ref_tracker

Adrian Johnston <[email protected]> Fri, 4 Apr 2025 14:44:55 -0700
Newsgroups dev.linux.lists.kernelci
Message-ID <CAMtebm+miDTOR-PcJrJbzfSS=1eNLQJ8CGQf1E3+NpcLh+mYKQ@mail.gmail.com>
Hello kernelci,

I have exciting news. We have a reoccurring class of dangerous bugs in
the kernel that could be identified during a CI run.

The kernel comes with a reference count debugger called ref_tracker.
And yet, every minor release of the kernel seems to fix another
reference counting bug.  Often kernel releases fix 3 or more.
Meanwhile, the folks over on linux-debuggers aren't even sure anyone
is using this reference counting debugger that often.

Is anyone willing to flip the switch on this debugger on your staging
machine?  This seems like the kind of thing Linus should know about 20
minutes after merging a patch.

https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/include/linux/ref_tracker.h
https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4e66934eaadc83b27ada8d42b60894018f3bfabf

Thanks!