Re: [PATCH 3/4] vmlinux.lds.h: Fix alignment for __ksymtab*, __kcrctab_* and .pci_fixup sections

[Helge Deller]

On 12/21/23 14:07, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 23, 2023 at 7:18 AM <deller@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > From: Helge Deller <deller@xxxxxx>
> >
> > On 64-bit architectures without CONFIG_HAVE_ARCH_PREL32_RELOCATIONS
> > (e.g. ppc64, ppc64le, parisc, s390x,...) the __KSYM_REF() macro stores
> > 64-bit pointers into the __ksymtab* sections.
> > Make sure that the start of those sections is 64-bit aligned in the vmlinux
> > executable, otherwise unaligned memory accesses may happen at runtime.
>
>
> Are you solving a real problem?

Not any longer.
I faced a problem on parisc when neither #1 and #3 were applied
because of a buggy unalignment exception handler. But this is
not something which I would count a "real generic problem".

> 1/4 already ensures the proper alignment of __ksymtab*, doesn't it?

Yes, it does.

> ...
> So, my understanding is this patch is unneeded.

Yes, it's not required and I'm fine if we drop it.

But regarding __kcrctab:

> > @@ -498,6 +501,7 @@
> >          }                                                               \
> >                                                                          \
> >          /* Kernel symbol table: Normal symbols */                       \
> > +       . = ALIGN(4);                                                   \
> >          __kcrctab         : AT(ADDR(__kcrctab) - LOAD_OFFSET) {         \
> >                  __start___kcrctab = .;                                  \
> >                  KEEP(*(SORT(___kcrctab+*)))                             \

I think this patch would be beneficial to get proper alignment:

diff --git a/include/linux/export-internal.h b/include/linux/export-internal.h
index cd253eb51d6c..d445705ac13c 100644
--- a/include/linux/export-internal.h
+++ b/include/linux/export-internal.h
@@ -64,6 +64,7 @@

 #define SYMBOL_CRC(sym, crc, sec)   \
        asm(".section \"___kcrctab" sec "+" #sym "\",\"a\""     "\n" \
+           ".balign 4"                                         "\n" \
            "__crc_" #sym ":"                                   "\n" \
            ".long " #crc                                       "\n" \
            ".previous"                                         "\n")


Helge