Re: [PATCH v9 02/15] livepatch: use `-z unique-symbol` if available to nuke pos-based search

[Borislav Petkov]

On Thu, Dec 23, 2021 at 01:21:56AM +0100, Alexander Lobakin wrote:
> [PATCH v9 02/15] livepatch: use `-z unique-symbol` if available to nuke pos-based search

nuke?

I think you wanna say something about avoiding position-based search if
toolchain supports -z ...

> Position-based search, which means that if we have several symbols
> with the same name, we additionally need to provide an "index" of
> the desired symbol, is fragile. Par exemple, it breaks when two
				  ^^^^^^^^^^^^

We already have hard time with the English in commit messages, let's
avoid the French pls.

> symbols with the same name are located in different sections.
> 
> Since a while, LD has a flag `-z unique-symbol` which appends
> numeric suffixes to the functions with the same name (in symtab
> and strtab).
> Check for its availability and always prefer when the livepatching
> is on.

Why only then?

It looks to me like we want this unconditionally, no?

> This needs a little adjustment to the modpost to make it
> strip suffixes before adding exports.
> 
> depmod needs some treatment as well, tho its false-positibe warnings

Unknown word [false-positibe] in commit message, suggestions:
        ['false-positive', 'false-positioned', 'prepositional']

Please introduce a spellchecker into your patch creation workflow.

> about unknown symbols are harmless and don't alter the return code.
> And there is a bunch more livepatch code to optimize-out after
> introducing this, but let's leave it for later.

...

> @@ -171,17 +173,21 @@ static int klp_find_object_symbol(const char *objname, const char *name,
>  
>  	/*
>  	 * Ensure an address was found. If sympos is 0, ensure symbol is unique;
> -	 * otherwise ensure the symbol position count matches sympos.
> +	 * otherwise ensure the symbol position count matches sympos. If the LD
> +	 * `-z unique` flag is enabled, sympos checks are not relevant.
	   ^^^^^^^^^^^

-z unique-symbol

>  	 */
> -	if (args.addr == 0)
> +	if (args.addr == 0) {
>  		pr_err("symbol '%s' not found in symbol table\n", name);
> -	else if (args.count > 1 && sympos == 0) {
> +	} else if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_LD_HAS_Z_UNIQUE_SYMBOL)) {
> +		goto out_ok;

This is silly - just do it all here.

> +	} else if (args.count > 1 && sympos == 0) {
>  		pr_err("unresolvable ambiguity for symbol '%s' in object '%s'\n",
>  		       name, objname);
>  	} else if (sympos != args.count && sympos > 0) {
>  		pr_err("symbol position %lu for symbol '%s' in object '%s' not found\n",
>  		       sympos, name, objname ? objname : "vmlinux");
>  	} else {
> +out_ok:
>  		*addr = args.addr;
>  		return 0;
>  	}

Looks straight-forward otherwise but I'm no livepatcher so I'd prefer if
they have a look too.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

https://people.kernel.org/tglx/notes-about-netiquette