[PATCH -next] arm32: enable HAVE_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION

From: Yuntao Liu
Date: Tue Feb 20 2024 - 03:39:36 EST


The current arm32 architecture does not yet support the
HAVE_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION feature. arm32 is widely used in
embedded scenarios, and enabling this feature would be beneficial for
reducing the size of the kernel image.

In order to make this work, we keep the necessary tables by annotating
them with KEEP, also it requires further changes to linker script to KEEP
some tables and wildcard compiler generated sections into the right place.

It boots normally with defconfig, vexpress_defconfig and tinyconfig.

The size comparison of zImage is as follows:
defconfig vexpress_defconfig tinyconfig
5137712 5138024 424192 no dce
5032560 4997824 298384 dce
2.0% 2.7% 29.7% shrink

When using smaller config file, there is a significant reduction in the
size of the zImage.

We also tested this patch on a commercially available single-board
computer, and the comparison is as follows:
a15eb_config
2161384 no dce
2092240 dce
3.2% shrink

The zImage size has been reduced by approximately 3.2%, which is 70KB on
2.1M.

Signed-off-by: Yuntao Liu <liuyuntao12@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/arm/Kconfig | 1 +
arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S | 4 ++--
arch/arm/include/asm/vmlinux.lds.h | 8 ++++----
arch/arm/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S | 6 +++---
4 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/arm/Kconfig b/arch/arm/Kconfig
index 0af6709570d1..de78ceb821df 100644
--- a/arch/arm/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/arm/Kconfig
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@ config ARM
select HAVE_KERNEL_XZ
select HAVE_KPROBES if !XIP_KERNEL && !CPU_ENDIAN_BE32 && !CPU_V7M
select HAVE_KRETPROBES if HAVE_KPROBES
+ select HAVE_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION
select HAVE_MOD_ARCH_SPECIFIC
select HAVE_NMI
select HAVE_OPTPROBES if !THUMB2_KERNEL
diff --git a/arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S b/arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S
index 3fcb3e62dc56..da21244aa892 100644
--- a/arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S
+++ b/arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux.lds.S
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ SECTIONS
* The EFI stub always executes from RAM, and runs strictly before the
* decompressor, so we can make an exception for its r/w data, and keep it
*/
- *(.data.efistub .bss.efistub)
+ *(.data.* .bss.*)
__pecoff_data_end = .;

/*
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ SECTIONS

. = BSS_START;
__bss_start = .;
- .bss : { *(.bss) }
+ .bss : { *(.bss .bss.*) }
_end = .;

. = ALIGN(8); /* the stack must be 64-bit aligned */
diff --git a/arch/arm/include/asm/vmlinux.lds.h b/arch/arm/include/asm/vmlinux.lds.h
index 4c8632d5c432..f2ff79f740ab 100644
--- a/arch/arm/include/asm/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/arch/arm/include/asm/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@
#define PROC_INFO \
. = ALIGN(4); \
__proc_info_begin = .; \
- *(.proc.info.init) \
+ KEEP(*(.proc.info.init)) \
__proc_info_end = .;

#define IDMAP_TEXT \
@@ -125,13 +125,13 @@
__vectors_lma = .; \
OVERLAY 0xffff0000 : NOCROSSREFS AT(__vectors_lma) { \
.vectors { \
- *(.vectors) \
+ KEEP(*(.vectors)) \
} \
.vectors.bhb.loop8 { \
- *(.vectors.bhb.loop8) \
+ KEEP(*(.vectors.bhb.loop8)) \
} \
.vectors.bhb.bpiall { \
- *(.vectors.bhb.bpiall) \
+ KEEP(*(.vectors.bhb.bpiall)) \
} \
} \
ARM_LMA(__vectors, .vectors); \
diff --git a/arch/arm/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S b/arch/arm/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
index bd9127c4b451..de373c6c2ae8 100644
--- a/arch/arm/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
+++ b/arch/arm/kernel/vmlinux.lds.S
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ SECTIONS
. = ALIGN(4);
__ex_table : AT(ADDR(__ex_table) - LOAD_OFFSET) {
__start___ex_table = .;
- ARM_MMU_KEEP(*(__ex_table))
+ ARM_MMU_KEEP(KEEP(*(__ex_table)))
__stop___ex_table = .;
}

@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ SECTIONS
}
.init.arch.info : {
__arch_info_begin = .;
- *(.arch.info.init)
+ KEEP(*(.arch.info.init))
__arch_info_end = .;
}
.init.tagtable : {
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ SECTIONS
#endif
.init.pv_table : {
__pv_table_begin = .;
- *(.pv_table)
+ KEEP(*(.pv_table))
__pv_table_end = .;
}

--
2.34.1