Documentation/admin-guide/bug-hunting.rst
Source file repositories/reference/linux-study-clean/Documentation/admin-guide/bug-hunting.rst
File Facts
- System
- Linux kernel
- Corpus path
Documentation/admin-guide/bug-hunting.rst- Extension
.rst- Size
- 15540 bytes
- Lines
- 371
- Domain
- Support Tooling And Documentation
- Bucket
- Documentation
- Inferred role
- Support Tooling And Documentation: documentation
- Status
- atlas-only
Why This File Exists
Repository support layer: documentation, build tooling, samples, user-space helper tools, generated initramfs support, licenses, and validation utilities.
- Repository support layer: documentation, build tooling, samples, user-space helper tools, generated initramfs support, licenses, and validation utilities.
- Touches IRQ or DMA behavior; this matters for the representative real-device path.
- Defines or uses C structs; map object ownership, embedded links, reference counts, and lock ownership.
Dependency Surface
- No C-style include directives detected by the generator.
Detected Declarations
- No top-level syscall, struct, function, initcall, or export declaration detected by the generator.
Annotated Snippet
Bug hunting
===========
Kernel bug reports often come with a stack dump like the one below::
------------[ cut here ]------------
WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 28102 at kernel/module.c:1108 module_put+0x57/0x70
Modules linked in: dvb_usb_gp8psk(-) dvb_usb dvb_core nvidia_drm(PO) nvidia_modeset(PO) snd_hda_codec_hdmi snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hwdep snd_hda_core snd_pcm snd_timer snd soundcore nvidia(PO) [last unloaded: rc_core]
CPU: 1 PID: 28102 Comm: rmmod Tainted: P WC O 4.8.4-build.1 #1
Hardware name: MSI MS-7309/MS-7309, BIOS V1.12 02/23/2009
00000000 c12ba080 00000000 00000000 c103ed6a c1616014 00000001 00006dc6
c1615862 00000454 c109e8a7 c109e8a7 00000009 ffffffff 00000000 f13f6a10
f5f5a600 c103ee33 00000009 00000000 00000000 c109e8a7 f80ca4d0 c109f617
Call Trace:
[<c12ba080>] ? dump_stack+0x44/0x64
[<c103ed6a>] ? __warn+0xfa/0x120
[<c109e8a7>] ? module_put+0x57/0x70
[<c109e8a7>] ? module_put+0x57/0x70
[<c103ee33>] ? warn_slowpath_null+0x23/0x30
[<c109e8a7>] ? module_put+0x57/0x70
[<f80ca4d0>] ? gp8psk_fe_set_frontend+0x460/0x460 [dvb_usb_gp8psk]
[<c109f617>] ? symbol_put_addr+0x27/0x50
[<f80bc9ca>] ? dvb_usb_adapter_frontend_exit+0x3a/0x70 [dvb_usb]
[<f80bb3bf>] ? dvb_usb_exit+0x2f/0xd0 [dvb_usb]
[<c13d03bc>] ? usb_disable_endpoint+0x7c/0xb0
[<f80bb48a>] ? dvb_usb_device_exit+0x2a/0x50 [dvb_usb]
[<c13d2882>] ? usb_unbind_interface+0x62/0x250
[<c136b514>] ? __pm_runtime_idle+0x44/0x70
[<c13620d8>] ? __device_release_driver+0x78/0x120
[<c1362907>] ? driver_detach+0x87/0x90
[<c1361c48>] ? bus_remove_driver+0x38/0x90
[<c13d1c18>] ? usb_deregister+0x58/0xb0
[<c109fbb0>] ? SyS_delete_module+0x130/0x1f0
[<c1055654>] ? task_work_run+0x64/0x80
[<c1000fa5>] ? exit_to_usermode_loop+0x85/0x90
[<c10013f0>] ? do_fast_syscall_32+0x80/0x130
[<c1549f43>] ? sysenter_past_esp+0x40/0x6a
---[ end trace 6ebc60ef3981792f ]---
Such stack traces provide enough information to identify the line inside the
Kernel's source code where the bug happened. Depending on the severity of
the issue, it may also contain the word **Oops**, as on this one::
BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at (null)
IP: [<c06969d4>] iret_exc+0x7d0/0xa59
*pdpt = 000000002258a001 *pde = 0000000000000000
Oops: 0002 [#1] PREEMPT SMP
...
Despite being an **Oops** or some other sort of stack trace, the offended
line is usually required to identify and handle the bug. Along this chapter,
we'll refer to "Oops" for all kinds of stack traces that need to be analyzed.
If the kernel is compiled with ``CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO``, you can enhance the
quality of the stack trace by using ``scripts/decode_stacktrace.sh``.
Modules linked in
-----------------
Modules that are tainted or are being loaded or unloaded are marked with
"(...)", where the taint flags are described in
Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst, "being loaded" is
annotated with "+", and "being unloaded" is annotated with "-".
Where is the Oops message located?
----------------------------------
Normally the Oops text is read from the kernel buffers by klogd and
handed to ``syslogd`` which writes it to a syslog file, typically
Annotation
- Atlas domain: Support Tooling And Documentation / Documentation.
- Implementation status: atlas-only.
- IRQ or DMA behavior appears here, which is relevant to the selected PCIe/NVMe device path.
Implementation Notes
- This generated page is the file-by-file coverage layer; curated subsystem chapters should link here when they synthesize a multi-file control flow.
- Core OS pages should be promoted from atlas-only to deep-reviewed when they explain data structures, invariants, locking, lifecycle, and C implementation snippets.
- Driver-family pages are intentionally pattern-oriented unless they are part of the selected PCIe/NVMe representative device path.