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authorJiri Slaby <jslaby@suse.cz>2019-10-11 13:50:41 +0200
committerBorislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>2019-10-18 09:48:11 +0200
commitffedeeb780dc554eff3d3b16e6a462a26a41d7ec (patch)
treea50a13e5062acdef7d29725b871cdac10c0e9fb9 /Documentation
parent30a2441cae7b149ff484a697bf9eb8de53240a4f (diff)
linkage: Introduce new macros for assembler symbols
Introduce new C macros for annotations of functions and data in assembly. There is a long-standing mess in macros like ENTRY, END, ENDPROC and similar. They are used in different manners and sometimes incorrectly. So introduce macros with clear use to annotate assembly as follows: a) Support macros for the ones below SYM_T_FUNC -- type used by assembler to mark functions SYM_T_OBJECT -- type used by assembler to mark data SYM_T_NONE -- type used by assembler to mark entries of unknown type They are defined as STT_FUNC, STT_OBJECT, and STT_NOTYPE respectively. According to the gas manual, this is the most portable way. I am not sure about other assemblers, so this can be switched back to %function and %object if this turns into a problem. Architectures can also override them by something like ", @function" if they need. SYM_A_ALIGN, SYM_A_NONE -- align the symbol? SYM_L_GLOBAL, SYM_L_WEAK, SYM_L_LOCAL -- linkage of symbols b) Mostly internal annotations, used by the ones below SYM_ENTRY -- use only if you have to (for non-paired symbols) SYM_START -- use only if you have to (for paired symbols) SYM_END -- use only if you have to (for paired symbols) c) Annotations for code SYM_INNER_LABEL_ALIGN -- only for labels in the middle of code SYM_INNER_LABEL -- only for labels in the middle of code SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL_ALIAS -- use where there are two local names for one function SYM_FUNC_START_ALIAS -- use where there are two global names for one function SYM_FUNC_END_ALIAS -- the end of LOCAL_ALIASed or ALIASed function SYM_FUNC_START -- use for global functions SYM_FUNC_START_NOALIGN -- use for global functions, w/o alignment SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL -- use for local functions SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL_NOALIGN -- use for local functions, w/o alignment SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK -- use for weak functions SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK_NOALIGN -- use for weak functions, w/o alignment SYM_FUNC_END -- the end of SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL, SYM_FUNC_START, SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK, ... For functions with special (non-C) calling conventions: SYM_CODE_START -- use for non-C (special) functions SYM_CODE_START_NOALIGN -- use for non-C (special) functions, w/o alignment SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL -- use for local non-C (special) functions SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL_NOALIGN -- use for local non-C (special) functions, w/o alignment SYM_CODE_END -- the end of SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL or SYM_CODE_START d) For data SYM_DATA_START -- global data symbol SYM_DATA_START_LOCAL -- local data symbol SYM_DATA_END -- the end of the SYM_DATA_START symbol SYM_DATA_END_LABEL -- the labeled end of SYM_DATA_START symbol SYM_DATA -- start+end wrapper around simple global data SYM_DATA_LOCAL -- start+end wrapper around simple local data ========== The macros allow to pair starts and ends of functions and mark functions correctly in the output ELF objects. All users of the old macros in x86 are converted to use these in further patches. Signed-off-by: Jiri Slaby <jslaby@suse.cz> Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de> Acked-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Andrey Ryabinin <aryabinin@virtuozzo.com> Cc: Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@oracle.com> Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com> Cc: Juergen Gross <jgross@suse.com> Cc: Len Brown <len.brown@intel.com> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-pm@vger.kernel.org Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> Cc: Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org> Cc: x86-ml <x86@kernel.org> Cc: xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20191011115108.12392-2-jslaby@suse.cz
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/asm-annotations.rst216
-rw-r--r--Documentation/index.rst8
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diff --git a/Documentation/asm-annotations.rst b/Documentation/asm-annotations.rst
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+Assembler Annotations
+=====================
+
+Copyright (c) 2017-2019 Jiri Slaby
+
+This document describes the new macros for annotation of data and code in
+assembly. In particular, it contains information about ``SYM_FUNC_START``,
+``SYM_FUNC_END``, ``SYM_CODE_START``, and similar.
+
+Rationale
+---------
+Some code like entries, trampolines, or boot code needs to be written in
+assembly. The same as in C, such code is grouped into functions and
+accompanied with data. Standard assemblers do not force users into precisely
+marking these pieces as code, data, or even specifying their length.
+Nevertheless, assemblers provide developers with such annotations to aid
+debuggers throughout assembly. On top of that, developers also want to mark
+some functions as *global* in order to be visible outside of their translation
+units.
+
+Over time, the Linux kernel has adopted macros from various projects (like
+``binutils``) to facilitate such annotations. So for historic reasons,
+developers have been using ``ENTRY``, ``END``, ``ENDPROC``, and other
+annotations in assembly. Due to the lack of their documentation, the macros
+are used in rather wrong contexts at some locations. Clearly, ``ENTRY`` was
+intended to denote the beginning of global symbols (be it data or code).
+``END`` used to mark the end of data or end of special functions with
+*non-standard* calling convention. In contrast, ``ENDPROC`` should annotate
+only ends of *standard* functions.
+
+When these macros are used correctly, they help assemblers generate a nice
+object with both sizes and types set correctly. For example, the result of
+``arch/x86/lib/putuser.S``::
+
+ Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name
+ 25: 0000000000000000 33 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_1
+ 29: 0000000000000030 37 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_2
+ 32: 0000000000000060 36 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_4
+ 35: 0000000000000090 37 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_8
+
+This is not only important for debugging purposes. When there are properly
+annotated objects like this, tools can be run on them to generate more useful
+information. In particular, on properly annotated objects, ``objtool`` can be
+run to check and fix the object if needed. Currently, ``objtool`` can report
+missing frame pointer setup/destruction in functions. It can also
+automatically generate annotations for :doc:`ORC unwinder <x86/orc-unwinder>`
+for most code. Both of these are especially important to support reliable
+stack traces which are in turn necessary for :doc:`Kernel live patching
+<livepatch/livepatch>`.
+
+Caveat and Discussion
+---------------------
+As one might realize, there were only three macros previously. That is indeed
+insufficient to cover all the combinations of cases:
+
+* standard/non-standard function
+* code/data
+* global/local symbol
+
+There was a discussion_ and instead of extending the current ``ENTRY/END*``
+macros, it was decided that brand new macros should be introduced instead::
+
+ So how about using macro names that actually show the purpose, instead
+ of importing all the crappy, historic, essentially randomly chosen
+ debug symbol macro names from the binutils and older kernels?
+
+.. _discussion: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20170217104757.28588-1-jslaby@suse.cz
+
+Macros Description
+------------------
+
+The new macros are prefixed with the ``SYM_`` prefix and can be divided into
+three main groups:
+
+1. ``SYM_FUNC_*`` -- to annotate C-like functions. This means functions with
+ standard C calling conventions, i.e. the stack contains a return address at
+ the predefined place and a return from the function can happen in a
+ standard way. When frame pointers are enabled, save/restore of frame
+ pointer shall happen at the start/end of a function, respectively, too.
+
+ Checking tools like ``objtool`` should ensure such marked functions conform
+ to these rules. The tools can also easily annotate these functions with
+ debugging information (like *ORC data*) automatically.
+
+2. ``SYM_CODE_*`` -- special functions called with special stack. Be it
+ interrupt handlers with special stack content, trampolines, or startup
+ functions.
+
+ Checking tools mostly ignore checking of these functions. But some debug
+ information still can be generated automatically. For correct debug data,
+ this code needs hints like ``UNWIND_HINT_REGS`` provided by developers.
+
+3. ``SYM_DATA*`` -- obviously data belonging to ``.data`` sections and not to
+ ``.text``. Data do not contain instructions, so they have to be treated
+ specially by the tools: they should not treat the bytes as instructions,
+ nor assign any debug information to them.
+
+Instruction Macros
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+This section covers ``SYM_FUNC_*`` and ``SYM_CODE_*`` enumerated above.
+
+* ``SYM_FUNC_START`` and ``SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL`` are supposed to be **the
+ most frequent markings**. They are used for functions with standard calling
+ conventions -- global and local. Like in C, they both align the functions to
+ architecture specific ``__ALIGN`` bytes. There are also ``_NOALIGN`` variants
+ for special cases where developers do not want this implicit alignment.
+
+ ``SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK`` and ``SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK_NOALIGN`` markings are
+ also offered as an assembler counterpart to the *weak* attribute known from
+ C.
+
+ All of these **shall** be coupled with ``SYM_FUNC_END``. First, it marks
+ the sequence of instructions as a function and computes its size to the
+ generated object file. Second, it also eases checking and processing such
+ object files as the tools can trivially find exact function boundaries.
+
+ So in most cases, developers should write something like in the following
+ example, having some asm instructions in between the macros, of course::
+
+ SYM_FUNC_START(function_hook)
+ ... asm insns ...
+ SYM_FUNC_END(function_hook)
+
+ In fact, this kind of annotation corresponds to the now deprecated ``ENTRY``
+ and ``ENDPROC`` macros.
+
+* ``SYM_FUNC_START_ALIAS`` and ``SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL_ALIAS`` serve for those
+ who decided to have two or more names for one function. The typical use is::
+
+ SYM_FUNC_START_ALIAS(__memset)
+ SYM_FUNC_START(memset)
+ ... asm insns ...
+ SYM_FUNC_END(memset)
+ SYM_FUNC_END_ALIAS(__memset)
+
+ In this example, one can call ``__memset`` or ``memset`` with the same
+ result, except the debug information for the instructions is generated to
+ the object file only once -- for the non-``ALIAS`` case.
+
+* ``SYM_CODE_START`` and ``SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL`` should be used only in
+ special cases -- if you know what you are doing. This is used exclusively
+ for interrupt handlers and similar where the calling convention is not the C
+ one. ``_NOALIGN`` variants exist too. The use is the same as for the ``FUNC``
+ category above::
+
+ SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL(bad_put_user)
+ ... asm insns ...
+ SYM_CODE_END(bad_put_user)
+
+ Again, every ``SYM_CODE_START*`` **shall** be coupled by ``SYM_CODE_END``.
+
+ To some extent, this category corresponds to deprecated ``ENTRY`` and
+ ``END``. Except ``END`` had several other meanings too.
+
+* ``SYM_INNER_LABEL*`` is used to denote a label inside some
+ ``SYM_{CODE,FUNC}_START`` and ``SYM_{CODE,FUNC}_END``. They are very similar
+ to C labels, except they can be made global. An example of use::
+
+ SYM_CODE_START(ftrace_caller)
+ /* save_mcount_regs fills in first two parameters */
+ ...
+
+ SYM_INNER_LABEL(ftrace_caller_op_ptr, SYM_L_GLOBAL)
+ /* Load the ftrace_ops into the 3rd parameter */
+ ...
+
+ SYM_INNER_LABEL(ftrace_call, SYM_L_GLOBAL)
+ call ftrace_stub
+ ...
+ retq
+ SYM_CODE_END(ftrace_caller)
+
+Data Macros
+~~~~~~~~~~~
+Similar to instructions, there is a couple of macros to describe data in the
+assembly.
+
+* ``SYM_DATA_START`` and ``SYM_DATA_START_LOCAL`` mark the start of some data
+ and shall be used in conjunction with either ``SYM_DATA_END``, or
+ ``SYM_DATA_END_LABEL``. The latter adds also a label to the end, so that
+ people can use ``lstack`` and (local) ``lstack_end`` in the following
+ example::
+
+ SYM_DATA_START_LOCAL(lstack)
+ .skip 4096
+ SYM_DATA_END_LABEL(lstack, SYM_L_LOCAL, lstack_end)
+
+* ``SYM_DATA`` and ``SYM_DATA_LOCAL`` are variants for simple, mostly one-line
+ data::
+
+ SYM_DATA(HEAP, .long rm_heap)
+ SYM_DATA(heap_end, .long rm_stack)
+
+ In the end, they expand to ``SYM_DATA_START`` with ``SYM_DATA_END``
+ internally.
+
+Support Macros
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+All the above reduce themselves to some invocation of ``SYM_START``,
+``SYM_END``, or ``SYM_ENTRY`` at last. Normally, developers should avoid using
+these.
+
+Further, in the above examples, one could see ``SYM_L_LOCAL``. There are also
+``SYM_L_GLOBAL`` and ``SYM_L_WEAK``. All are intended to denote linkage of a
+symbol marked by them. They are used either in ``_LABEL`` variants of the
+earlier macros, or in ``SYM_START``.
+
+
+Overriding Macros
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+Architecture can also override any of the macros in their own
+``asm/linkage.h``, including macros specifying the type of a symbol
+(``SYM_T_FUNC``, ``SYM_T_OBJECT``, and ``SYM_T_NONE``). As every macro
+described in this file is surrounded by ``#ifdef`` + ``#endif``, it is enough
+to define the macros differently in the aforementioned architecture-dependent
+header.
diff --git a/Documentation/index.rst b/Documentation/index.rst
index b843e313d2f2..2ceab197246f 100644
--- a/Documentation/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/index.rst
@@ -135,6 +135,14 @@ needed).
mic/index
scheduler/index
+Architecture-agnostic documentation
+-----------------------------------
+
+.. toctree::
+ :maxdepth: 2
+
+ asm-annotations
+
Architecture-specific documentation
-----------------------------------