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Kernel-Level Exception Handling

Issue 42

From Issue #42
October 1997

Oct 01, 1997  By Joerg Pommnitz
 in
An in-depth look at how the kernel is now confirming the validity of memory access addresses—not for the beginner. The information in this article applies to kernel versions 2.1.08 to 2.1.36. With version 2.1.37, a few of the kernel internals changed. The exception handling did not change, but the compiled code would be slightly different from the included examples.
Summary

The new user access scheme implemented in the 2.1 development kernels of Linux provides an efficient and easy-to-use way to copy data from and to the kernel address space. The added overhead for the average, error-free case is close to zero. Because access and test for accessibility are atomic, the original problem with multi-threaded applications is resolved. This solution meets all four of our requirements.

Figure 1. Execution Flow Chart

The name Jöerg Pommnitz can be found throughout the Linux kernel code. He recently changed jobs and moved without giving us his direction.

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