Summary
With a non-managed programming language such as C, a trade-off exists: high power and the ability to code virtually anything you can imagine but at a significant cost. With memory being managed directly by the programmer, slipping in memory defects – bugs! – of all kinds, is rather easy to do, even for experienced folk.
In this chapter, we covered many tools, techniques, and approaches in this regard. First, you learned about the different (scary) types of memory defects. Then, we delved into how to use various tools and techniques to identify them and thus be able to fix them.
One of the most powerful tools in your arsenal for detecting memory bugs is KASAN. You learned how to configure and use it. We first learned how to use the kernel's built-in KUnit test framework to run memory test cases for KASAN to catch. We then developed our own custom module with test cases and even a neat way to test, via a debugfs pseudofile and custom scripts.
Catching...
