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  1. rfc [diff vs current]
  2. v2 [diff vs current]
  3. v3 [diff vs current]
  4. v4 [diff vs current]
  5. v5 current
  6. v6 [diff vs current]
  7. v6 [diff vs current]
  8. v7 [diff vs current]
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[PATCH v5 3/7] tracing/probes: Support nested typecast

From: "Masami Hiramatsu (Google)" <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-06-17 01:03:16
Also in: linux-doc, linux-kselftest, lkml
Subsystem: documentation, the rest, tracing · Maintainers: Jonathan Corbet, Linus Torvalds, Steven Rostedt, Masami Hiramatsu

From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>

When we hit an open parenthesis right after typecast closing
parenthesis, it means we have nested typecast. This allows us to
typecast a generic data member in a structure to a pointer to
another structure.

For example, to cast a DATA_MEMBER of VAR structure to STRUCT pointer
and get MEMBER value.

  (STRUCT)(VAR->DATA_MEMBER)->MEMBER

Also, we can nest typecast.

  (STRUCT1)((STRUCT2)$ARG->FIELD2)->FIELD1

Currently the max nest level is limited to 3.

This also allows user to use typecasting for registers or stacks on
kprobe events. e.g.

  (STRUCT)(%ax)->MEMBER

  (STRUCT)($stack0)->MEMBER


Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>
---
 Changes in v4:
  - Use orig_offset for reporting NO_PTR_STRCT error.
 Changes in v2:
  - Fix to skip "->" after closing parenthetsis.
---
 Documentation/trace/eprobetrace.rst |    2 +
 Documentation/trace/fprobetrace.rst |    2 +
 Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst |    2 +
 kernel/trace/trace.c                |    1 
 kernel/trace/trace_probe.c          |   78 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
 kernel/trace/trace_probe.h          |    7 +++
 6 files changed, 83 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/eprobetrace.rst b/Documentation/trace/eprobetrace.rst
index fe3602540569..cd0b4aa7f896 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/eprobetrace.rst
+++ b/Documentation/trace/eprobetrace.rst
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ Synopsis of eprobe_events
                   a pointer to STRUCT and then derference the pointer defined by
                   ->MEMBER. Note that when this is used, the FIELD name does not
                   need to be prefixed with a '$'.
+  (STRUCT)(FETCHARG)->MEMBER[->MEMBER] : typecast can nest, so the above can
+		  also be used with another FETCHARG instead of FIELD.
 
 Types
 -----
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/fprobetrace.rst b/Documentation/trace/fprobetrace.rst
index 7435ded2d66d..6b8bb27bb62d 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/fprobetrace.rst
+++ b/Documentation/trace/fprobetrace.rst
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ Synopsis of fprobe-events
   (STRUCT)FIELD->MEMBER[->MEMBER] : If BTF is supported, typecast FIELD to
                   a pointer to STRUCT and then derference the pointer defined by
                   ->MEMBER.
+  (STRUCT)(FETCHARG)->MEMBER[->MEMBER] : typecast can nest, so the above can
+                 also be used with another FETCHARG instead of FIELD.
 
   (\*1) This is available only when BTF is enabled.
   (\*2) only for the probe on function entry (offs == 0). Note, this argument access
diff --git a/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst b/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst
index f73614997d52..c4382765d5b2 100644
--- a/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst
+++ b/Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.rst
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ Synopsis of kprobe_events
                   a pointer to STRUCT and then derference the pointer defined by
                   ->MEMBER. Note that this is available only when the probe is
 		   on function entry.
+  (STRUCT)(FETCHARG)->MEMBER[->MEMBER] : typecast can nest, so the above can
+                 also be used with another FETCHARG instead of FIELD.
 
   (\*1) only for the probe on function entry (offs == 0). Note, this argument access
         is best effort, because depending on the argument type, it may be passed on
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index aa93e7b01146..4f70318918c2 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c
@@ -4326,6 +4326,7 @@ static const char readme_msg[] =
 	"\t           $stack<index>, $stack, $retval, $comm, $arg<N>,\n"
 #ifdef CONFIG_PROBE_EVENTS_BTF_ARGS
 	"\t           [(structname)]<argname>[->field[->field|.field...]],\n"
+	"\t           [(structname)](fetcharg)->field[->field|.field...],\n"
 #endif
 #else
 	"\t           $stack<index>, $stack, $retval, $comm,\n"
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_probe.c b/kernel/trace/trace_probe.c
index 064ca59387ba..5d8b85435eda 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_probe.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_probe.c
@@ -839,10 +839,35 @@ static int query_btf_struct(const char *sname, struct traceprobe_parse_context *
 	return 0;
 }
 
+/* Find the matching closing parenthesis for a given opening parenthesis. */
+static char *find_matched_close_paren(char *s)
+{
+	char *p = s;
+	int count = 0;
+
+	while (*p) {
+		if (*p == '(')
+			count++;
+		else if (*p == ')') {
+			if (--count == 0)
+				return p;
+		}
+		p++;
+	}
+	return NULL;
+}
+
+static int
+parse_probe_arg(char *arg, const struct fetch_type *type,
+		struct fetch_insn **pcode, struct fetch_insn *end,
+		struct traceprobe_parse_context *ctx);
+
 static int handle_typecast(char *arg, struct fetch_insn **pcode,
 			   struct fetch_insn *end,
 			   struct traceprobe_parse_context *ctx)
 {
+	int orig_offset = ctx->offset;
+	bool nested = false;
 	char *tmp;
 	int ret;
 
@@ -859,19 +884,56 @@ static int handle_typecast(char *arg, struct fetch_insn **pcode,
 				    DEREF_OPEN_BRACE);
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
-	*tmp = '\0';
-	ret = query_btf_struct(arg + 1, ctx);
-	*tmp = ')';
+	*tmp++ = '\0';
+
+	/* Handle the nested structure like (STRUCT)(VAR->FIELD)->... */
+	if (*tmp == '(') {
+		char *close = find_matched_close_paren(tmp);
+
+		ctx->offset += tmp - arg;
+		if (!close) {
+			trace_probe_log_err(ctx->offset, DEREF_OPEN_BRACE);
+			return -EINVAL;
+		}
+		/* We expect a field access for typecast */
+		if (close[1] != '-' || close[2] != '>') {
+			trace_probe_log_err(ctx->offset + close - tmp + 1,
+					    TYPECAST_REQ_FIELD);
+			return -EINVAL;
+		}
 
+		ctx->nested_level++;
+		if (ctx->nested_level > TRACEPROBE_MAX_NESTED_LEVEL) {
+			trace_probe_log_err(ctx->offset, TOO_MANY_NESTED);
+			return -E2BIG;
+		}
+		*close = '\0';
+
+		ctx->offset += 1;	/* for the '(' */
+		/* We need to parse the nested one */
+		ret = parse_probe_arg(tmp + 1, find_fetch_type(NULL, ctx->flags),
+				pcode, end, ctx);
+		if (ret < 0)
+			return ret;
+		ctx->nested_level--;
+		clear_struct_btf(ctx);
+
+		tmp = close + 3;/* Skip "->" after closing parenthesis */
+		nested = true;
+	}
+
+	ret = query_btf_struct(arg + 1, ctx);
 	if (ret < 0) {
-		trace_probe_log_err(ctx->offset + 1, NO_PTR_STRCT);
+		trace_probe_log_err(orig_offset + 1, NO_PTR_STRCT);
 		return -EINVAL;
 	}
 
-	tmp++;
-
-	ctx->offset += tmp - arg;
-	ret = parse_btf_arg(tmp, pcode, end, ctx);
+	ctx->offset = orig_offset + tmp - arg;
+	/* If it is nested, tmp points to the field name. */
+	if (nested)
+		ret = parse_btf_field(tmp, ctx->last_struct, pcode, end, ctx);
+	else
+		ret = parse_btf_arg(tmp, pcode, end, ctx);
 	return ret;
 }
 
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_probe.h b/kernel/trace/trace_probe.h
index 883938a74aee..982d32a5df8b 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_probe.h
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_probe.h
@@ -435,8 +435,11 @@ struct traceprobe_parse_context {
 	struct trace_probe *tp;
 	unsigned int flags;
 	int offset;
+	int nested_level;
 };
 
+#define TRACEPROBE_MAX_NESTED_LEVEL 3
+
 extern int traceprobe_parse_probe_arg(struct trace_probe *tp, int i,
 				      const char *argv,
 				      struct traceprobe_parse_context *ctx);
@@ -571,7 +574,9 @@ extern int traceprobe_define_arg_fields(struct trace_event_call *event_call,
 	C(TOO_MANY_ARGS,	"Too many arguments are specified"),	\
 	C(TOO_MANY_EARGS,	"Too many entry arguments specified"),	\
 	C(EVENT_TOO_BIG,	"Event too big (too many fields?)"),  \
-	C(TYPECAST_NOT_EVENT,	"Typecasts are only for eprobe fields"),
+	C(TYPECAST_NOT_EVENT,	"Typecasts are only for eprobe fields"), \
+	C(TYPECAST_REQ_FIELD,	"Typecast requires a field access"),	\
+	C(TOO_MANY_NESTED,	"Too many nested typecasts/dereferences"),
 
 #undef C
 #define C(a, b)		TP_ERR_##a
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