[PATCH 08/48] objtool/klp: Don't correlate __initstub__ symbols

From: Josh Poimboeuf

Date: Thu Apr 23 2026 - 00:14:38 EST


With LTO, the initcall infrastructure generates __initstub__kmod_*
wrapper functions in .init.text. These are the LTO equivalent of
__initcall__kmod_* data pointers, which are already excluded from
correlation.

These are __init functions whose memory is freed after boot, so there's
no reason to include or reference them in a livepatch module.

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/objtool/klp-diff.c | 10 ++++++++--
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/objtool/klp-diff.c b/tools/objtool/klp-diff.c
index 05071d691b5f..022522cd9b6c 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/klp-diff.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/klp-diff.c
@@ -370,6 +370,12 @@ static bool is_abs_sym(struct symbol *sym)
return sym->sym.st_shndx == SHN_ABS && !is_file_sym(sym);
}

+static bool is_initcall_sym(struct symbol *sym)
+{
+ return strstarts(sym->name, "__initcall__") ||
+ strstarts(sym->name, "__initstub__");
+}
+
/*
* These symbols should never be correlated, so their local patched versions
* are used instead of linking to the originals.
@@ -385,10 +391,10 @@ static bool dont_correlate(struct symbol *sym)
is_clang_tmp_label(sym) ||
is_string_sec(sym->sec) ||
is_rodata_sec(sym->sec) ||
+ is_initcall_sym(sym) ||
is_addressable_sym(sym) ||
is_special_section(sym->sec) ||
- is_special_section_aux(sym->sec) ||
- strstarts(sym->name, "__initcall__");
+ is_special_section_aux(sym->sec);
}

struct process_demangled_name_data {
--
2.53.0