Re: [PATCH] efi/libstub: refactor Makefile to not use lib-y syntax

[Ard Biesheuvel]

On Wed, 3 Jun 2020 at 10:59, Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 5:45 PM Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > On Wed, 3 Jun 2020 at 10:36, Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > >
> > > On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 3:45 PM Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, 3 Jun 2020 at 07:34, Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > Documentation/kbuild/makefiles.rst says:
> > > > >
> > > > >   Use of lib-y is normally restricted to `lib/` and `arch/*/lib`.
> > > > >
> > > > > I want to disallow lib-y outside of them.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Why?
> > >
> > >
> > > Because I plan to remove lib-y entirely at some point.
> > >
> > > lib-y is not so useful to shrink the image size because:
> > >
> > >   - An object in lib.a can be omitted only when no symbol
> > >     in that object is referenced.  This rarely happens.
> > >
> > >   -  lib-y objects are often exported by nature
> > >      because lib-y is a collection of utility functions.
> > >      Even if no in-tree user, we always need to keep them
> > >      because EXPORT_SYMBOL() is the interface to modules.
> > >
> > >
> > > When I worked on commit 7273ad2b08f8ac9563579d16a3cf528857b26f49,
> > > I made some research.
> > >
> > > The benefit of lib-y is just 362 byte for x86_64_defconfig.
> > > ( Before: 26578002, After: 26578364)
> > >
> > > My hope is lib-y will be replaced by dead-code elimination or
> > > ultimately by LTO.
> > >
> > > drivers/firmware/efi/libstub/Makefile
> > > is the only Makefile that breaks the rule:
> > > "Use of lib-y is normally restricted to `lib/` and `arch/*/lib`"
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > > Add a custom rule to build lib.a, which is linked to the decompressor
> > > > > for ARCH=x86, ARCH=arm.
> > > > >
> > > > > For ARCH=arm64, use obj-y to link objects to vmlinux in the ordinary
> > > > > way.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > The code works perfectly fine as is, and I don't see what is
> > > > fundamentally wrong with using static libraries outside of lib/ and
> > > > arch/*/lib.
> > >
> > > The intended usage of lib-y is to hook lib.a
> > > to scripts/vmlinux.sh via KBUILD_VMLINUX_LIBS.
> > >
> > > This Makefile is just what you found to work.
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Also, I would like this code to still be incorporated as a static
> > > > library into arm64 as well, so that only pieces that are actually
> > > > needed are incorporated into the final image.
> > >
> > > No.
> > > It is not working like that because you set
> > > lib.a to core-y.
> > >
> > > All objects in core-y are always linked to vmlinux.
> > >
> >
> > The lib.a file is passed to the linker as a static library, so it will
> > only grab what it needs.
> >
> > For instance, if you build arm64 from mainline today, the
> > efi_relocate_kernel will not be in the final image, even though it is
> > built as part of libstub
>
>
> I built today's mainline kernel
> (d6f9469a03d832dcd17041ed67774ffb5f3e73b3).
>
>
> I see it in vmlinux.
>
>
> $ make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-  defconfig
> $ make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-  -j24
>     ...
> $ aarch64-linux-gnu-nm  -n  vmlinux | grep  efi_relocate_kernel
> ffff8000114afb90 t __efistub_efi_relocate_kernel
>

That is strange. I tested this before, and it worked.

Did anything change recently in the way the linker is invoked?