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authorTobin C. Harding2017-11-23 10:59:45 +1100
committerTobin C. Harding2017-11-29 12:13:14 +1100
commit7b1924a1d930eb27fc79c4e4e2a6c1c970623e68 (patch)
treecdd958371ba49a69d64aae5df68ac0f181ba945d /Documentation/printk-formats.txt
parentad67b74d2469d9b82aaa572d76474c95bc484d57 (diff)
vsprintf: add printk specifier %px
printk specifier %p now hashes all addresses before printing. Sometimes we need to see the actual unmodified address. This can be achieved using %lx but then we face the risk that if in future we want to change the way the Kernel handles printing of pointers we will have to grep through the already existent 50 000 %lx call sites. Let's add specifier %px as a clear, opt-in, way to print a pointer and maintain some level of isolation from all the other hex integer output within the Kernel. Add printk specifier %px to print the actual unmodified address. Signed-off-by: Tobin C. Harding <me@tobin.cc>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/printk-formats.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/printk-formats.txt18
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/printk-formats.txt b/Documentation/printk-formats.txt
index b4e668ac4fe3..aa0a776c817a 100644
--- a/Documentation/printk-formats.txt
+++ b/Documentation/printk-formats.txt
@@ -49,7 +49,8 @@ Pointer Types
Pointers printed without a specifier extension (i.e unadorned %p) are
hashed to give a unique identifier without leaking kernel addresses to user
-space. On 64 bit machines the first 32 bits are zeroed.
+space. On 64 bit machines the first 32 bits are zeroed. If you _really_
+want the address see %px below.
::
@@ -106,6 +107,21 @@ For printing kernel pointers which should be hidden from unprivileged
users. The behaviour of ``%pK`` depends on the ``kptr_restrict sysctl`` - see
Documentation/sysctl/kernel.txt for more details.
+Unmodified Addresses
+====================
+
+::
+
+ %px 01234567 or 0123456789abcdef
+
+For printing pointers when you _really_ want to print the address. Please
+consider whether or not you are leaking sensitive information about the
+Kernel layout in memory before printing pointers with %px. %px is
+functionally equivalent to %lx. %px is preferred to %lx because it is more
+uniquely grep'able. If, in the future, we need to modify the way the Kernel
+handles printing pointers it will be nice to be able to find the call
+sites.
+
Struct Resources
================