1 =========================================
2 How to get printk format specifiers right
3 =========================================
7 :Author: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
8 :Author: Andrew Murray <amurray@mpc-data.co.uk>
16 If variable is of Type, use printk format specifier:
17 ------------------------------------------------------------
19 unsigned char %u or %x
21 unsigned short int %u or %x
25 unsigned long %lu or %lx
26 long long %lld or %llx
27 unsigned long long %llu or %llx
40 If <type> is architecture-dependent for its size (e.g., cycles_t, tcflag_t) or
41 is dependent on a config option for its size (e.g., blk_status_t), use a format
42 specifier of its largest possible type and explicitly cast to it.
46 printk("test: latency: %llu cycles\n", (unsigned long long)time);
48 Reminder: sizeof() returns type size_t.
50 The kernel's printf does not support %n. Floating point formats (%e, %f,
51 %g, %a) are also not recognized, for obvious reasons. Use of any
52 unsupported specifier or length qualifier results in a WARN and early
53 return from vsnprintf().
58 A raw pointer value may be printed with %p which will hash the address
59 before printing. The kernel also supports extended specifiers for printing
60 pointers of different types.
62 Some of the extended specifiers print the data on the given address instead
63 of printing the address itself. In this case, the following error messages
64 might be printed instead of the unreachable information::
66 (null) data on plain NULL address
67 (efault) data on invalid address
68 (einval) invalid data on a valid address
75 %p abcdef12 or 00000000abcdef12
77 Pointers printed without a specifier extension (i.e unadorned %p) are
78 hashed to prevent leaking information about the kernel memory layout. This
79 has the added benefit of providing a unique identifier. On 64-bit machines
80 the first 32 bits are zeroed. The kernel will print ``(ptrval)`` until it
81 gathers enough entropy.
83 When possible, use specialised modifiers such as %pS or %pB (described below)
84 to avoid the need of providing an unhashed address that has to be interpreted
85 post-hoc. If not possible, and the aim of printing the address is to provide
86 more information for debugging, use %p and boot the kernel with the
87 ``no_hash_pointers`` parameter during debugging, which will print all %p
88 addresses unmodified. If you *really* always want the unmodified address, see
91 If (and only if) you are printing addresses as a content of a virtual file in
92 e.g. procfs or sysfs (using e.g. seq_printf(), not printk()) read by a
93 userspace process, use the %pK modifier described below instead of %p or %px.
102 For printing error pointers (i.e. a pointer for which IS_ERR() is true)
103 as a symbolic error name. Error values for which no symbolic name is
104 known are printed in decimal, while a non-ERR_PTR passed as the
105 argument to %pe gets treated as ordinary %p.
107 Symbols/Function Pointers
108 -------------------------
112 %pS versatile_init+0x0/0x110
114 %pSR versatile_init+0x9/0x110
115 (with __builtin_extract_return_addr() translation)
116 %pB prev_fn_of_versatile_init+0x88/0x88
119 The ``S`` and ``s`` specifiers are used for printing a pointer in symbolic
120 format. They result in the symbol name with (S) or without (s)
121 offsets. If KALLSYMS are disabled then the symbol address is printed instead.
123 The ``B`` specifier results in the symbol name with offsets and should be
124 used when printing stack backtraces. The specifier takes into
125 consideration the effect of compiler optimisations which may occur
126 when tail-calls are used and marked with the noreturn GCC attribute.
128 If the pointer is within a module, the module name and optionally build ID is
129 printed after the symbol name with an extra ``b`` appended to the end of the
134 %pS versatile_init+0x0/0x110 [module_name]
135 %pSb versatile_init+0x0/0x110 [module_name ed5019fdf5e53be37cb1ba7899292d7e143b259e]
136 %pSRb versatile_init+0x9/0x110 [module_name ed5019fdf5e53be37cb1ba7899292d7e143b259e]
137 (with __builtin_extract_return_addr() translation)
138 %pBb prev_fn_of_versatile_init+0x88/0x88 [module_name ed5019fdf5e53be37cb1ba7899292d7e143b259e]
140 Probed Pointers from BPF / tracing
141 ----------------------------------
148 The ``k`` and ``u`` specifiers are used for printing prior probed memory from
149 either kernel memory (k) or user memory (u). The subsequent ``s`` specifier
150 results in printing a string. For direct use in regular vsnprintf() the (k)
151 and (u) annotation is ignored, however, when used out of BPF's bpf_trace_printk(),
152 for example, it reads the memory it is pointing to without faulting.
159 %pK 01234567 or 0123456789abcdef
161 For printing kernel pointers which should be hidden from unprivileged
162 users. The behaviour of %pK depends on the kptr_restrict sysctl - see
163 Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst for more details.
165 This modifier is *only* intended when producing content of a file read by
166 userspace from e.g. procfs or sysfs, not for dmesg. Please refer to the
167 section about %p above for discussion about how to manage hashing pointers
175 %px 01234567 or 0123456789abcdef
177 For printing pointers when you *really* want to print the address. Please
178 consider whether or not you are leaking sensitive information about the
179 kernel memory layout before printing pointers with %px. %px is functionally
180 equivalent to %lx (or %lu). %px is preferred because it is more uniquely
181 grep'able. If in the future we need to modify the way the kernel handles
182 printing pointers we will be better equipped to find the call sites.
184 Before using %px, consider if using %p is sufficient together with enabling the
185 ``no_hash_pointers`` kernel parameter during debugging sessions (see the %p
186 description above). One valid scenario for %px might be printing information
187 immediately before a panic, which prevents any sensitive information to be
188 exploited anyway, and with %px there would be no need to reproduce the panic
189 with no_hash_pointers.
199 For printing the pointer differences, use the %t modifier for ptrdiff_t.
203 printk("test: difference between pointers: %td\n", ptr2 - ptr1);
210 %pr [mem 0x60000000-0x6fffffff flags 0x2200] or
211 [mem 0x0000000060000000-0x000000006fffffff flags 0x2200]
212 %pR [mem 0x60000000-0x6fffffff pref] or
213 [mem 0x0000000060000000-0x000000006fffffff pref]
215 For printing struct resources. The ``R`` and ``r`` specifiers result in a
216 printed resource with (R) or without (r) a decoded flags member.
220 Physical address types phys_addr_t
221 ----------------------------------
225 %pa[p] 0x01234567 or 0x0123456789abcdef
227 For printing a phys_addr_t type (and its derivatives, such as
228 resource_size_t) which can vary based on build options, regardless of the
229 width of the CPU data path.
233 DMA address types dma_addr_t
234 ----------------------------
238 %pad 0x01234567 or 0x0123456789abcdef
240 For printing a dma_addr_t type which can vary based on build options,
241 regardless of the width of the CPU data path.
245 Raw buffer as an escaped string
246 -------------------------------
252 For printing raw buffer as an escaped string. For the following buffer::
254 1b 62 20 5c 43 07 22 90 0d 5d
256 A few examples show how the conversion would be done (excluding surrounding
259 %*pE "\eb \C\a"\220\r]"
260 %*pEhp "\x1bb \C\x07"\x90\x0d]"
261 %*pEa "\e\142\040\\\103\a\042\220\r\135"
263 The conversion rules are applied according to an optional combination
264 of flags (see :c:func:`string_escape_mem` kernel documentation for the
275 By default ESCAPE_ANY_NP is used.
277 ESCAPE_ANY_NP is the sane choice for many cases, in particularly for
280 If field width is omitted then 1 byte only will be escaped.
282 Raw buffer as a hex string
283 --------------------------
288 %*phC 00:01:02: ... :3f
289 %*phD 00-01-02- ... -3f
292 For printing small buffers (up to 64 bytes long) as a hex string with a
293 certain separator. For larger buffers consider using
294 :c:func:`print_hex_dump`.
301 %pM 00:01:02:03:04:05
302 %pMR 05:04:03:02:01:00
303 %pMF 00-01-02-03-04-05
307 For printing 6-byte MAC/FDDI addresses in hex notation. The ``M`` and ``m``
308 specifiers result in a printed address with (M) or without (m) byte
309 separators. The default byte separator is the colon (:).
311 Where FDDI addresses are concerned the ``F`` specifier can be used after
312 the ``M`` specifier to use dash (-) separators instead of the default
315 For Bluetooth addresses the ``R`` specifier shall be used after the ``M``
316 specifier to use reversed byte order suitable for visual interpretation
317 of Bluetooth addresses which are in the little endian order.
330 For printing IPv4 dot-separated decimal addresses. The ``I4`` and ``i4``
331 specifiers result in a printed address with (i4) or without (I4) leading
334 The additional ``h``, ``n``, ``b``, and ``l`` specifiers are used to specify
335 host, network, big or little endian order addresses respectively. Where
336 no specifier is provided the default network/big endian order is used.
345 %pI6 0001:0002:0003:0004:0005:0006:0007:0008
346 %pi6 00010002000300040005000600070008
347 %pI6c 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8
349 For printing IPv6 network-order 16-bit hex addresses. The ``I6`` and ``i6``
350 specifiers result in a printed address with (I6) or without (i6)
351 colon-separators. Leading zeros are always used.
353 The additional ``c`` specifier can be used with the ``I`` specifier to
354 print a compressed IPv6 address as described by
355 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5952
359 IPv4/IPv6 addresses (generic, with port, flowinfo, scope)
360 ---------------------------------------------------------
364 %pIS 1.2.3.4 or 0001:0002:0003:0004:0005:0006:0007:0008
365 %piS 001.002.003.004 or 00010002000300040005000600070008
366 %pISc 1.2.3.4 or 1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8
367 %pISpc 1.2.3.4:12345 or [1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]:12345
370 For printing an IP address without the need to distinguish whether it's of
371 type AF_INET or AF_INET6. A pointer to a valid struct sockaddr,
372 specified through ``IS`` or ``iS``, can be passed to this format specifier.
374 The additional ``p``, ``f``, and ``s`` specifiers are used to specify port
375 (IPv4, IPv6), flowinfo (IPv6) and scope (IPv6). Ports have a ``:`` prefix,
376 flowinfo a ``/`` and scope a ``%``, each followed by the actual value.
378 In case of an IPv6 address the compressed IPv6 address as described by
379 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5952 is being used if the additional
380 specifier ``c`` is given. The IPv6 address is surrounded by ``[``, ``]`` in
381 case of additional specifiers ``p``, ``f`` or ``s`` as suggested by
382 https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-6man-text-addr-representation-07
384 In case of IPv4 addresses, the additional ``h``, ``n``, ``b``, and ``l``
385 specifiers can be used as well and are ignored in case of an IPv6
392 %pISfc 1.2.3.4 or [1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]/123456789
393 %pISsc 1.2.3.4 or [1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]%1234567890
394 %pISpfc 1.2.3.4:12345 or [1:2:3:4:5:6:7:8]:12345/123456789
401 %pUb 00010203-0405-0607-0809-0a0b0c0d0e0f
402 %pUB 00010203-0405-0607-0809-0A0B0C0D0E0F
403 %pUl 03020100-0504-0706-0809-0a0b0c0e0e0f
404 %pUL 03020100-0504-0706-0809-0A0B0C0E0E0F
406 For printing 16-byte UUID/GUIDs addresses. The additional ``l``, ``L``,
407 ``b`` and ``B`` specifiers are used to specify a little endian order in
408 lower (l) or upper case (L) hex notation - and big endian order in lower (b)
409 or upper case (B) hex notation.
411 Where no additional specifiers are used the default big endian
412 order with lower case hex notation will be printed.
424 For printing dentry name; if we race with :c:func:`d_move`, the name might
425 be a mix of old and new ones, but it won't oops. %pd dentry is a safer
426 equivalent of %s dentry->d_name.name we used to use, %pd<n> prints ``n``
427 last components. %pD does the same thing for struct file.
436 %pg sda, sda1 or loop0p1
438 For printing name of block_device pointers.
447 For printing struct va_format structures. These contain a format string
448 and va_list as follows::
455 Implements a "recursive vsnprintf".
457 Do not use this feature without some mechanism to verify the
458 correctness of the format string and va_list arguments.
470 For printing device tree node structures. Default behaviour is
473 - f - device node full_name
474 - n - device node name
475 - p - device node phandle
476 - P - device node path spec (name + @unit)
477 - F - device node flags
478 - c - major compatible string
479 - C - full compatible string
481 The separator when using multiple arguments is ':'
485 %pOF /foo/bar@0 - Node full name
486 %pOFf /foo/bar@0 - Same as above
487 %pOFfp /foo/bar@0:10 - Node full name + phandle
488 %pOFfcF /foo/bar@0:foo,device:--P- - Node full name +
489 major compatible string +
505 For printing information on fwnode handles. The default is to print the full
506 node name, including the path. The modifiers are functionally equivalent to
509 - f - full name of the node, including the path
510 - P - the name of the node including an address (if there is one)
514 %pfwf \_SB.PCI0.CIO2.port@1.endpoint@0 - Full node name
515 %pfwP endpoint@0 - Node name
519 %pfwf /ocp@68000000/i2c@48072000/camera@10/port/endpoint - Full name
520 %pfwP endpoint - Node name
527 %pt[RT] YYYY-mm-ddTHH:MM:SS
528 %pt[RT]s YYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS
533 For printing date and time as represented by::
535 R struct rtc_time structure
538 in human readable format.
540 By default year will be incremented by 1900 and month by 1.
541 Use %pt[RT]r (raw) to suppress this behaviour.
543 The %pt[RT]s (space) will override ISO 8601 separator by using ' ' (space)
544 instead of 'T' (Capital T) between date and time. It won't have any effect
545 when date or time is omitted.
557 For printing struct clk structures. %pC and %pCn print the name of the clock
558 (Common Clock Framework) or a unique 32-bit ID (legacy clock framework).
562 bitmap and its derivatives such as cpumask and nodemask
563 -------------------------------------------------------
570 For printing bitmap and its derivatives such as cpumask and nodemask,
571 %*pb outputs the bitmap with field width as the number of bits and %*pbl
572 output the bitmap as range list with field width as the number of bits.
574 The field width is passed by value, the bitmap is passed by reference.
575 Helper macros cpumask_pr_args() and nodemask_pr_args() are available to ease
576 printing cpumask and nodemask.
578 Flags bitfields such as page flags, gfp_flags
579 ---------------------------------------------
583 %pGp 0x17ffffc0002036(referenced|uptodate|lru|active|private|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1fffff)
584 %pGg GFP_USER|GFP_DMA32|GFP_NOWARN
585 %pGv read|exec|mayread|maywrite|mayexec|denywrite
587 For printing flags bitfields as a collection of symbolic constants that
588 would construct the value. The type of flags is given by the third
589 character. Currently supported are [p]age flags, [v]ma_flags (both
590 expect ``unsigned long *``) and [g]fp_flags (expects ``gfp_t *``). The flag
591 names and print order depends on the particular type.
593 Note that this format should not be used directly in the
594 :c:func:`TP_printk()` part of a tracepoint. Instead, use the show_*_flags()
595 functions from <trace/events/mmflags.h>.
599 Network device features
600 -----------------------
604 %pNF 0x000000000000c000
606 For printing netdev_features_t.
610 V4L2 and DRM FourCC code (pixel format)
611 ---------------------------------------
617 Print a FourCC code used by V4L2 or DRM, including format endianness and
618 its numerical value as hexadecimal.
624 %p4cc BG12 little-endian (0x32314742)
625 %p4cc Y10 little-endian (0x20303159)
626 %p4cc NV12 big-endian (0xb231564e)
635 Only intended to be used from Rust code to format ``core::fmt::Arguments``.
636 Do *not* use it from C.
641 If you add other %p extensions, please extend <lib/test_printf.c> with
642 one or more test cases, if at all feasible.
644 Thank you for your cooperation and attention.