[PATCH v2 2/9] tracing/filters: Fix false success return in process_system_preds()

From
Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Date
2026-10-25 08:37:33
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Reply to
Masami Hiramatsu (Google), 2026-10-25
From: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>

In process_system_preds(), "fail" is initialized to true to indicate
whether any event in the subsystem successfully applied the filter.
However, "fail = false;" was placed at the end of the event loop outside
the error check, unconditionally clearing "fail" on every iteration even
when process_preds() returned an error.

As a result, if every event in the subsystem fails to match the filter
(e.g., an invalid field), process_system_preds() returns 0 (success)
instead of -EINVAL. Consequently, create_system_filter() considers the
operation successful and silently resets the subsystem filter display to
the default global filter message instead of reporting the parse error.

Move "fail = false;" into the else branch of the error check so that
"fail" is only cleared when at least one event filter succeeds. Because
file->filter is still replaced even when process_preds() fails, check
!list_empty(&filter_list->list) on the fail and fail_mem paths so any
replaced old filters are freed after an RCU grace period via
delay_free_filter().

Fixes: 80765597bc58 ("tracing: Rewrite filter logic to be simpler and faster")
Cc: <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Masami Hiramatsu (Google) <mhiramat@kernel.org>
---
 kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c |   15 +++++++++------
 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
index fac51a2953dd..54144ef9d0db 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events_filter.c
@@ -2336,8 +2336,10 @@ static int process_system_preds(struct trace_subsystem_dir *dir,
 			filter_disable(file);
 			parse_error(pe, FILT_ERR_BAD_SUBSYS_FILTER, 0);
 			append_filter_err(tr, pe, filter);
-		} else
+		} else {
 			event_set_filtered_flag(file);
+			fail = false;
+		}
 
 
 		filter_item = kzalloc_obj(*filter_item);
@@ -2352,8 +2354,6 @@ static int process_system_preds(struct trace_subsystem_dir *dir,
 		filter_item->filter = event_filter(file);
 		event_set_filter(file, filter);
 		filter = NULL;
-
-		fail = false;
 	}
 
 	if (fail)
@@ -2368,14 +2368,17 @@ static int process_system_preds(struct trace_subsystem_dir *dir,
 	return 0;
  fail:
 	/* No call succeeded */
-	free_filter_list(filter_list);
+	if (!list_empty(&filter_list->list))
+		delay_free_filter(filter_list);
+	else
+		free_filter_list(filter_list);
 	parse_error(pe, FILT_ERR_BAD_SUBSYS_FILTER, 0);
 	return -EINVAL;
  fail_mem:
 	__free_filter(filter);
 
-	/* If any call succeeded, we still need to sync */
-	if (!fail)
+	/* If any filter was replaced, we still need to sync */
+	if (!list_empty(&filter_list->list))
 		delay_free_filter(filter_list);
 	else
 		free_filter_list(filter_list);
Thread (20 messages) 20 messages, 3 authors, last reply 16d ago
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