Re: [RFC] [PATCH] x86: Use ELF section to list CPU vendor specificcode (Linux Tiny)

[Thomas Petazzoni]

Le Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:03:12 -0800,
Matt Mackall <mpm@xxxxxxxxxxx> a Ãcrit :

> > > This is not quite what Peter and I were thinking of, I think.
> > > It's not at all generic. How about a section that simply contains
> > > a set of function pointers, a macro to add things to that
> > > section, and a function that calls all the pointers in that
> > > section. Eg:
> > > 
> > > CALLBACK_SECTION(init_cpu_amd, "cpuvendor.init");
> > > invoke_callback_section("cpuvendor.init");
> > > 
> > > ..which would give us a generic facility we could use in various
> > > places.
> > 
> > I see. Probably doable. How would it work in the LD script file ?
> > Your mechanism allows to specify any section name, but AFAIK, the
> > sections must be explicitly listed in the kernel LD script in order
> > to be included in the final kernel image. Am I missing something ?
> 
> I can't see any way to avoid it, but we can leave it to future
> generations to come up with something more clever.

After a quick look at the LD documentation, it seems that wildcards are
supported in the input section names of the linker script. So that the
CALLBACK_SECTION() macro could add the function pointer to a section
named:

   gcm. ## name

(gcm standing for "generic callback mechanism") and then, in the linker
script, do:

   *(gcm.*)

I'm going to try that.

Sincerly,

Thomas
-- 
Thomas Petazzoni, Free Electrons
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