I'm writing a Linux kernel driver for a device that has quite a bit going on and a bunch of interaction from user-space. In order to debug and troubleshoot these interactions I'm storing them in a data array in the driver and need to export this data to user-space via some sort of file node. It'd be great if I could just export the binary data and let user-space parse it into human-readable text but the requirement from other parties involved is to have this done in-driver so one can just cat the file node from the command line and get something readable.
Currently I'm just using a sysfs node but I'm pretty sure that's the wrong place for that sort of thing and I need to able to write out more than PAGE_SIZE of data. What is the proper filesystem object I should be using for this type of thing? I looked at debugfs but it seems to be for more specific things much like sysfs is.
I think the best way is to use the debugfs as its developed just for debugging purpose and only people with the necessary permission which you can decide will be able to access it.
So go ahead with using debugfs
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I am trying to edit the linux kernel. I want some information to be written out to a file as a part of the debugging process. I have read about the printk function. But i would like to add text to a particular file (file other from the default files that keep debug logs).
To cut it short: I would kind of like to specify the "destination" in the printk function (or at least some work-around it)
How can I achieve this? Will using fwrite/fopen work (if yes, will it work without causing much overhead compared to printk, since they are implemented differently)?
What other options do i have?
Using fopen and fwrite will certainly not work. Working with files in kernel space is generally a bad idea.
It all really depends on what you are doing in the kernel though. In some configurations, there may not even be a hard disk for you to write to. If however, you are working at a stage where you can have certain assumptions about the running kernel, you probably actually want to write a kernel module rather than edit the kernel itself. For all you care, a kernel module is just as good as any other part of the kernel, but they are inserted when the kernel is already up and running.
You may also be thinking of doing so for debugging, or have output of a kernel-level application (e.g. an application that you are forced to run at kernel level for real-time constraints etc). In that case, kio may be of interest to you, but if you want to use it, do make sure you understand why.
kio is a library I wrote just for those "kernel-level applications", which makes a kernel module see a /proc file as if it's a user of it (rather than a provider). To make it work, you should have a user-space application also opening that virtual file and redirect it to wherever you want to write your log. Something along the lines of opening the file with kopen in write mode and in user space tell cat /proc/your_file > ~/log_file.
Note: I still recommend printk unless you really know what you are doing. Since you are thinking of fopen in kernel space, I don't think you really know what you are doing.
I'd like to learn about proc and sysfs entries.
So far, what I have understood is that, proc entries are the values which is set to proc file system. I'm not sure whether I'm correct. Could anyone explain it in detail about its real need and where it is used? Please provide me links to know it better. Any kind of guidance is accepted.
The /proc filesystem is a special, software-created filesystem that is used by the kernel to export information to the world. Each file under /proc is tied to a kernel function that generates the file's "contents" on the fly when the file is read. We have already seen some of these files in action; /proc/modules, for example, always returns a list of the currently loaded modules.
/proc is heavily used in the Linux system. Many utilities on a modern Linux distribution, such as ps, top, and uptime, get their information from /proc. Some device drivers also export information via /proc, and yours can do so as well. The /proc filesystem is dynamic, so your module can add or remove entries at any time.
Fully featured /proc entries can be complicated beasts; among other things, they can be written to as well as read from. Most of the time, however, /proc entries are readonly files. This section concerns itself with the simple read-only case. Those who are interested in implementing something more complicated can look here for the basics; the kernel source may then be consulted for the full picture.
Before we continue, however, we should mention that adding files under /proc is discouraged. The /proc filesystem is seen by the kernel developers as a bit of an uncontrolled mess that has gone far beyond its original purpose (which was to provide information about the processes running in the system). The recommended way of making information available in new code is via sysfs. As suggested, working with sysfs requires an understanding of the Linux device model, however, and we do not
source - http://tjworld.net/books/ldd3/#UsingTheProcFilesystem
u can look at the ldd3 for more detailes.
it is often used as a tool for debuging the device drivers.
i am a newbie.
good luck.
A kernel module I created is constantly generating information that I would like to store within the kernel and be readable from root. I was thinking of storing the information in some sort of log file with specific permissions, but I read that writing to files within the kernel space code is not good.
What is a good way to store information in the kernel that is fast and accessible by root?
~Thanks
If it's constantly generating new information, I would write it out with printk(). This way it will be seen by dmesg as well be written out to /var/log/kern.log.
Although, this is not for sensitive information, since dmesg could be used by any user.
Depending on the type of information, you can also provide it via /proc or /sys files, netlink, relayfs, /dev ioctl.
I'm writing a patch for VFS FAT implmentation on kernel 3.0
I want to add posix attributes to FAT files that are created in linux.
to achive that, I must save a file that contains all the relevant information on the mounted drive.
I know that reading and writing files from kernel space is something normally shouldn't be done, and I'm looking for another way to read/write the data.
I saw articles on the net that suggested to use /proc or to create a userspace daemon that will do the IO for me. I wanted to know if anyone saw or know where can I look at an implmentation of a thing like that,because I didn't find any examples for that over the net.
I'm not looking for a read/write to proc example, I want to see an entire solution for this issue.
Have a look at the quota implementation; this is a mechanism (ok, presumably not available on vfat) which reads/writes files from the kernel.
Additionally, the "loop" block device is another example of a kernel facility which does file IO.
deal all,
i am a newbie for writing Linux Kernel Module.
i used printk function in linux kernel source code (2.4.29) for debugging and display messages.
now, i have to read all the messages i added via httpd.
i tried to write the messages into a file instead of printk function, so i can read the file directly.
but it's not work very well.
so, i have a stupid question...
is it possible to write a LKM to monitor the syslog and rewrite into another file??
i mean is that possible to let a LKM the aware the messages when each time the linux kernel execute "printk"??
thanks a lot
That is the wrong way to do it, because printk already does this : it writes in the file /proc/kmsg.
What you want is klogd, a user space utility dealing with /proc/kmsg.
Another options is to use dmesg, which will output the whole content of the kernel buffers holding the printk messages, but I suggest you first read the linked article
You never, ever, ever want to try to open a file on a user space mounted block file system from within the kernel. Imagine if the FS aborted and the kernel was still trying to write to it .. kaboom (amongst MANY other reasons why its a bad idea) :) As shodanex said, for your purposes, its much better to use klogd.
Now, generally speaking, you have several ways to communicate meaningful data to userspace programs, such as:
Create a character device driver that causes userspace readers to block while waiting for data. Provide an ioctl() interface to it which lets other programs find out how many messages have been sent, etc.
Create a node in /proc/yourdriver to accomplish the same thing
Really, the most practical means is to just use printk()