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Linux Kernel Programming

You're reading from   Linux Kernel Programming A comprehensive guide to kernel internals, writing kernel modules, and kernel synchronization

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Product type Paperback
Published in Mar 2021
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781789953435
Length 754 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Kaiwan N. Billimoria Kaiwan N. Billimoria
Author Profile Icon Kaiwan N. Billimoria
Kaiwan N. Billimoria
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Table of Contents (19) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Section 1: The Basics
2. Kernel Workspace Setup FREE CHAPTER 3. Building the 5.x Linux Kernel from Source - Part 1 4. Building the 5.x Linux Kernel from Source - Part 2 5. Writing Your First Kernel Module - LKMs Part 1 6. Writing Your First Kernel Module - LKMs Part 2 7. Section 2: Understanding and Working with the Kernel
8. Kernel Internals Essentials - Processes and Threads 9. Memory Management Internals - Essentials 10. Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors - Part 1 11. Kernel Memory Allocation for Module Authors - Part 2 12. The CPU Scheduler - Part 1 13. The CPU Scheduler - Part 2 14. Section 3: Delving Deeper
15. Kernel Synchronization - Part 1 16. Kernel Synchronization - Part 2 17. About Packt 18. Other Books You May Enjoy

Debugging through slab poisoning

One very useful feature is so-called slab poisoning. The term poisoning in this context implies poking memory with certain signature bytes or a pattern that is easily recognizable. The prerequisite to using this, though, is that the CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG kernel configuration option is on. How can you check? Simple:

$ grep -w CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG /boot/config-5.4.0-llkd01
CONFIG_SLUB_DEBUG=y

The =y seen in the preceding code indicates that it's indeed on. Now (assuming it's turned on) if you create a slab cache with the SLAB_POISON flag (we covered the creation of a slab cache in the Creating a custom slab cache section), then, when the memory is allocated, it's always initialized to the special value or memory pattern 0x5a5a5a5a – it's poisoned (it's quite intentional: the hex value 0x5a is the ASCII character Z for zero)! So, think about it, if you spot...

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