Re: [PATCH 0/2] Use dot prefixes for section names

[Linus Torvalds]

On Mon, 14 Oct 2024 at 05:57, Ard Biesheuvel <ardb+git@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Pre-existing code uses a dot prefix or double underscore to prefix ELF
> section names. strip_relocs on x86 relies on this, and other out of tree
> tools that mangle vmlinux (kexec or live patching) may rely on this as
> well.
>
> So let's not deviate from this and use a dot prefix for runtime-const
> and alloc_tags sections.

I'm not following what the actual problem is. Yes, I see that you
report that it results in section names like ".relaalloc_tags", but
what's the actual _issue_ with that? It seems entirely harmless.

In fact, when I was going the runtime sections, I was thinking how
convenient it was for the linker to generate the start/stop symbols
for us, and that we should perhaps *expand* on that pattern.

So this seems a step backwards to me, with no real explanation of what
the actual problem is.

Yes, we have (two different) pre-existing patterns, but neither
pattern seems to be an actual improvement.

           Linus