1KCMP(2) Linux Programmer's Manual KCMP(2)
2
6 kcmp - compare two processes to determine if they share a kernel re‐
7 source
8
10 #include <linux/kcmp.h> /* Definition of KCMP_* constants */
11 #include <sys/syscall.h> /* Definition of SYS_* constants */
12 #include <unistd.h>
13 int syscall(SYS_kcmp, pid_t pid1, pid_t pid2, int type,
15 unsigned long idx1, unsigned long idx2);
16 Note: glibc provides no wrapper for kcmp(), necessitating the use of
18 syscall(2).
19
21 The kcmp() system call can be used to check whether the two processes
22 identified by pid1 and pid2 share a kernel resource such as virtual
23 memory, file descriptors, and so on.
24 Permission to employ kcmp() is governed by ptrace access mode
26 PTRACE_MODE_READ_REALCREDS checks against both pid1 and pid2; see
27 ptrace(2).
28 The type argument specifies which resource is to be compared in the two
30 processes. It has one of the following values:
31 KCMP_FILE
33 Check whether a file descriptor idx1 in the process pid1 refers
34 to the same open file description (see open(2)) as file descrip‐
35 tor idx2 in the process pid2. The existence of two file de‐
36 scriptors that refer to the same open file description can occur
37 as a result of dup(2) (and similar) fork(2), or passing file de‐
38 scriptors via a domain socket (see unix(7)).
39 KCMP_FILES
41 Check whether the processes share the same set of open file de‐
42 scriptors. The arguments idx1 and idx2 are ignored. See the
43 discussion of the CLONE_FILES flag in clone(2).
44 KCMP_FS
46 Check whether the processes share the same filesystem informa‐
47 tion (i.e., file mode creation mask, working directory, and
48 filesystem root). The arguments idx1 and idx2 are ignored. See
49 the discussion of the CLONE_FS flag in clone(2).
50 KCMP_IO
52 Check whether the processes share I/O context. The arguments
53 idx1 and idx2 are ignored. See the discussion of the CLONE_IO
54 flag in clone(2).
55 KCMP_SIGHAND
57 Check whether the processes share the same table of signal dis‐
58 positions. The arguments idx1 and idx2 are ignored. See the
59 discussion of the CLONE_SIGHAND flag in clone(2).
60 KCMP_SYSVSEM
62 Check whether the processes share the same list of System V sem‐
63 aphore undo operations. The arguments idx1 and idx2 are ig‐
64 nored. See the discussion of the CLONE_SYSVSEM flag in
65 clone(2).
66 KCMP_VM
68 Check whether the processes share the same address space. The
69 arguments idx1 and idx2 are ignored. See the discussion of the
70 CLONE_VM flag in clone(2).
71 KCMP_EPOLL_TFD (since Linux 4.13)
73 Check whether the file descriptor idx1 of the process pid1 is
74 present in the epoll(7) instance described by idx2 of the
75 process pid2. The argument idx2 is a pointer to a structure
76 where the target file is described. This structure has the
77 form:
78 struct kcmp_epoll_slot {
80 __u32 efd;
81 __u32 tfd;
82 __u64 toff;
83 };
84 Within this structure, efd is an epoll file descriptor returned from
86 epoll_create(2), tfd is a target file descriptor number, and toff is a
87 target file offset counted from zero. Several different targets may be
88 registered with the same file descriptor number and setting a specific
89 offset helps to investigate each of them.
90 Note the kcmp() is not protected against false positives which may oc‐
92 cur if the processes are currently running. One should stop the pro‐
93 cesses by sending SIGSTOP (see signal(7)) prior to inspection with this
94 system call to obtain meaningful results.
95
97 The return value of a successful call to kcmp() is simply the result of
98 arithmetic comparison of kernel pointers (when the kernel compares re‐
99 sources, it uses their memory addresses).
100 The easiest way to explain is to consider an example. Suppose that v1
102 and v2 are the addresses of appropriate resources, then the return
103 value is one of the following:
104 0 v1 is equal to v2; in other words, the two processes share the
106 resource.
107 1 v1 is less than v2.
109 2 v1 is greater than v2.
111 3 v1 is not equal to v2, but ordering information is unavailable.
113 On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.
115 kcmp() was designed to return values suitable for sorting. This is
117 particularly handy if one needs to compare a large number of file de‐
118 scriptors.
119
121 EBADF type is KCMP_FILE and fd1 or fd2 is not an open file descriptor.
122 EFAULT The epoll slot addressed by idx2 is outside of the user's ad‐
124 dress space.
125 EINVAL type is invalid.
127 ENOENT The target file is not present in epoll(7) instance.
129 EPERM Insufficient permission to inspect process resources. The
131 CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability is required to inspect processes that
132 you do not own. Other ptrace limitations may also apply, such
133 as CONFIG_SECURITY_YAMA, which, when /proc/sys/ker‐
134 nel/yama/ptrace_scope is 2, limits kcmp() to child processes;
135 see ptrace(2).
136 ESRCH Process pid1 or pid2 does not exist.
138
140 The kcmp() system call first appeared in Linux 3.5.
141
143 kcmp() is Linux-specific and should not be used in programs intended to
144 be portable.
145
147 Before Linux 5.12, this system call is available only if the kernel is
148 configured with CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE, since the original purpose
149 of the system call was for the checkpoint/restore in user space (CRIU)
150 feature. (The alternative to this system call would have been to ex‐
151 pose suitable process information via the proc(5) filesystem; this was
152 deemed to be unsuitable for security reasons.) Since Linux 5.12, this
153 system call is made available unconditionally.
154 See clone(2) for some background information on the shared resources
156 referred to on this page.
157
159 The program below uses kcmp() to test whether pairs of file descriptors
160 refer to the same open file description. The program tests different
161 cases for the file descriptor pairs, as described in the program out‐
162 put. An example run of the program is as follows:
163 $ ./a.out
165 Parent PID is 1144
166 Parent opened file on FD 3
167 PID of child of fork() is 1145
169 Compare duplicate FDs from different processes:
170 kcmp(1145, 1144, KCMP_FILE, 3, 3) ==> same
171 Child opened file on FD 4
172 Compare FDs from distinct open()s in same process:
173 kcmp(1145, 1145, KCMP_FILE, 3, 4) ==> different
174 Child duplicated FD 3 to create FD 5
175 Compare duplicated FDs in same process:
176 kcmp(1145, 1145, KCMP_FILE, 3, 5) ==> same
177 Program source
179 #define _GNU_SOURCE
181 #include <sys/syscall.h>
182 #include <sys/wait.h>
183 #include <sys/stat.h>
184 #include <stdint.h>
185 #include <stdlib.h>
186 #include <stdio.h>
187 #include <unistd.h>
188 #include <fcntl.h>
189 #include <linux/kcmp.h>
190 #define errExit(msg) do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); \
192 } while (0)
193 static int
195 kcmp(pid_t pid1, pid_t pid2, int type,
196 unsigned long idx1, unsigned long idx2)
197 {
198 return syscall(SYS_kcmp, pid1, pid2, type, idx1, idx2);
199 }
200 static void
202 test_kcmp(char *msg, pid_t pid1, pid_t pid2, int fd_a, int fd_b)
203 {
204 printf("\t%s\n", msg);
205 printf("\t\tkcmp(%jd, %jd, KCMP_FILE, %d, %d) ==> %s\n",
206 (intmax_t) pid1, (intmax_t) pid2, fd_a, fd_b,
207 (kcmp(pid1, pid2, KCMP_FILE, fd_a, fd_b) == 0) ?
208 "same" : "different");
209 }
210 int
212 main(int argc, char *argv[])
213 {
214 int fd1, fd2, fd3;
215 char pathname[] = "/tmp/kcmp.test";
216 fd1 = open(pathname, O_CREAT | O_RDWR, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
218 if (fd1 == -1)
219 errExit("open");
220 printf("Parent PID is %jd\n", (intmax_t) getpid());
222 printf("Parent opened file on FD %d\n\n", fd1);
223 switch (fork()) {
225 case -1:
226 errExit("fork");
227 case 0:
229 printf("PID of child of fork() is %jd\n", (intmax_t) getpid());
230 test_kcmp("Compare duplicate FDs from different processes:",
232 getpid(), getppid(), fd1, fd1);
233 fd2 = open(pathname, O_CREAT | O_RDWR, S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR);
235 if (fd2 == -1)
236 errExit("open");
237 printf("Child opened file on FD %d\n", fd2);
238 test_kcmp("Compare FDs from distinct open()s in same process:",
240 getpid(), getpid(), fd1, fd2);
241 fd3 = dup(fd1);
243 if (fd3 == -1)
244 errExit("dup");
245 printf("Child duplicated FD %d to create FD %d\n", fd1, fd3);
246 test_kcmp("Compare duplicated FDs in same process:",
248 getpid(), getpid(), fd1, fd3);
249 break;
250 default:
252 wait(NULL);
253 }
254 exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
256 }
257
259 clone(2), unshare(2)
260
262 This page is part of release 5.13 of the Linux man-pages project. A
263 description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
264 latest version of this page, can be found at
265 https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
266Linux 2021-03-22 KCMP(2)