Re: [PATCH] ftrace: Do not reference symbols in sections without size

From: Josh Poimboeuf
Date: Mon Feb 15 2021 - 19:07:41 EST


On Mon, Feb 15, 2021 at 04:44:46PM -0500, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> From: "Steven Rostedt (VMware)" <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Starting with binutils 2.36, sections were being removed if they had weak
> functions that were optimized out. Unfortunately, these weak functions would
> leave references to mcount/fentry calls, that would make recordmcount fail
> to find the symbol that matched the call to fentry.

Binutils 2.36 isn't removing sections, just section *symbols*.

> Before returning the symbol of the section to create the mcount location,
> check if that section size is greater than zero. If it has no size, skip
> referencing that mcount call location.

How does this even work? The .text.unlikely section isn't empty:

# readelf -SW kernel/kexec_file.o

Section Headers:
[Nr] Name Type Address Off Size ES Flg Lk Inf Al
[ 0] NULL 0000000000000000 000000 000000 00 0 0 0
[ 1] .text PROGBITS 0000000000000000 000040 001acf 00 AX 0 0 1
[ 2] .rela.text RELA 0000000000000000 0049e0 001b30 18 I 27 1 8
[ 3] .data PROGBITS 0000000000000000 001b20 000e80 00 WA 0 0 32
[ 4] .rela.data RELA 0000000000000000 006510 0010e0 18 I 27 3 8
[ 5] .bss NOBITS 0000000000000000 0029a0 000060 00 WA 0 0 32
[ 6] .rodata PROGBITS 0000000000000000 0029a0 000b80 00 A 0 0 32
[ 7] .rodata.str1.1 PROGBITS 0000000000000000 003520 0001c6 01 AMS 0 0 1
[ 8] .text.unlikely PROGBITS 0000000000000000 0036e6 000038 00 AX 0 0 1

--
Josh