[RFC PATCH v2 1/3] objtool/powerpc: Enhance objtool to fixup alternate feature relative addresses

Tue Sep 30 02:59:01 AEST 2025

Hi Peter,

On 9/29/25 4:19 PM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 01:34:54PM +0530, Sathvika Vasireddy wrote:
>> Implement build-time fixup of alternate feature relative addresses for
>> the out-of-line (else) patch code. Initial posting to achieve the same
>> using another tool can be found at [1]. Idea is to implement this using
>> objtool instead of introducing another tool since it already has elf
>> parsing and processing covered.
>>
>> Introduce --ftr-fixup as an option to objtool to do feature fixup at
>> build-time.
>>
>> Couple of issues and warnings encountered while implementing feature
>> fixup using objtool are as follows:
>>
>> 1. libelf is creating corrupted vmlinux file after writing necessary
>> changes to the file. Due to this, kexec is not able to load new
>> kernel.
>>
>> It gives the following error:
>>          ELF Note corrupted !
>>          Cannot determine the file type of vmlinux
>>
>> To fix this issue, after opening vmlinux file, make a call to
>> elf_flagelf (e, ELF_C_SET, ELF_F_LAYOUT). This instructs libelf not
>> to touch the segment and section layout. It informs the library
>> that the application will take responsibility for the layout of the
>> file and that the library should not insert any padding between
>> sections.
>>
>> 2. Fix can't find starting instruction warnings when run on vmlinux
>>
>> Objtool throws a lot of can't find starting instruction warnings
>> when run on vmlinux with --ftr-fixup option.
>>
>> These warnings are seen because find_insn() function looks for
>> instructions at offsets that are relative to the start of the section.
>> In case of individual object files (.o), there are no can't find
>> starting instruction warnings seen because the actual offset
>> associated with an instruction is itself a relative offset since the
>> sections start at offset 0x0.
>>
>> However, in case of vmlinux, find_insn() function fails to find
>> instructions at the actual offset associated with an instruction
>> since the sections in vmlinux do not start at offset 0x0. Due to
>> this, find_insn() will look for absolute offset and not the relative
>> offset. This is resulting in a lot of can't find starting instruction
>> warnings when objtool is run on vmlinux.
>>
>> To fix this, pass offset that is relative to the start of the section
>> to find_insn().
>>
>> find_insn() is also looking for symbols of size 0. But, objtool does
>> not store empty STT_NOTYPE symbols in the rbtree. Due to this,
>> for empty symbols, objtool is throwing can't find starting
>> instruction warnings. Fix this by ignoring symbols that are of
>> size 0 since objtool does not add them to the rbtree.
>>
>> 3. Objtool is throwing unannotated intra-function call warnings
>> when run on vmlinux with --ftr-fixup option.
>>
>> One such example:
>>
>> vmlinux: warning: objtool: .text+0x3d94:
>>                          unannotated intra-function call
>>
>> .text + 0x3d94 = c000000000008000 + 3d94 = c0000000000081d4
>>
>> c0000000000081d4: 45 24 02 48  bl c00000000002a618
>> <system_reset_exception+0x8>
>>
>> c00000000002a610 <system_reset_exception>:
>> c00000000002a610:       0e 01 4c 3c     addis   r2,r12,270
>>                          c00000000002a610: R_PPC64_REL16_HA    .TOC.
>> c00000000002a614:       f0 6c 42 38     addi    r2,r2,27888
>>                          c00000000002a614: R_PPC64_REL16_LO    .TOC.+0x4
>> c00000000002a618:       a6 02 08 7c     mflr    r0
>>
>> This is happening because we should be looking for destination
>> symbols that are at absolute offsets instead of relative offsets.
>> After fixing dest_off to point to absolute offset, there are still
>> a lot of these warnings shown.
>>
>> In the above example, objtool is computing the destination
>> offset to be c00000000002a618, which points to a completely
>> different instruction. find_call_destination() is looking for this
>> offset and failing. Instead, we should be looking for destination
>> offset c00000000002a610 which points to system_reset_exception
>> function.
>>
>> Even after fixing the way destination offset is computed, and
>> after looking for dest_off - 0x8 in cases where the original offset
>> is not found, there are still a lot of unannotated intra-function
>> call warnings generated. This is due to symbols that are not
>> properly annotated.
>>
>> So, for now, as a hack to curb these warnings, do not emit
>> unannotated intra-function call warnings when objtool is run
>> with --ftr-fixup option.
> Should not all those fixes be split out into separate patches?
Thank you for reviewing. You're right - these fixes should be split into 
separate patches.
>   Also,
> Changelog seems to have lost the bit where you explain *why* you need
> this. IIRC Nick's original tool had a description of why this is needed.

Yes, Nick's original patch has the description on why this is needed: 
http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/project/linuxppc-dev/patch/20170521010130.13552-1-npiggin@gmail.com/

Currently __ftr_alt* sections must be near .text because they lack the 
executable attribute (preventing linker stubs), requiring branches to 
reach targets directly. This may cause build failures as the kernel 
grows. To solve this, the approach uses --emit-relocs to preserve 
relocation information, marks sections executable (allowing stubs), and 
fixes branch offsets at build time based on their runtime locations. 
This implementation uses objtool with the --ftr-fixup option instead of 
a new tool, since objtool already has ELF parsing and instruction 
patching infrastructure. I'll include the details of why this is needed 
in the Changelog in the next version I send.

>
> Also, please see:
>
>    https://lkml.kernel.org/r/9500b90c4182b03da59472e1a27876818610b084.1758067942.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org
>
>    https://lkml.kernel.org/r/457c2e84b81bd6515aaa60ec8e9e0cc892ed7afa.1758067942.git.jpoimboe@kernel.org

Sure, will check.

Thanks,
Sathvika