From nobody Sun Feb 8 08:27:29 2026 Received: from smtp.kernel.org (aws-us-west-2-korg-mail-1.web.codeaurora.org [10.30.226.201]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 54E1F29B8E5; Tue, 6 Jan 2026 14:38:52 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=10.30.226.201 ARC-Seal: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1767710332; cv=none; b=AvazSoAflBuqvAxj10XyNSqXRK1Ph6LAxgrXQPspvJhbxVxOvTrvhpKPkqgPeZKkgxN7X77AKR0seE/CT/X2W9YQ6h4yL56MS+h3MDJufcjxuHs/yVQ9aXfWXJzAxE44f+rHOkRE6a+keuVj6rl5XulluMLcrJN569IE/pB4VrM= ARC-Message-Signature: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1767710332; c=relaxed/simple; bh=utM/SH6WSmMvug29RHcjE7Dcm79LOVBUQzbeMq+EFpc=; h=From:Date:Subject:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Message-Id:To:Cc; b=tK2ZVUaiHF8z+53Cfq+gNUgudE4sjYZnP+sKt/ogIZtALOV4V67eQjkS7kIbWXWnDbyHOLa5KZk8gGG6vagPMajQfSXJenGqoHgKp+k7TDRz3xanI+QI6kkid5kUCMXIxdVFeD1MwCG4X6v4tVTdXxnik2VNMTytBqQPuQz9r18= ARC-Authentication-Results: i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.b=kRkPjPvO; arc=none smtp.client-ip=10.30.226.201 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=kernel.org header.i=@kernel.org header.b="kRkPjPvO" Received: by smtp.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 0BBDFC16AAE; Tue, 6 Jan 2026 14:38:50 +0000 (UTC) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=kernel.org; s=k20201202; t=1767710331; bh=utM/SH6WSmMvug29RHcjE7Dcm79LOVBUQzbeMq+EFpc=; h=From:Date:Subject:To:Cc:From; b=kRkPjPvOSiGhUY3sY6I1gaIY8DhWjilzgvFGxMCTxtz7qiXHtIig/mgmjjLlQIXCp NudlOoAYKPJu4375rXnCWj+9BdhBrHSXGErR2P4LIAt6HcLFKGCnOhYVk+qRPNZfEz Kreh89TsMrl/L4tnVKIyCTtYvATcHPRxknvLJ9Jh5V/NK3Qg9J3nUJDJfPJ++1GRYF S843F4bGGpMGpOgt9u7SAWAakJiqE9kGodASZ86fO4PY0tO2S1Xo8z7usexwMj9/+D vig8HA70PVTebCjF1QYsXVecyOrjYA72ZLcYlBDi+sVY/mDCsfzvPfThCqyaGclNC5 lL2jbzlk1Wr5g== From: Jeff Layton Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:38:22 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] acct(2): begin the deprecation of legacy BSD process accounting Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <20260106-bsd-acct-v1-1-d15564b52c83@kernel.org> X-B4-Tracking: v=1; b=H4sIAAAAAAAC/6tWKk4tykwtVrJSqFYqSi3LLM7MzwNyDHUUlJIzE vPSU3UzU4B8JSMDIzMDQwMz3aTiFN3E5OQS3WQzg6RUi1SzxFQzIyWg8oKi1LTMCrBR0bG1tQD qLsiRWgAAAA== X-Change-ID: 20260106-bsd-acct-c60be8e6ae62 To: Christian Brauner , Jan Kara , Al Viro Cc: Amir Goldstein , Jani Nikula , Wei Liu , Joel Granados , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Jeff Layton X-Mailer: b4 0.14.2 X-Developer-Signature: v=1; a=openpgp-sha256; l=2057; i=jlayton@kernel.org; h=from:subject:message-id; bh=utM/SH6WSmMvug29RHcjE7Dcm79LOVBUQzbeMq+EFpc=; b=owEBbQKS/ZANAwAKAQAOaEEZVoIVAcsmYgBpXR56ANCs8KTdMlk4G7/sBBI8YKI9+zToTxjoG WPcN56MZ8iJAjMEAAEKAB0WIQRLwNeyRHGyoYTq9dMADmhBGVaCFQUCaV0eegAKCRAADmhBGVaC FaLfD/0cBPMf70mzqJ2M3o7r40L3NY/VTSAMVZ0WA8BMlxv5Kb+FX0DfVejrE+2luxv7DXzi3q5 o0WZIj8xyGejOz5VyhaXD5RAQPNk0y91Inv5YwXUVOzJMQ/gGhgSP0lHU7NiJgDCXbXr2K8N+ks enrGyS2QryaUmqkCciYysXEbtFUZekQRpwhDKOmrZgaXw/6FpwycYhlsUtSi7SLN6sAplrAH/xk AMy8oJCz3sIBIfZlBh9Y1Rop+A/VxEHEfRf71JyvZgXsaY6Bjczf3+DSYOQL2G0bDDyAtp9k/i5 VdO1CUOolFuPIuZTcSoLMlEPYIauZN5yGFrfHGbeSTTEAeiE4QanZgIImNLTn93Frv+vH3YyZQx OvRvbqLAGAtaXG8RBblJh2DsNqjFZUuFNVYR+njABWT9h4FLA8NJJYmigeODnYw20CyJKq6apXm gyH6VC1KN4XWep36juHnBLNvYENmb0MVFMuPSXztkldtEIzB0ciOAw+MuGw7DdgVJsp4YrzuNwf BKHb++fbDXK7Py5vr2n9SnOmyU6lPwRfu5LNydL4EE9JbjKmmjWN3F1maA493H9Py/wKwSxHTmS eJv69btUABBiYA/L7hQpTfpLnKOT8vftML8DZKWikWpR1pij8nL1gS/MKbZ5rvNmtP7NwcHBziT 1NSyl2JzzSb2nNQ== X-Developer-Key: i=jlayton@kernel.org; a=openpgp; fpr=4BC0D7B24471B2A184EAF5D3000E684119568215 As Christian points out [1], even though it's privileged, this interface has a lot of footguns. There are better options these days (e.g. eBPF), so it would be good to start discouraging its use and mark it as deprecated. [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/20250212-giert-spannend-8893f1ea= ba7d@brauner/ Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton --- I meant to send this months ago, but never got around to it. Let's at least mark this as deprecated and see who complains. We could also consider adding a pr_warn_once() that fires the first time someone calls acct(2) if we want to kill this in a more near-term timeframe. --- init/Kconfig | 7 +++++-- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig index fa79feb8fe57bb01d8ce8f35e33535709b57d452..160c1c4ef253593d62650cd5a53= f3421bc9372d3 100644 --- a/init/Kconfig +++ b/init/Kconfig @@ -624,8 +624,9 @@ config SCHED_HW_PRESSURE arch_update_hw_pressure() and arch_scale_thermal_pressure(). =20 config BSD_PROCESS_ACCT - bool "BSD Process Accounting" + bool "BSD Process Accounting (DEPRECATED)" depends on MULTIUSER + default n help If you say Y here, a user level program will be able to instruct the kernel (via a special system call) to write process accounting @@ -635,7 +636,9 @@ config BSD_PROCESS_ACCT command name, memory usage, controlling terminal etc. (the complete list is in the struct acct in ). It is up to the user level program to do useful things with this - information. This is generally a good idea, so say Y. + information. This mechanism is antiquated and has significant + scalability issues. You probably want to use eBPF instead. Say + N unless you really need this. =20 config BSD_PROCESS_ACCT_V3 bool "BSD Process Accounting version 3 file format" --- base-commit: 7f98ab9da046865d57c102fd3ca9669a29845f67 change-id: 20260106-bsd-acct-c60be8e6ae62 Best regards, --=20 Jeff Layton