Decoding the binary trace w/ a different kernel might be troublesome
since we convert addresses to symbols. For kernels with minimal changes,
the mappings would probably match, but it's not guaranteed at all.
(But still we could convert the addresses by hand, since we do print
raw addresses.)
If we use modules, the symbols could be loaded at different addresses
from the previously booted kernel, and so this would also fail, but
there's nothing we can do about it.
Also, the binary data format that pstore/ram is using in its ringbuffer
may change between the kernels, so here we too must ensure that we're
running the same kernel.
So, there are two questions really:
1. How to compute the unique kernel tag;
2. Where to store it.
In this patch we're using LINUX_VERSION_CODE, just as hibernation
(suspend-to-disk) does. This way we are protecting from the kernel
version mismatch, making sure that we're running the same kernel
version and patch level. We could use CRC of a symbol table (as
suggested by Tony Luck), but for now let's not be that strict.
And as for storing, we are using a small trick here. Instead of
allocating a dedicated buffer for the tag (i.e. another prz), or
hacking ram_core routines to "reserve" some control data in the
buffer, we are just encoding the tag into the buffer signature
(and XOR'ing it with the actual signature value, so that buffers
not needing a tag can just pass zero, which will result into the
plain old PRZ signature).
Suggested-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Suggested-by: Tony Luck <tony.luck@intel.com>
Suggested-by: Colin Cross <ccross@android.com>
Signed-off-by: Anton Vorontsov <anton.vorontsov@linaro.org>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Anton Vorontsov
cbe7cbf5a6