clocksource: Provide kernel module to test clocksource watchdog

When the clocksource watchdog marks a clock as unstable, this might
be due to that clock being unstable or it might be due to delays that
happen to occur between the reads of the two clocks.  It would be good
to have a way of testing the clocksource watchdog's ability to
distinguish between these two causes of clock skew and instability.

Therefore, provide a new clocksource-wdtest module selected by a new
TEST_CLOCKSOURCE_WATCHDOG Kconfig option.  This module has a single module
parameter named "holdoff" that provides the number of seconds of delay
before testing should start, which defaults to zero when built as a module
and to 10 seconds when built directly into the kernel.  Very large systems
that boot slowly may need to increase the value of this module parameter.

This module uses hand-crafted clocksource structures to do its testing,
thus avoiding messing up timing for the rest of the kernel and for user
applications.  This module first verifies that the ->uncertainty_margin
field of the clocksource structures are set sanely.  It then tests the
delay-detection capability of the clocksource watchdog, increasing the
number of consecutive delays injected, first provoking console messages
complaining about the delays and finally forcing a clock-skew event.
Unexpected test results cause at least one WARN_ON_ONCE() console splat.
If there are no splats, the test has passed.  Finally, it fuzzes the
value returned from a clocksource to test the clocksource watchdog's
ability to detect time skew.

This module checks the state of its clocksource after each test, and
uses WARN_ON_ONCE() to emit a console splat if there are any failures.
This should enable all types of test frameworks to detect any such
failures.

This facility is intended for diagnostic use only, and should be avoided
on production systems.

Reported-by: Chris Mason <clm@fb.com>
Suggested-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Tested-by: Feng Tang <feng.tang@intel.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210527190124.440372-5-paulmck@kernel.org

1 files changed, 6 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
index 9ec9ea1a51f2..591048ed1365 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt
@@ -597,6 +597,12 @@
 			The actual CPUs are chosen randomly, with
 			no replacement if the same CPU is chosen twice.
 
+	clocksource-wdtest.holdoff= [KNL]
+			Set the time in seconds that the clocksource
+			watchdog test waits before commencing its tests.
+			Defaults to zero when built as a module and to
+			10 seconds when built into the kernel.
+
 	clearcpuid=BITNUM[,BITNUM...] [X86]
 			Disable CPUID feature X for the kernel. See
 			arch/x86/include/asm/cpufeatures.h for the valid bit