[PATCH 10/27] objtool: Add ANNOTATE_IGNORE_NORETURN()

From: Josh Poimboeuf

Date: Fri Aug 28 2026 - 00:56:22 EST


A generic interface may be noreturn in one arch and returnable in
another, in which case its common declaration can't say __noreturn.

Rust has a similar issue where a few core library calls to returnable
functions are replaced after compilation with calls to a noreturn panic
function.

Add an annotation which tells objtool to ignore the noreturn status of a
given function.

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/annotate.h | 7 +++++++
include/linux/objtool_types.h | 1 +
tools/include/linux/objtool_types.h | 1 +
tools/objtool/check.c | 19 +++++++++++++++++++
tools/objtool/include/objtool/elf.h | 1 +
5 files changed, 29 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/annotate.h b/include/linux/annotate.h
index 2f1599c9e5732..a81ca04b4c501 100644
--- a/include/linux/annotate.h
+++ b/include/linux/annotate.h
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
#define _LINUX_ANNOTATE_H

#include <linux/objtool_types.h>
+#include <linux/stringify.h>

#ifdef CONFIG_OBJTOOL

@@ -105,6 +106,12 @@
*/
#define ANNOTATE_NOCFI_SYM(sym) asm(ASM_ANNOTATE_LABEL(sym, ANNOTYPE_NOCFI))

+/*
+ * Treat a function as returnable by its callers despite objtool classifying it
+ * as noreturn.
+ */
+#define ANNOTATE_IGNORE_NORETURN(sym) asm(ASM_ANNOTATE_LABEL(sym, ANNOTYPE_IGNORE_NORETURN))
+
/*
* Annotate a special section entry. This emables livepatch module generation
* to find and extract individual special section entries as needed.
diff --git a/include/linux/objtool_types.h b/include/linux/objtool_types.h
index c24e9ea392696..ce08ecc808c67 100644
--- a/include/linux/objtool_types.h
+++ b/include/linux/objtool_types.h
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ struct unwind_hint {
#define ANNOTYPE_INTRA_FUNCTION_CALL 7
#define ANNOTYPE_REACHABLE 8
#define ANNOTYPE_NOCFI 9
+#define ANNOTYPE_IGNORE_NORETURN 10

#define ANNOTYPE_DATA_SPECIAL 1

diff --git a/tools/include/linux/objtool_types.h b/tools/include/linux/objtool_types.h
index c24e9ea392696..ce08ecc808c67 100644
--- a/tools/include/linux/objtool_types.h
+++ b/tools/include/linux/objtool_types.h
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ struct unwind_hint {
#define ANNOTYPE_INTRA_FUNCTION_CALL 7
#define ANNOTYPE_REACHABLE 8
#define ANNOTYPE_NOCFI 9
+#define ANNOTYPE_IGNORE_NORETURN 10

#define ANNOTYPE_DATA_SPECIAL 1

diff --git a/tools/objtool/check.c b/tools/objtool/check.c
index 7333b0ed86818..ddb8dbe7f71d9 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/check.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/check.c
@@ -246,6 +246,9 @@ static bool is_noreturn(struct symbol *func)
{
func = func->alias->pfunc;

+ if (func->ignore_noreturn)
+ return false;
+
if (is_listed_noreturn(func))
return true;

@@ -2389,6 +2392,18 @@ static int __annotate_early(struct objtool_file *file, int type, struct instruct
insn->noendbr = 1;
break;

+ /* Must be before detect_noreturns() */
+ case ANNOTYPE_IGNORE_NORETURN: {
+ struct symbol *sym = insn_sym(insn);
+
+ if (!sym) {
+ ERROR_INSN(insn, "dodgy IGNORE_NORETURN annotation");
+ return -1;
+ }
+ sym->ignore_noreturn = 1;
+ break;
+ }
+
default:
break;
}
@@ -2435,6 +2450,10 @@ static int __annotate_late(struct objtool_file *file, int type, struct instructi
/* early */
break;

+ case ANNOTYPE_IGNORE_NORETURN:
+ /* early */
+ break;
+
case ANNOTYPE_RETPOLINE_SAFE:
if (insn->type != INSN_JUMP_DYNAMIC &&
insn->type != INSN_CALL_DYNAMIC &&
diff --git a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/elf.h b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/elf.h
index 46fb2230ca743..0e3593d993ac8 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/elf.h
+++ b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/elf.h
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ struct symbol {
u8 dont_correlate : 1;
u8 fake : 1;
u8 _noreturn : 1;
+ u8 ignore_noreturn : 1;
struct list_head pv_target;
struct reloc *relocs;
struct section *group_sec;
--
2.55.0