[RFC] How to test panic handlers, without crashing the kernel

[Jocelyn Falempe <jfalempe@redhat.com>]

Hi,

While writing a panic handler for drm devices [1], I needed a way to 
test it without crashing the machine.
So from debugfs, I called 
atomic_notifier_call_chain(&panic_notifier_list, ...), but it has the 
side effect of calling all other panic notifiers registered.

So Sima suggested to move that to the generic panic code, and test all 
panic notifiers with a dedicated debugfs interface.

I can move that code to kernel/, but before doing that, I would like to 
know if you think that's the right way to test the panic code.


The second question is how to simulate a panic context in a 
non-destructive way, so we can test the panic notifiers in CI, without 
crashing the machine. The worst case for a panic notifier, is when the 
panic occurs in NMI context, but I don't know how to simulate that. The 
goal would be to find early if a panic notifier tries to sleep, or do 
other things that are not allowed in a panic context.


Best regards,

-- 

Jocelyn

[1] https://patchwork.freedesktop.org/patch/580183/?series=122244&rev=8