returning error code in linux kernel - linux-kernel

I was trying to understand how Linux system calls return error codes. I bumped into times() system call. This simple system call copies some data to user space and if that operation was not successful returns -EFAULT:
SYSCALL_DEFINE1(times, struct tms __user *, tbuf)
{
if (tbuf) {
struct tms tmp;
do_sys_times(&tmp);
if (copy_to_user(tbuf, &tmp, sizeof(struct tms)))
return -EFAULT;
}
force_successful_syscall_return();
return (long) jiffies_64_to_clock_t(get_jiffies_64());
}
My questions are:
Why -EFAULT? Shouldn't it be EFAULT without minus?
Is it a common to return negative error codes?

From man 2 syscalls:
Note: system calls indicate a failure by returning a negative error number to the caller; when this happens, the wrapper function negates the returned error number (to make it positive), copies it to errno, and returns -1 to the caller of the wrapper.
See also next answers:
What are the return values of system calls in Assembly?
Why doesn't a custom system call work properly with negative numbers?

Related

check an exception to call a C structure from go

I have a structure in C and I called that structure in my go program. If that structure throws any error it terminates my go program like below
orderbook.h
-------------
#ifndef _ORDERBOOK_H
#define _ORDERBOOK_H
typedef struct order order;
struct order {
int tradeid;
int side;
int symbol;
double amount;
double price;
};
orderbook.c
--------------
include "orderbook.h"
order* order_place(char *side,double amount,double price,char symbol[19])
{
struct order *tradeorder= calloc(1000000,sizeof(struct order));//Initlize the structure
//My internal code which place an order
clob_ord_t o=unxs_order(c, (clob_ord_t){CLOB_TYPE_LMT,parsed_side, amount, .lmt =price, .usr = (uintptr_t)out},NANPX);
if (o.qty.dis + o.qty.hid > 0.dd) {
/* put remainder of order into book */
i = clob_add(c, o);
//printf("orderid..%lu\n", i.usr);
printf("orderid..%s\n", i.usr);
insertMap(hashTable, i.usr, i);
// printMap(hashTable);
flag=true;
tradeorder[0].orderstatus=1;
tradeorder[0].orderid=offerid;
tradeorder[0].side=sid;
tradeorder[0].symbol=atoi(symbol);
tradeorder[0].amount=(double)o.qty.dis;
tradeorder[0].price=price;
}
return tradeorder; //return the structure
}
main.go
---------
o:=C.order_place(C.CString("ASK"),C.double(12.0),C.double(1.0),C.CString("1")) //this line may get an exception If some wrong parameter to pass otherwise returns correct value
If I put correct parameter to order_pace function from go there is no issue, If I pass some incorrect parameter then In get an exception an it terminates the go server. Now I need to handle that exception so that my server remain running irrespective of an exception.
You can't catch the fatal fault, and it isn't safe to continue after your C code throws a fault (unlike Go). The running program is in an undefined potentially dangerous state. The safest thing to do is shutdown the program and/or let it crash.
You must check for errors within C.order_place and return an error on failure. Eg, return NULL.
A few other recommendations:
Allocate struct order via Go to rely on the garbage collector to simplify memory management.
var order C.struct_order
C.order_place(&order, side, ...)
Always free strings allocated via C.CString once they are no longer needed.
cstr := C.CString("test")
C.free(unsafe.Pointer(cstr))
Depending on your platform, you can simplify debugging with improved stack traces by importing cgosymbolizer. This adds support for C stack traces.
import _ "github.com/ianlancetaylor/cgosymbolizer"
You probably should use char *symbol instead of char symbol[19] in your example since C.CString returns a pointer to an arbitrarily long C string, not a pointer to an array of 19 chars.

Call golang function from Tcl sript

We use a third party Tcl parsing library to validation Tcl script for both syntax and semantic checking. The driver was written in C and defined a set of utility functions. Then it calls Tcl_CreateObjCommand so the script could call these C functions. Now we are in the process of porting the main program to go and I could not find a way to do this. Anyone know a way to call golang functions from Tcl script?
static int
create_utility_tcl_cmds(Tcl_Interp* interp)
{
if (Tcl_CreateObjCommand(interp, "ip_v4_address",
ip_address, (ClientData)AF_INET, NULL) == NULL) {
TCL_CHECKER_TCL_CMD_EVENT(0, "ip_v4_address");
return -1;
}
.....
return 0;
}
Assuming you've set the relevant functions as exported and built the Go parts of your project as in
Using Go code in an existing C project
[…]
The important things to note are:
The package needs to be called main
You need to have a main function, although it can be empty.
You need to import the package C
You need special //export comments to mark the functions you want callable from C.
I can compile it as a C callable static library with the following command:
go build -buildmode=c-archive foo.go
Then the core of what remains to be done is to write the C glue function from Tcl's API to your Go code. That will involve a function something like:
static int ip_address_glue(
ClientData clientData, Tcl_Interp *interp, int objc, Tcl_Obj *const *objv) {
// Need an explicit cast; ClientData is really void*
GoInt address_family = (GoInt) clientData;
// Check for the right number of arguments
if (objc != 2) {
Tcl_WrongNumArgs(interp, 1, objv, "address");
return TCL_ERROR;
}
// Convert the argument to a Go string
GoString address;
int len;
address.p = Tcl_GetStringFromObj(objv[1], &len);
address.n = len; // This bit is hiding a type mismatch
// Do the call; I assume your Go function is called ip_address
ip_address(address_family, address);
// Assume the Go code doesn't fail, so no need to map the failure back to Tcl
return TCL_OK;
}
(Credit to https://medium.com/learning-the-go-programming-language/calling-go-functions-from-other-languages-4c7d8bcc69bf for providing enough information for me to work out some of the type bindings.)
That's then the function that you register with Tcl as the callback.
Tcl_CreateObjCommand(interp, "ip_v4_address", ip_address_glue, (ClientData)AF_INET, NULL);
Theoretically, a command registration can fail. Practically, that only happens when the Tcl interpreter (or a few critical namespaces within it) is being deleted.
Mapping a failure into Tcl is going to be easiest if it is encoded at the Go level as an enumeration. Probably easiest to represent success as zero. With that, you'd then do:
GoInt failure_code = ip_address(address_family, address);
switch (failure_code) {
case 0: // Success
return TCL_OK;
case 1: // First type of failure
Tcl_SetResult(interp, "failure of type #1", TCL_STATIC);
return TCL_ERROR;
// ... etc for each expected case ...
default: // Should be unreachable, yes?
Tcl_SetObjResult(interp, Tcl_ObjPrintf("unexpected failure: %d", failure_code));
return TCL_ERROR;
}
Passing back more complex return types with tuples of values (especially a combination of a success indicator and a “real” result value) should also be possible, but I've not got a Go development environment in order to probe how they're mapped at the C level.

How to remove dynamically assigned major number from /proc/devices?

In my kernel driver project I register with a dynamic major number by calling
register_chrdev(0, "xxxxx", &xxxxx);
and unregistered my module with
unregister_chrdev(0. "xxxxx");
When I load my driver with insmod, I received dynamic major number, for example 243, and, after rmmod, success removing module.
But, after removing the module /proc/devices still shows the major number (243).
How do I get removing my driver to also remove its major number from the list in /proc/devices?
When you call register_chrdev() with 0 as the first argument to request the assignment of a dynamic major number, the return value will be the assigned major number, which you should save.
Then when you call unregister_chrdev() you should pass the saved major number as an argument, rather than the 0 you were. Also make sure that the device name argument matches. And be aware that this function returns a result, which you can check for status/failure - in the latter case you definitely want to printk() a message so that you know that your code has not accomplished its goal.
You can see a complete example at http://www.tldp.org/LDP/lkmpg/2.6/html/x569.html with the key parts being:
static int Major; /* Major number assigned to our device driver */
int init_module(void)
{
Major = register_chrdev(0, DEVICE_NAME, &fops);
if (Major < 0) {
printk(KERN_ALERT "Registering char device failed with %d\n", Major);
return Major;
}
return SUCCESS;
}
void cleanup_module(void)
{
int ret = unregister_chrdev(Major, DEVICE_NAME);
if (ret < 0)
printk(KERN_ALERT "Error in unregister_chrdev: %d\n", ret);
}
Also be aware that this method of registering a device is considered outdated - you might want to research the newer method.

modify captured array c++11 lambda function

I'm writing an Windows phone application with C++/CX. The function tries to copy input array to output array asynchronously:
IAsyncAction CopyAsync(const Platform::Array<byte, 1>^ input, Platform::WriteOnlyArray<byte, 1>^ output)
{
byte *inputData = input->Data;
byte *outputData = output->Data;
int byteCount = input->Length;
// if I put it here, there is no error
//memcpy_s(outputData, byteCount, inputData, byteCount);
return concurrency::create_async([&]() -> void {
memcpy_s(outputData, byteCount, inputData, byteCount); // access violation exception
return;
});
}
This function compiles but cannot run correctly and produces an "Access violation exception". How can I modify values in the output array?
This is Undefined Behaviour: by the time you use your 3 captured (by reference) variables inputData/outputData/byteCount in the lambda, you already returned from CopyAsync and the stack has been trashed.
It's really the same issue as if you returned a reference to a local variable from a function (which we know is evil), except that here the references are hidden inside the lambda so it's a bit harder to see at first glance.
If you are sure that input and output won't change and will still be reachable between the moment you call CopyAsync and the moment you run the asynchronous action, you can capture your variables by value instead of by reference:
return concurrency::create_async([=]() -> void {
// ^ here
memcpy_s(outputData, byteCount, inputData, byteCount);
return;
});
Since they're only pointers (and an int), you won't be copying the pointed-to data, only the pointers themselves.
Or you could just capture input and output by value: since they're garbage-collected pointers this will at least make sure the objects are still reachable by the time you run the lambda:
return concurrency::create_async([=]() -> void {
memcpy_s(output->Data, input->Length, input->Data, input->Length);
return;
});
I for one prefer this second solution, it provides more guarantees (namely, object reachability) than the first one.

Get_user running at kernel mode returns error

I have a problem with get_user() macro. What I did is as follows:
I run the following program
int main()
{
int a = 20;
printf("address of a: %p", &a);
sleep(200);
return 0;
}
When the program runs, it outputs the address of a, say, 0xbff91914.
Then I pass this address to a module running in Kernel Mode that retrieves the contents at this address (at the time when I did this, I also made sure the process didn't terminate, because I put it to sleep for 200 seconds... ):
The address is firstly sent as a string, and I cast them into pointer type.
int * ptr = (int*)simple_strtol(buffer, NULL,16);
printk("address: %p",ptr); // I use this line to make sure the cast is correct. When running, it outputs bff91914, as expected.
int val = 0;
int res;
res= get_user(val, (int*) ptr);
However, res is always not 0, meaning that get_user returns error. I am wondering what is the problem....
Thank you!!
-- Fangkai
That is probably because you're trying to get value from a different user space. That address you got is from your simple program's address space, while you're probably using another program for passing the value to the module, aren't you?
The call to get_user must be made in the context of the user process.
Since you write "I also made sure the process didn't terminate, because I put it to sleep for 200 seconds..." I have a feeling you are not abiding by that rule. For the call to get_user to be in the context of the user process, you would have had to make a system call from that process and there would not have been a need to sleep the process.
So, you need to have your user process make a system call (an ioctl would be fine) and from that system call make the call to get_user.

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