perf record --kcore does not work when /proc/modules changed during copy

From: Daniel Dao
Date: Fri Sep 02 2022 - 11:53:56 EST


Hi Perf tools maintainers,

`perf record --kcore` frequently did not work on a somewhat busy system.
For example:

sudo perf record --kcore -- sleep 1
ERROR: Failed to copy kcore

Using strace to look at the invocation, the failure looks like:

...
openat(AT_FDCWD, "/proc/modules", O_RDONLY) = 56
openat(AT_FDCWD, "perf.data/kcore_dir/modules", O_RDONLY) = 57
read(56, "mpls_gso 16384 0 - Live 0xffffff"..., 4096) = 4070
read(57, "mpls_gso 16384 0 - Live 0xffffff"..., 4070) = 4070
read(56, "xt_conntrack 24576 22 - Live 0xf"..., 4096) = 3738
read(57, "xt_conntrack 24576 22 - Live 0xf"..., 3738) = 3738
close(57) = 0
close(56) = 0
close(55) = 0
unlink("perf.data/kcore_dir/kcore") = 0
close(54) = 0
unlink("perf.data/kcore_dir/modules") = 0
unlink("perf.data/kcore_dir/kallsyms") = 0
write(2, "ERROR: Failed to copy kcore\n", 28ERROR: Failed to copy kcore
...

We can see that the verification of proc/modules failed because /proc/modules
output changed after we copied kcore. When i looked at it, they are caused by
changes of module refcount which seems expected on busy systems, such as

< tcp_bbr 40960 12644 - Live 0x0000000000000000
---
> tcp_bbr 40960 12678 - Live 0x0000000000000000

Any suggestions on how to make this work is much appreciated.

Cheers,
Daniel.