Department of Computer Sciences THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

CS 378 (Spring 2003)

Linux Kernel Programming

Yongguang Zhang

([email protected])

Copyright 2003, Yongguang Zhang

 Questions
Have everybody turned in their Assignments?
Any problem with the Assignments?

Any questions on Kernel Modules?

Any other questions?

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 2

 Getting to Know Each Other
Introduce Ourselves
Your name
Your school year (under, grad?)
Special interests in Linux? (Anything that you want us
to know?)
I welcome anyone to audit this course, to
participant in the discussions (in & out of class),
and to do the projects
You don't need to say so if you don't like people to
know that you are auditing

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 3

 More UML Hints
Increasing memory used by UML
./linux ubd0= mem=128M
Modify files in the UML source code tree
All are read-only links
linux/arch/i386/kernel/entry.S ->
/projects/cs378.ygz/src/linux/arch/i386/kernel/entry.S
You need to make your own copy in place of the link
cd linux/arch/i386/kernel
mv entry.S entry.S.link
cp p entry.S.link entry.S

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 4

 How to Debug a Kernel?
Add instrument print statements
NO: printf()
Use printk()
Include include/linux/kernel.h
Example: printk(KERN_DEBUG "i = %u\n", i);
Note: no , between KERN_DEBUG and the format string
See include/linux/kernel.h; for other KERN_ values
printk() internally uses a 1K buffer and does not check for
buffer overflow, so be careful!
Debugging UML with gdb
More control, but takes up lots of space

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 5

 A Helpful Website
http://kernelnewbies.org/
#kernelnewbies is an IRC network dedicated to the
"newbie" kernel hacker. The audience mostly consists
of people who are learning about the kernel, working
on kernel projects or professional kernel hackers that
want to help less seasoned kernel people.

(Hacking does NOT mean breaking into other

peoples system!)

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 6

 Enhance Our Website
Set up a discussion web for this class
To replace the newsgroup or cross-post on it
Like slashdot type
Set up an lxr website for 2.4.19-46um
Like http://www.iglu.org.il/lxr
Source code: lxr.sourceforge.net
I am looking for help to do these
Will get community building credit

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 7

 This Lecture
Kernel Source Code Structure
Kernel/User Space Interactions
Transfer of Control
System calls
Transfer of Data
/proc file system

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 8

 Linux Kernel Code Structure
Core
Initialization part
Memory management part
Inter-process communication part
Networking part
File Systems (Many many choices)
Device Drivers (Many many choices)
Platform-dependent Part (PC, Alpha, Sparc, )

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 9

 Kernel Source Code Structure
./include Header files (.h)
./lib Common functions
./init Kernel initialization code
./kernel Kernel core
./mm Memory management
./ipc Inter-process Communication
./net Networking code
./scripts Helping tools for building kernel
./Documentation
Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 10
 Kernel Source Code Structure
./fs Filesystems
./fs/ext2 Most popular Linux filesystem
./fs/msdos MSDOS file system (C> drive)
./fs/vfat MS Windows (VFAT)
./fs/proc virtual file system (process info)
./drivers Device drivers
./drivers/block hard drives
./drivers/scsi SCSI device
./drivers/char character-stream deveice
./drivers/net Network cards

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 11

 Kernel Source Code Structure
. /arch Platform-dependent code
./arch/i386 Intel 386 (IBM PC architecture)
./arch/alpha Compaqs Alpha architecture
./arch/sparc Suns SPARC architecture
./arch/um UMLs virtual machine architecture
. /arch/um/fs
./arch/um/fs/hostfs UMLs host file system
. /arch/um/drivers
./arch/um/drivers UMLs ubd device

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 12

 Kernel and User Modes
Modern CPU architecture:
Supervisor mode: execute any instructions
User mode: execute non-privileged instructions, in
bounded address space
Moden operating systems: kernel & user modes
Strict separation of responsibility
Strictly-defined interface between kernel and user
space (e.g., the POSIX standard)

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 13

 Kernel Responsibility
Managing machine s resources
Hardware (control, I/O)
Software (software abstraction of hardware, data
structures)
Examples:
Process (CPU)
Memory
File (storage abstraction)
Devices (hardware abstraction)

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 14

 User/Kernel Interactions
Transfer of Control between User and Kernel
Mode
System Calls
Interrupts (timer or device)
Transfer of Data between User and Kernel Space
Memory copy
/proc/ file system

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 15

 System Call Implementation
Process in User Mode make a system call (a
special function call) to obtain kernel service
E.g. getpid()
Some takes one or more arguments (words)
Returns an integer value
If failed: return 1 and set errno (see
include/asm-i386/errno.h)
In User Space, a system call is implemented as a
wrapper function in libc.

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 16

 System Call Wrapper Function
Define system calls using macros: _syscall0
_syscall5 (see include/asm-i386/unistd.h)
For example:
pid_t getpid()
_syscall0(int,getpid)
unsigned int alarm(unsigned int seconds)
_syscall1(unsigned int,alarm,unsigned int,seconds)
int write(int fd,const char * buf,unsigned int count)
_syscall3(int,write,int,fd,const char *,buf,unsigned int, count)

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 17

 After the Macro Expansion
unsigned int alarm(unsigned int seconds)
{
long __res;
__asm__ volatile ("int $0x80"
: "=a" (__res)
: "0" (__NR_alarm),"b" ((long)(seconds)));
do {
if ((unsigned long)(__res) >= (unsigned long)(-125)) {
errno = -(__res);
__res = -1;
}
return (unsigned int) (__res);
} while (0);
}
Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 18
 Return Value
Long integer (in 32-bit architecture)
(unsigned long)0 (unsigned long)(-126)
System call succeeded
(unsigned long)(-125) (unsigned long)(-1)
System call failed
Set errno.

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 19

 Transfer of Control
By special programmed exception (int $0x80)
Exception vector 128 defined as system call
The system call handler in kernel
system_call() : written in assembly code
Dispatch to the corresponding system call service
routine (e.g., sys_alarm() ), according to the system
call number (e.g, __NR_alarm)
System call dispatch table

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 20

 System Call Dispatch Table
See arch/i386/kernel/entry.S:
.data
ENTRY(sys_call_table)
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_ni_syscall) /* 0 */
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_exit)
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_fork)
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_read)
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_write)
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_open) /* 5 */
.long SYMBOL_NAME(sys_close)

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 21

 System Call Service Routine
Corresponding to each system call, e.g.:
asmlinkage unsigned long sys_alarm(unsigned int seconds)
{
struct itimerval it_new, it_old;
unsigned int oldalarm;

it_new.it_interval.tv_sec = it_new.it_interval.tv_usec = 0;
it_new.it_value.tv_sec = seconds;
it_new.it_value.tv_usec = 0;
do_setitimer(ITIMER_REAL, &it_new, &it_old);
oldalarm = it_old.it_value.tv_sec;
/* ehhh.. We can' t return 0 if we have an alarm pending.. */
/* And we' d better return too much than too little anyway */
if (it_old.it_value.tv_usec)
oldalarm++;
return oldalarm;
}

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 22

 Parameter Passing
Through CPU Registers
Each parameter is a word (32bit)
Parameters limited by register number
What about complex data (e.g., pointer to a
buffer, such as in write() system call)
Parameter: memory address
Kernel will copy data from/to process s user-mode
memory space
Verifying the system call parameters

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 23

 User Space Memory Access
Service routines: get_user(), put_user(),
copy_from_user(), copy_to_user(), ...
They are macros, see include/asm-i386/uaccess.h
They in turn call __get_user_x(), __put_user_x()
and other assembly codes.
Example
System call: int stime(time_t *t);
Purpose: set the system time to value pointed by t
Parameter: is a memory address

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 24

 Service Routine for stime()
asmlinkage long sys_stime(int * tptr)
{
int value;
if (!capable(CAP_SYS_TIME))
return -EPERM;
if (get_user(value, tptr))
return -EFAULT;
write_lock_irq(&xtime_lock);
xtime.tv_sec = value;
xtime.tv_usec = 0;
time_adjust = 0; /* stop active adjtime() */
time_status |= STA_UNSYNC;
time_maxerror = NTP_PHASE_LIMIT;
time_esterror = NTP_PHASE_LIMIT;
write_unlock_irq(&xtime_lock);
return 0;
}

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 25

 Parameter Checking
Check if each parameter is valid
Otherwise return ERRNO.
Check address
Illegitimate address? (e.g., reversed to kernel only)
Page fault and Fixup Code
(We will wait until we cover the memory access)

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 26

 Steps for Adding New System Calls
Add a wrapper function in user-space code
Include <linux/unistd.h>
Use _syscall0() _syscall5()
Include a macro definition for NR_XYZ
In include/asm-i386/unistd.h
Write the corresponding service routine in kernel
source tree (e.g., sys_XYZ())
Add an entry to system call dispatch table
In arch/i386/kernel/entry.S
Update total syscall number: .rept NR_syscalls-222
Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 27
 Additional Steps for UML
In arch/um/kernel/sys_call_table.c
Add it to the list of externs as
extern syscall_handler_t sys_XYZ;
Add it to the call table (sys_call_table[]) as
[ __NR_XYZ ] = sys_XYZ,
If it is the last system call,
In arch/um/include/sysdep-i386/syscalls.h,
#define LAST_SYSCALL __NR_XYZ
In arch/um/include/sysdep/syscalls.h, add
#define LAST_SYSCALL __NR_XYZ

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 28

 System Calls vs /proc File System
Both used to extend the user-kernel interface
Limitation of system calls:
Not scalable: each new service needs a new system
call
Not extensible: how to manage the system call
numbers, confirmation to POSIX standard?
/proc file system is considered a better way
Still, standardization is always a problem

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 29

 Summary
System Calls
Textbook: LKP 3.3 or ULK 9
/proc file system
Textbook: LKP Appendix C or LDD2 4
Documentation and example:
/projects/cs378.ygz/src/linux-2.4.19/Documentation/Doc
Book/procfs_example.c

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 30

 Assignment 3
Doing System Calls
Will post in class web site
Next assignment (#4) will be on /proc file system

Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 31

 Next Lecture
Linux Memory Manageemnt
Memory Model: Demand Paged Virtual Memory
Time to review related topics in CS372!
What is virtual memory? What is physical memory?
What is address translation?
What is primary memory? What is secondary
memory?
What is paging? What is a page?
What is page replacement policy?
What is a dirty page?
What is page fault?
Spring 2003 2003 Yongguang Zhang 32