[PATCH v3 1/2] objtool: make .altinstructions section entry size consistent

From: Joe Lawrence
Date: Sun Aug 22 2021 - 19:05:04 EST


commit e31694e0a7a7 ("objtool: Don't make .altinstructions writable")
aligned objtool-created and kernel-created .altinstructions section
flags, but there remains a minor discrepency in their use of a section
entry size: objtool sets one while the kernel build does not.

While sh_entsize of sizeof(struct alt_instr) seems intuitive, this small
deviation can cause failures with external tooling (kpatch-build).

Fix this by creating new .altinstructions sections with sh_entsize of 0
and then later updating sec->sh_size as alternatives are added to the
section. An added benefit is avoiding the data descriptor and buffer
created by elf_create_section(), but previously unused by
elf_add_alternative().

Fixes: 9bc0bb50727c ("objtool/x86: Rewrite retpoline thunk calls")
Signed-off-by: Joe Lawrence <joe.lawrence@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/objtool/arch/x86/decode.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/objtool/arch/x86/decode.c b/tools/objtool/arch/x86/decode.c
index bc821056aba9..0893436cc09f 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/arch/x86/decode.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/arch/x86/decode.c
@@ -684,7 +684,7 @@ static int elf_add_alternative(struct elf *elf,
sec = find_section_by_name(elf, ".altinstructions");
if (!sec) {
sec = elf_create_section(elf, ".altinstructions",
- SHF_ALLOC, size, 0);
+ SHF_ALLOC, 0, 0);

if (!sec) {
WARN_ELF("elf_create_section");
--
2.26.3