Re: [PATCH 05/14] objtool/klp: Add .klp.symid for sympos disambiguation
From: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Date: 2026-08-03 05:42:35
On Mon, Aug 03, 2026 at 03:41:15AM +0000, sashiko-bot@kernel.org wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
Thank you for your contribution! Sashiko AI review found 1 potential issue(s) to consider: - [Low] Relocations in .klp.symid pointing to discarded sections (.exitcall.exit, .exit.text, etc.) will cause a link-time error when building vmlinux. ----- Patch [5]: [PATCH 05/14] objtool/klp: Add .klp.symid for sympos disambiguation ---commit 09454266fcd41f3c022cac215ab86d1269c37d52 Author: Josh Poimboeuf [off-list ref] objtool/klp: Add .klp.symid for sympos disambiguation This commit introduces a new .klp.symid section to vmlinux.o to help livepatch reliably determine the sympos of duplicate-named symbols. It emits an array of identifiers and relocations that survives the final link, allowing klp-diff to correlate symbols between vmlinux.o and vmlinux.quoted
diff --git a/tools/objtool/klp-symid.c b/tools/objtool/klp-symid.c new file mode 100644 index 0000000000000..cf188cdfa6079 --- /dev/null +++ b/tools/objtool/klp-symid.c[ ... ]quoted
+static const char * const discarded_secs[] = { + ".discard", + ".modinfo", + "__tracepoint_check", +}; + +static bool discarded_sec(struct section *sec) +{ + if (!(sec->sh.sh_flags & SHF_ALLOC)) + return true; + + for (int i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(discarded_secs); i++) + if (strstarts(sec->name, discarded_secs[i])) + return true; + + return false; +}[Severity: Low] Should the discarded_secs array also include .exitcall.exit and .exit. sections? Because these exit sections have the SHF_ALLOC flag set, the first check in discarded_sec() will not catch them. If they are also omitted from the discarded_secs array, klp_create_symid_sections() will mistakenly generate relocations pointing to them. Since the linker script unconditionally discards .exitcall.exit via the DISCARDS macro, generating relocations against it causes a deterministic link-time error ("relocation refers to a discarded section") when building vmlinux. Could this happen in practice? Common driver exit handlers (e.g., module_cleanup used by drivers like cx18 and ivtv) often result in duplicate static symbols like __exitcall_module_cleanup in the .exitcall.exit section when the modules are built-in.
I'm not convinced this can happen in practice. Why would somebody be trying to patch or reference a module exit symbol anyway? -- Josh