On 16 November 2017 at 23:50, Sami Tolvanen [off-list ref] wrote:

On Thu, Nov 16, 2017 at 11:20:40PM +0000, Ard Biesheuvel wrote:

quoted

So at which point is the IR in a partially linked object file
converted into executable code?

At the final module link step (cmd_ld_ko_o) in scripts/Makefile.modpost,
added in patch 12.

OK, so all IR objects are converted into a single .o file
encapsulating the module image. Does this give the same benefits as
LTO linking IR objects to a fully linked executable? Even if it does,
partial linking is not something the toolchain people are usually
crazy about, so it would be nice to have some confirmation that this
is a usage model that is fully supported.