finish constification of 1st parameter of bpf_d_path() 2025-10-04 09:05:23 -07:00
build-version kbuild: move init/build-version to scripts/ 2024-07-16 01:08:37 +09:00
cc-can-link.sh
cc-version.sh
check-git
check-sysctl-docs docs: Replace spaces with tabs in check-sysctl-docs 2025-07-23 11:57:05 +02:00
check-uapi.sh check-uapi: Introduce check-uapi.sh 2023-12-29 22:25:20 +09:00
check-variable-fonts.sh docs: scripts/check-variable-fonts.sh: Improve commands for detection 2024-05-02 10:14:52 -06:00
check_extable.sh
checkdeclares.pl
checkincludes.pl
checkkconfigsymbols.py
checkpatch.pl checkpatch: suppress strscpy warnings for userspace tools 2025-09-28 11:36:13 -07:00
checkstack.pl scripts/checkstack.pl: fix no space expression between sp and offset 2023-12-29 12:22:28 -08:00
checksyscalls.sh
checktransupdate.py scripts: add origin commit identification based on specific patterns 2025-07-24 08:41:15 -06:00
checkversion.pl
cleanfile
cleanpatch
coccicheck kbuild: change working directory to external module directory with M= 2024-11-28 08:10:23 +09:00
config kbuild: fix argument parsing in scripts/config 2025-03-15 21:22:42 +09:00
const_structs.checkpatch const_structs.checkpatch: add bin_attribute 2025-06-17 10:44:07 +02:00
decode_stacktrace.sh scripts/decode_stacktrace.sh: code: preserve alignment 2025-09-21 14:22:28 -07:00
decodecode scripts/decodecode: add support for LoongArch 2023-12-29 12:22:25 -08:00
depmod.sh kbuild: add $(objtree)/ prefix to some in-kernel build artifacts 2024-11-27 09:38:27 +09:00
dev-needs.sh
diffconfig
documentation-file-ref-check scripts/documentation-file-ref-check: don't check perl/python scripts 2025-02-10 11:19:56 -07:00
elf-parse.c sorttable: Move ELF parsing into scripts/elf-parse.[ch] 2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
elf-parse.h sorttable: Move ELF parsing into scripts/elf-parse.[ch] 2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
extract-fwblobs scripts: add script to extract built-in firmware blobs 2025-03-16 22:30:46 -07:00
extract-ikconfig
extract-module-sig.pl
extract-sys-certs.pl
extract-vmlinux extract-vmlinux: Output used decompression method 2025-08-28 15:25:48 -07:00
extract_xc3028.pl
faddr2line Revert "scripts/faddr2line: Check only two symbols when calculating symbol size" 2024-10-17 15:16:04 -07:00
file-size.sh
find-unused-docs.sh scripts/kernel-doc.py: don't create *.pyc files 2025-04-24 10:12:46 -06:00
gen-crc-consts.py riscv/crc: add "template" for Zbc optimized CRC functions 2025-03-10 09:29:08 -07:00
gen-randstruct-seed.sh
gen_packed_field_checks.c lib: packing: add pack_fields() and unpack_fields() 2024-12-11 20:13:00 -08:00
generate_builtin_ranges.awk kbuild: exclude .rodata.(cst|str)* when building ranges 2025-03-15 21:22:52 +09:00
generate_initcall_order.pl
generate_rust_analyzer.py rust: add `pin-init` as a dependency to `bindings` and `uapi` 2025-09-08 13:42:39 +02:00
generate_rust_target.rs rust: support Rust >= 1.91.0 target spec 2025-08-31 23:34:34 +02:00
get_abi.py scripts/get_abi.py: add support for undefined ABIs 2025-02-10 11:19:57 -07:00
get_dvb_firmware
get_feat.pl scripts: get_feat.pl: substitute s390x with s390 2025-03-12 16:25:50 -06:00
get_maintainer.pl get_maintainer: stop reporting subsystem status as maintainer role 2025-03-16 22:30:49 -07:00
gfp-translate scripts: fix gfp-translate after ___GFP_*_BITS conversion to an enum 2024-09-01 17:59:01 -07:00
git-resolve.sh git-resolve: add SPDX and copyright line 2025-04-25 15:54:24 +02:00
git.orderFile scripts: Introduce a default git.orderFile 2023-12-29 22:25:20 +09:00
head-object-list.txt openrisc: place exception table at the head of vmlinux 2024-12-10 12:04:19 +00:00
headerdep.pl
headers_install.sh uapi: wrap compiler_types.h in an ifdef instead of the implicit strip 2025-08-28 13:06:48 +02:00
insert-sys-cert.c
install.sh kbuild: Create INSTALL_PATH directory if it does not exist 2024-07-20 13:34:54 +09:00
integer-wrap-ignore.scl ubsan/overflow: Enable ignorelist parsing and add type filter 2025-03-07 19:58:05 -08:00
jobserver-exec
kallsyms.c kallsyms: Remove KALLSYMS_ABSOLUTE_PERCPU 2025-02-18 10:16:04 +01:00
kernel-doc scripts/kernel-doc: switch to use kernel-doc.py 2025-04-09 12:10:34 -06:00
kernel-doc.pl scripts: kernel-doc: fix parsing function-like typedefs (again) 2025-04-09 12:10:34 -06:00
kernel-doc.py docs: kernel-doc: avoid script crash on ancient Python 2025-08-11 10:54:29 -06:00
ld-version.sh kbuild: Make ld-version.sh more robust against version string changes 2024-07-15 03:13:32 +09:00
leaking_addresses.pl leaking_addresses: Provide mechanism to scan binary files 2024-02-29 13:38:03 -08:00
link-vmlinux.sh tracing: Add a tracepoint verification check at build time 2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
macro_checker.py scripts: add macro_checker script to check unused parameters in macros 2024-09-01 20:43:28 -07:00
make_fit.py scripts/make_fit: Print DT name before libfdt errors 2025-03-27 14:03:32 -05:00
makelst
markup_oops.pl
min-tool-version.sh kbuild: Bump minimum version of LLVM for building the kernel to 15.0.0 2025-08-28 16:58:43 -07:00
misc-check scripts/misc-check: update export checks for EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_MODULES() 2025-08-26 12:00:17 -07:00
mkcompile_h
mksysmap modpost: Create modalias for builtin modules 2025-09-24 09:10:45 -07:00
mkuboot.sh
module-common.c kbuild: compile constant module information only once 2024-09-07 17:24:08 +09:00
module.lds.S alloc_tag: remove empty module tag section 2025-07-09 22:42:03 -07:00
modules-check.sh
nsdeps scripts/nsdeps: get 'make nsdeps' working again 2024-12-03 08:22:25 -08:00
objdiff
objdump-func
orc_hash.sh
pahole-version.sh
parse-maintainers.pl
patch-kernel
profile2linkerlist.pl
prune-kernel
recordmcount.c scripts: clean up IA-64 code 2023-12-03 18:51:48 +09:00
recordmcount.h
recordmcount.pl tracing: Remove redundant config HAVE_FTRACE_MCOUNT_RECORD 2025-07-22 20:15:56 -04:00
relocs_check.sh
remove-stale-files selinux: move genheaders to security/selinux/ 2024-10-03 16:07:51 -04:00
rust_is_available.sh rust: document `bindgen` 0.71.0 regression 2025-01-10 00:17:00 +01:00
rust_is_available_bindgen_0_66.h rust: warn about `bindgen` versions 0.66.0 and 0.66.1 2024-07-10 10:28:52 +02:00
rust_is_available_bindgen_libclang.h
rust_is_available_bindgen_libclang_concat.h rust: warn on bindgen < 0.69.5 and libclang >= 19.1 2024-11-12 21:26:54 +01:00
rust_is_available_test.py rust: warn on bindgen < 0.69.5 and libclang >= 19.1 2024-11-12 21:26:54 +01:00
rustc-llvm-version.sh kbuild: rust: avoid errors with old `rustc`s without LLVM patch version 2024-10-28 00:27:16 +01:00
rustc-version.sh kbuild: rust: add `CONFIG_RUSTC_VERSION` 2024-09-05 22:44:18 +02:00
rustdoc_test_builder.rs rust: use absolute paths in macros referencing core and kernel 2025-05-23 00:12:14 +02:00
rustdoc_test_gen.rs rust: kunit: use `kernel::{fmt,prelude::fmt!}` 2025-09-16 09:26:59 +02:00
setlocalversion setlocalversion: add -e option 2024-11-28 08:11:56 +09:00
show_delta scripts: make python shebangs specific about desired version 2025-03-15 21:19:44 +09:00
sign-file.c sign-file,extract-cert: use pkcs11 provider for OPENSSL MAJOR >= 3 2024-09-20 19:52:48 +03:00
sorttable.c sorttable: Move ELF parsing into scripts/elf-parse.[ch] 2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
spdxcheck-test.sh
spdxcheck.py scripts/spdxcheck: Handle license identifiers in Jinja comments 2025-01-08 15:38:33 +01:00
spdxexclude
spelling.txt scripts/spelling.txt: add notifer||notifier to spelling.txt 2025-08-02 12:01:40 -07:00
sphinx-build-wrapper scripts: sphinx-build-wrapper: get rid of uapi/media Makefile 2025-08-29 15:54:43 -06:00
sphinx-pre-install scripts/sphinx-pre-install: fix Archlinux PDF dependencies 2025-08-21 14:08:53 -06:00
split-man.pl
ssl-common.h sign-file,extract-cert: avoid using deprecated ERR_get_error_line() 2024-09-20 19:49:52 +03:00
stackdelta
stackusage
subarch.include scripts: subarch.include: fix SUBARCH on macOS hosts 2024-09-10 13:56:37 +09:00
syscall.tbl fs: introduce file_getattr and file_setattr syscalls 2025-07-02 17:05:17 +02:00
syscallhdr.sh
syscallnr.sh
syscalltbl.sh x86/syscall: Mark exit[_group] syscall handlers __noreturn 2024-06-28 15:23:38 +02:00
tags.sh scripts/tags.sh: allow to use alternative ctags implementation 2025-06-06 05:40:25 +09:00
test_doc_build.py scripts: test_doc_build.py: regroup and rename arguments 2025-06-25 12:22:48 -06:00
tools-support-relr.sh
tracepoint-update.c tracing: Add a tracepoint verification check at build time 2025-10-24 16:43:14 -04:00
unifdef.c scripts/unifdef: avoid constexpr keyword 2024-04-23 00:09:41 +09:00
ver_linux ver_linux: Remove checks for reiserfsprogs. 2025-06-09 14:53:16 -06:00
verify_builtin_ranges.awk scripts: add verifier script for builtin module range data 2024-09-20 09:21:52 +09:00
xen-hypercalls.sh
xz_wrap.sh xz: adjust arch-specific options for better kernel compression 2024-09-01 20:43:27 -07:00