Merge tag 'trace-v5.10-rc6' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace

Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:

 - Use correct timestamp variable for ring buffer write stamp update

 - Fix up before stamp and write stamp when crossing ring buffer sub
   buffers

 - Keep a zero delta in ring buffer in slow path if cmpxchg fails

 - Fix trace_printk static buffer for archs that care

 - Fix ftrace record accounting for ftrace ops with trampolines

 - Fix DYNAMIC_FTRACE_WITH_DIRECT_CALLS dependency

 - Remove WARN_ON in hwlat tracer that triggers on something that is OK

 - Make "my_tramp" trampoline in ftrace direct sample code global

 - Fixes in the bootconfig tool for better alignment management

* tag 'trace-v5.10-rc6' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rostedt/linux-trace:
  ring-buffer: Always check to put back before stamp when crossing pages
  ftrace: Fix DYNAMIC_FTRACE_WITH_DIRECT_CALLS dependency
  ftrace: Fix updating FTRACE_FL_TRAMP
  tracing: Fix alignment of static buffer
  tracing: Remove WARN_ON in start_thread()
  samples/ftrace: Mark my_tramp[12]? global
  ring-buffer: Set the right timestamp in the slow path of __rb_reserve_next()
  ring-buffer: Update write stamp with the correct ts
  docs: bootconfig: Update file format on initrd image
  tools/bootconfig: Align the bootconfig applied initrd image size to 4
  tools/bootconfig: Fix to check the write failure correctly
  tools/bootconfig: Fix errno reference after printf()

1 files changed, 13 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst
index a22024f9175e..363599683784 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/bootconfig.rst
@@ -137,15 +137,22 @@ Boot Kernel With a Boot Config
 ==============================
 
 Since the boot configuration file is loaded with initrd, it will be added
-to the end of the initrd (initramfs) image file with size, checksum and
-12-byte magic word as below.
+to the end of the initrd (initramfs) image file with padding, size,
+checksum and 12-byte magic word as below.
 
-[initrd][bootconfig][size(u32)][checksum(u32)][#BOOTCONFIG\n]
+[initrd][bootconfig][padding][size(u32)][checksum(u32)][#BOOTCONFIG\n]
+
+When the boot configuration is added to the initrd image, the total
+file size is aligned to 4 bytes. To fill the gap, null characters
+(``\0``) will be added. Thus the ``size`` is the length of the bootconfig
+file + padding bytes.
 
 The Linux kernel decodes the last part of the initrd image in memory to
 get the boot configuration data.
 Because of this "piggyback" method, there is no need to change or
-update the boot loader and the kernel image itself.
+update the boot loader and the kernel image itself as long as the boot
+loader passes the correct initrd file size. If by any chance, the boot
+loader passes a longer size, the kernel feils to find the bootconfig data.
 
 To do this operation, Linux kernel provides "bootconfig" command under
 tools/bootconfig, which allows admin to apply or delete the config file
@@ -176,7 +183,8 @@ up to 512 key-value pairs. If keys contains 3 words in average, it can
 contain 256 key-value pairs. In most cases, the number of config items
 will be under 100 entries and smaller than 8KB, so it would be enough.
 If the node number exceeds 1024, parser returns an error even if the file
-size is smaller than 32KB.
+size is smaller than 32KB. (Note that this maximum size is not including
+the padding null characters.)
 Anyway, since bootconfig command verifies it when appending a boot config
 to initrd image, user can notice it before boot.