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authorJosh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>2026-08-02 20:24:27 -0700
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>2026-08-03 07:12:39 +0200
commit029223d301620bc4e1086696047b0d5d6eba5edd (patch)
treed31f07a1a1ad20afbf2d64c40a715959d3f61217 /tools/objtool
parentf5f762fc93d0b81d30b815a2f96320909ad10eb3 (diff)
objtool/klp: Add .klp.symid for sympos disambiguation
Livepatch identifies a duplicate-named symbol by its position (sympos) among same-named kallsyms entries, which for vmlinux are counted in ascending address order in the final linked kernel. That order can't be reliably derived from vmlinux.o: the final link reorders sub-sections (.text.unlikely*, .data..*, etc). Bridge the gap with a new .klp.symid section which can be used to correlate symbols between vmlinux.o and vmlinux so that klp-diff can reliably determine the sympos. The table can't survive --gc-sections: keeping it alive would keep every duplicate-named symbol's section alive, so the reference kernel would stop matching the one which ships. klp-build rejects CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION instead. Nothing is lost today: x86_64 is the only HAVE_KLP_BUILD arch and doesn't select HAVE_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION, arm64 and s390 have never selected it either, and on powerpc, it's still EXPERIMENTAL and disabled by every distro kernel. This is the build-time half of reliable vmlinux sympos computation; "objtool klp diff" will consume the table in a subsequent commit. Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> Cc: live-patching@vger.kernel.org Link: https://patch.msgid.link/64d50f077b569f47883c015cdb7079edb068efe8.1785727106.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
Diffstat (limited to 'tools/objtool')
-rw-r--r--tools/objtool/Build1
-rw-r--r--tools/objtool/builtin-check.c7
-rw-r--r--tools/objtool/check.c7
-rw-r--r--tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h1
-rw-r--r--tools/objtool/include/objtool/klp.h15
-rw-r--r--tools/objtool/klp-symid.c117
6 files changed, 148 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/tools/objtool/Build b/tools/objtool/Build
index 93a37b0dfd31..506f89bed808 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/Build
+++ b/tools/objtool/Build
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ objtool-y += check.o
objtool-y += special.o
objtool-y += builtin-check.o
objtool-y += elf.o
+objtool-y += klp-symid.o
objtool-y += objtool.o
objtool-$(BUILD_DISAS) += disas.o
diff --git a/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c b/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c
index 118c3de2f293..75b11dc85010 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/builtin-check.c
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ static const struct option check_options[] = {
OPT_STRING_OPTARG('d', "disas", &opts.disas, "function-pattern", "disassemble functions", "*"),
OPT_CALLBACK_OPTARG('h', "hacks", NULL, NULL, "jump_label,noinstr,skylake", "patch toolchain bugs/limitations", parse_hacks),
OPT_BOOLEAN('i', "ibt", &opts.ibt, "validate and annotate IBT"),
+ OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "klp-symids", &opts.klp_symids, "generate .klp.symids for duplicate symbol disambiguation"),
OPT_BOOLEAN('m', "mcount", &opts.mcount, "annotate mcount/fentry calls for ftrace"),
OPT_BOOLEAN(0, "noabs", &opts.noabs, "reject absolute references in allocatable sections"),
OPT_BOOLEAN('n', "noinstr", &opts.noinstr, "validate noinstr rules"),
@@ -174,10 +175,16 @@ static bool opts_valid(void)
return false;
}
+ if (opts.klp_symids && !opts.link) {
+ ERROR("--klp-symids requires --link");
+ return false;
+ }
+
if (opts.disas ||
opts.hack_jump_label ||
opts.hack_noinstr ||
opts.ibt ||
+ opts.klp_symids ||
opts.mcount ||
opts.noabs ||
opts.noinstr ||
diff --git a/tools/objtool/check.c b/tools/objtool/check.c
index f03dd59e7fca..a98d7589d8a4 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/check.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/check.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
#include <objtool/arch.h>
#include <objtool/disas.h>
#include <objtool/check.h>
+#include <objtool/klp.h>
#include <objtool/special.h>
#include <objtool/trace.h>
#include <objtool/warn.h>
@@ -4923,6 +4924,12 @@ int check(struct objtool_file *file)
goto out;
}
+ if (opts.klp_symids) {
+ ret = klp_create_symid_sections(file);
+ if (ret)
+ goto out;
+ }
+
if (opts.noabs)
warnings += check_abs_references(file);
diff --git a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h
index e844e9c82b7b..349690bb1c50 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h
+++ b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/builtin.h
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ struct opts {
bool hack_noinstr;
bool hack_skylake;
bool ibt;
+ bool klp_symids;
bool mcount;
bool noabs;
bool noinstr;
diff --git a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/klp.h b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/klp.h
index aab6db42052d..4d3c3bd462aa 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/include/objtool/klp.h
+++ b/tools/objtool/include/objtool/klp.h
@@ -31,6 +31,21 @@ struct klp_reloc {
u32 type;
};
+/*
+ * .klp.symid is used to correlate symbols between vmlinux.o and vmlinux, for
+ * calculating sympos to disambiguate duplicately-named symbols.
+ */
+#define KLP_SYMID_SEC ".klp.symid"
+
+struct klp_symid {
+ u64 id;
+ u64 addr;
+};
+
+struct objtool_file;
+
+int klp_create_symid_sections(struct objtool_file *file);
+
int cmd_klp_checksum(int argc, const char **argv);
int cmd_klp_diff(int argc, const char **argv);
int cmd_klp_post_link(int argc, const char **argv);
diff --git a/tools/objtool/klp-symid.c b/tools/objtool/klp-symid.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..cf188cdfa607
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/objtool/klp-symid.c
@@ -0,0 +1,117 @@
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
+/*
+ * Emit the .klp.symid table which allows "objtool klp diff" to reliably
+ * disambiguate duplicate-named local symbols in vmlinux.
+ *
+ * Livepatch identifies a duplicate-named symbol by its position (sympos)
+ * among the same-named kallsyms entries, counted in ascending address order
+ * in the final linked vmlinux. That order can't be derived from vmlinux.o
+ * alone: the final link reorders sub-sections (.text.unlikely*, .data..*,
+ * etc).
+ *
+ * Bridge the gap with a table which survives the final link: a single
+ * non-alloc section containing an array of { id, addr } entries, where
+ * 'id' is a unique counter identifier and 'addr' has a relocation to the
+ * symbol. The linker copies 'id' verbatim and resolves 'addr' to the symbol's
+ * final address.
+ *
+ * The table is only emitted for vmlinux.o, and only when klp-build asks for it
+ * with KLP_SYMIDS=1, which adds --klp-symids to the vmlinux.o objtool run.
+ *
+ * It can't survive --gc-sections, which sweeps the whole section; klp-build
+ * rejects CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION.
+ */
+#include <linux/string.h>
+
+#include <objtool/objtool.h>
+#include <objtool/warn.h>
+#include <objtool/endianness.h>
+#include <objtool/klp.h>
+
+static const char * const discarded_secs[] = {
+ ".discard",
+ ".modinfo",
+ "__tracepoint_check",
+};
+
+static bool discarded_sec(struct section *sec)
+{
+ if (!(sec->sh.sh_flags & SHF_ALLOC))
+ return true;
+
+ for (int i = 0; i < ARRAY_SIZE(discarded_secs); i++)
+ if (strstarts(sec->name, discarded_secs[i]))
+ return true;
+
+ return false;
+}
+
+static bool symid_needed(struct elf *elf, struct symbol *sym)
+{
+ struct symbol *s;
+
+ if (!is_local_sym(sym) || is_undef_sym(sym))
+ return false;
+
+ if (!is_func_sym(sym) && !is_object_sym(sym))
+ return false;
+
+ if (is_prefix_func(sym))
+ return false;
+
+ if (discarded_sec(sym->sec))
+ return false;
+
+ for_each_sym_by_name(elf, sym->name, s) {
+ if (s == sym || is_sec_sym(s) || is_file_sym(s) || is_undef_sym(s))
+ continue;
+ return true;
+ }
+
+ return false;
+}
+
+int klp_create_symid_sections(struct objtool_file *file)
+{
+ struct elf *elf = file->elf;
+ struct klp_symid *symids;
+ struct section *sec;
+ struct symbol *sym;
+ u64 nr = 0, i = 0;
+
+ if (!str_ends_with(objname, "vmlinux.o"))
+ return 0;
+
+ for_each_sym(elf, sym)
+ if (symid_needed(elf, sym))
+ nr++;
+
+ if (!nr)
+ return 0;
+
+ sec = elf_create_section(elf, KLP_SYMID_SEC, 0, sizeof(struct klp_symid),
+ SHT_PROGBITS, 8, 0);
+ if (!sec)
+ return -1;
+
+ symids = elf_add_data(elf, sec, NULL, nr * sizeof(struct klp_symid));
+ if (!symids)
+ return -1;
+
+ for_each_sym(elf, sym) {
+ if (!symid_needed(elf, sym))
+ continue;
+
+ symids[i].id = bswap_if_needed(elf, i);
+
+ if (!elf_create_reloc(elf, sec,
+ i * sizeof(struct klp_symid) +
+ offsetof(struct klp_symid, addr),
+ sym, 0, R_ABS64))
+ return -1;
+
+ i++;
+ }
+
+ return 0;
+}