Linux kernel taint information utility

Provides a human-readable description of Linux kernel taint flags

Building requires the cppdsaext library.

Usage

taintinfo current
taintinfo list
taintinfo taint=flags
taintinfo value=number

taintinfo current shows information about the current taint status of the running kernel:

$ taintinfo current
Taint flags:            G...........O.....
Numeric representation: 4096 / 0x0000000000001000

- G Only GPL modules were loaded (1 unset)
- O Externally-built (out-of-tree) module was loaded (4096)

taintinfo list shows a list of all taint flags known by this program.

taintinfo taint=flags shows information about the specified taint flags:

$ taintinfo taint=pmeol
Taint flags:            P...M.......OEL...
Numeric representation: 28689 / 0x0000000000007011

- P Proprietary modules were loaded (1)
- M Processor reported a Machine Check Exception (hardware error) (16)
- O Externally-built (out-of-tree) module was loaded (4096)
- E Unsigned module was loaded (8192)
- L Soft lockup occurred (16384)

taintinfo value=number shows information about the specified numeric taint:

$ taintinfo value=1169
Taint flags:            P...M..D..C.......
Numeric representation: 1169 / 0x0000000000000491

- P Proprietary modules were loaded (1)
- M Processor reported a Machine Check Exception (hardware error) (16)
- D Kernel OOPS or BUG triggered taint (128)
- C Module from drivers/staging was loaded (1024)

Output is color-coded: Uncritical taint flags are displayed in green, taint flags that indicate warnings are displayed in yellow, taint flags that indicate errors are displayed in red.

Known limitations

Identification of conflicting taint flags
When using the taint argument, taintinfo does not identify conflicting flags, e.g. G vs. P, which specify the same taint bit (G indicates the flag is clear while P indicates the flag is set).

Identification of unmapped taint bit values
When using the value argument, taintinfo does not identify unmapped (unknown) bit values, and the numeric representation shows the original input value, not just the numeric representation of those taint flags that were identified.

Relation between taint flags and the Linux kernel version
The ability of this program to identify taint flags depends on the version of the program, not the version of the Linux kernel. This means that if there is a mismatch between the version of this program and the Linux kernel version that produced the taint flags or taint value, some taint flags may be misinterpreted or not interpreted at all if taint flags have been added, removed or changed in that version of the Linux kernel. However, it also enables use of this program on various other operating systems, e.g. for the purpose of interpreting kernel log files from Linux servers on a workstation that does not run a Linux-based operating system.