Re: [PATCH v2 1/8] scripts/sorttable: Handle RISC-V patchable ftrace entries
From: Shuai Xue <xueshuai@linux.alibaba.com>
Date: 2026-06-01 06:17:14
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linux-kselftest, linux-perf-users, linux-riscv, live-patching, lkml
On 5/28/26 4:23 PM, Wang Han wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
RISC-V uses -fpatchable-function-entry=8,4 when the compressed ISA is enabled and -fpatchable-function-entry=4,2 otherwise. In both cases, the patchable NOP area starts 8 bytes before the function symbol address. The __mcount_loc entries therefore point at the patchable NOP area associated with a function, while nm reports the function symbol at the entry address used for the function range check. After RISC-V selected HAVE_BUILDTIME_MCOUNT_SORT, sorttable started applying that range check at build time. Without allowing entries just before the reported function address, the mcount sorter treats valid RISC-V ftrace callsites as invalid weak-function entries and writes them back as zero. The resulting kernel boots with no ftrace entries, breaking dynamic ftrace and users such as livepatch. The failure is silent during the final link because zeroing weak-function entries is an expected sorttable operation. At boot, those zero entries are skipped by ftrace_process_locs(), so the only obvious symptom is that the vmlinux ftrace table has lost valid callsites and ftrace users cannot attach to them. CONFIG_FTRACE_SORT_STARTUP_TEST also reports the table as sorted in this state: it only checks that the __mcount_loc entries are in ascending order, which a fully zeroed table trivially satisfies. The original commit relied on this check and did not see the regression. On an affected RISC-V QEMU boot with both CONFIG_FTRACE_SORT_STARTUP_TEST and CONFIG_FTRACE_STARTUP_TEST enabled, the sort check still passes while ftrace reports zero usable entries and the early selftests fail: [ 0.000000] ftrace section at ffffffff8101da98 sorted properly [ 0.000000] ftrace: allocating 0 entries in 128 pages [ 0.054999] Testing tracer function: .. no entries found ..FAILED! [ 0.172407] tracer: function failed selftest, disabling [ 0.178186] Failed to init function_graph tracer, init returned -19 Handle RISC-V like arm64 for the function-range check and allow patchable entries up to 8 bytes before the function address. With this fix, a RISC-V QEMU smoke boot with ftrace startup tests shows the vmlinux ftrace table is populated and dynamic ftrace still works: [ 0.000000] ftrace: allocating 46749 entries in 184 pages [ 0.051115] Testing tracer function: PASSED [ 1.283782] Testing dynamic ftrace: PASSED [ 6.275456] Testing tracer function_graph: PASSED Fixes: 0ca1724b56af ("riscv: ftrace: select HAVE_BUILDTIME_MCOUNT_SORT") Suggested-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260527113028.4b21a5de@fedora/ (local) Signed-off-by: Wang Han <redacted> --- scripts/sorttable.c | 10 +++++++--- 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)diff --git a/scripts/sorttable.c b/scripts/sorttable.c index e8ed11c680c6..4c10e85bb5af 100644 --- a/scripts/sorttable.c +++ b/scripts/sorttable.c@@ -891,17 +891,21 @@ static int do_file(char const *const fname, void *addr) table_sort_t custom_sort = NULL; switch (elf_map_machine(ehdr)) { - case EM_AARCH64: #ifdef MCOUNT_SORT_ENABLED + case EM_AARCH64: sort_reloc = true; rela_type = 0x403; - /* arm64 uses patchable function entry placing before function */ + /* fallthrough */ + case EM_RISCV: + /* arm64 and RISC-V place patchable entries before the function */ before_func = 8;
Nit: The shared comment now sits under `case EM_RISCV:` but the two
lines above it (sort_reloc / rela_type = 0x403) are strictly
arm64-only — they configure the RELA-based weak-function fixup that
RISC-V does not need. On a quick read it is easy to wonder if RISC-V
is implicitly inheriting that path. Splitting the comments would
help, e.g.:
case EM_AARCH64:
/* arm64 needs RELA-based weak-function fixup */
sort_reloc = true;
rela_type = 0x403;
/* fallthrough */
case EM_RISCV:
/* arm64 and RISC-V place patchable entries before the function */
before_func = 8;
+#else + case EM_AARCH64: + case EM_RISCV: #endif /* fallthrough */ case EM_386: case EM_LOONGARCH: - case EM_RISCV: case EM_S390: case EM_X86_64: custom_sort = sort_relative_table_with_data;
Reviewed-by: Shuai Xue <xueshuai@linux.alibaba.com> Thanks. Shuai