Re: [PATCH v3 8/9] objtool/klp: Fix relocations for EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_MODULES() symbols

On Fri, Aug 7, 2026 at 2:38 PM Josh Poimboeuf [off-list ref] wrote:

EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_MODULES() puts a symbol in a "module:<names>"
namespace, which the module loader grants access to by matching the
importing module's name against that list.

klp_reloc_needed() only creates a klp reloc for module-owned exports; a
vmlinux export gets a normal reloc.  For a vmlinux symbol exported with
EXPORT_SYMBOL_FOR_MODULES(), using a normal reloc results in a modpost
failure in klp-build:

  ERROR: modpost: module livepatch-foo uses symbol mpol_shared_policy_lookup from namespace module:kvm, but does not import it.

And the modpost error is correct: even with that error removed, the
patch module would fail to load:

  livepatch_foo: module uses symbol (mpol_shared_policy_lookup) from namespace module:kvm, but does not import it.
  livepatch_foo: Unknown symbol mpol_shared_policy_lookup (err -22)

Treat it like an unexported symbol by using a klp reloc.

Note this only affects "module:" namespaces.  Ordinary namespaced
exports continue to work with normal relocs thanks to copy_import_ns(),
which propagates the patched object's import_ns tags to the patch
module.

Fixes: dd590d4d57eb ("objtool/klp: Introduce klp diff subcommand for diffing object files")
Reported-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@redhat.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/6a6608f4-0a05-4d75-8b7f-edddfac9c5d4@redhat.com (local)
Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>

Acked-by: Song Liu <song@kernel.org>