perf_counter: Add forward/backward attribute ABI compatibility

Provide for means of extending the perf_counter_attr in a 'natural' way.

We allow growing the structure by appending fields at the end by specifying
the full structure size inside it.

When a new kernel sees a smaller (old) structure, it will 0 pad the tail.
When an old kernel sees a larger (new) structure, it will verify the tail
consists of 0s, otherwise fail.

If we fail due to a size-mismatch, we return -E2BIG and write the kernel's
native attribe size back into the provided structure.

Furthermore, add some attribute verification, so that we'll fail counter
creation when unknown bits are present (PERF_SAMPLE, PERF_FORMAT, or in
the __reserved fields).

(This ABI detail is introduced while keeping the existing syscall ABI.)

Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <[email protected]>
Cc: Mike Galbraith <[email protected]>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <[email protected]>
Cc: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <[email protected]>
LKML-Reference: <new-submission>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <[email protected]>

1 files changed, 3 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/tools/perf/perf.h b/tools/perf/perf.h
index af0a5046d743..87a1aca4a424 100644
--- a/tools/perf/perf.h
+++ b/tools/perf/perf.h
@@ -53,11 +53,12 @@ static inline unsigned long long rdclock(void)
 	_min1 < _min2 ? _min1 : _min2; })
 
 static inline int
-sys_perf_counter_open(struct perf_counter_attr *attr_uptr,
+sys_perf_counter_open(struct perf_counter_attr *attr,
 		      pid_t pid, int cpu, int group_fd,
 		      unsigned long flags)
 {
-	return syscall(__NR_perf_counter_open, attr_uptr, pid, cpu,
+	attr->size = sizeof(*attr);
+	return syscall(__NR_perf_counter_open, attr, pid, cpu,
 		       group_fd, flags);
 }