160 lines
		
	
	
		
			5.6 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			ReStructuredText
		
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			160 lines
		
	
	
		
			5.6 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			ReStructuredText
		
	
	
	
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0+
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Linker-Generated Arrays
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=======================
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A linker list is constructed by grouping together linker input
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sections, each containing one entry of the list. Each input section
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contains a constant initialized variable which holds the entry's
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content. Linker list input sections are constructed from the list
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and entry names, plus a prefix which allows grouping all lists
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together. Assuming _list and _entry are the list and entry names,
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then the corresponding input section name is
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::
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  __u_boot_list_ + 2_ + @_list + _2_ + @_entry
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and the C variable name is
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::
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  _u_boot_list + _2_ + @_list + _2_ + @_entry
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This ensures uniqueness for both input section and C variable name.
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Note that the names differ only in the characters, "__" for the
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section and "_" for the variable, so that the linker cannot confuse
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section and symbol names. From now on, both names will be referred
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to as
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::
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  %u_boot_list_ + 2_ + @_list + _2_ + @_entry
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Entry variables need never be referred to directly.
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The naming scheme for input sections allows grouping all linker lists
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into a single linker output section and grouping all entries for a
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single list.
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Note the two '_2_' constant components in the names: their presence
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allows putting a start and end symbols around a list, by mapping
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these symbols to sections names with components "1" (before) and
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"3" (after) instead of "2" (within).
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Start and end symbols for a list can generally be defined as
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::
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  %u_boot_list_2_ + @_list + _1_...
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  %u_boot_list_2_ + @_list + _3_...
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Start and end symbols for the whole of the linker lists area can be
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defined as
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::
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  %u_boot_list_1_...
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  %u_boot_list_3_...
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Here is an example of the sorted sections which result from a list
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"array" made up of three entries : "first", "second" and "third",
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iterated at least once.
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::
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  __u_boot_list_2_array_1
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  __u_boot_list_2_array_2_first
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  __u_boot_list_2_array_2_second
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  __u_boot_list_2_array_2_third
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  __u_boot_list_2_array_3
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If lists must be divided into sublists (e.g. for iterating only on
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part of a list), one can simply give the list a name of the form
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'outer_2_inner', where 'outer' is the global list name and 'inner'
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is the sub-list name. Iterators for the whole list should use the
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global list name ("outer"); iterators for only a sub-list should use
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the full sub-list name ("outer_2_inner").
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Here is an example of the sections generated from a global list
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named "drivers", two sub-lists named "i2c" and "pci", and iterators
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defined for the whole list and each sub-list:
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::
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_1
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_i2c_1
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_i2c_2_first
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_i2c_2_first
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_i2c_2_second
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_i2c_2_third
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_i2c_3
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_pci_1
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_pci_2_first
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_pci_2_second
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_pci_2_third
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_2_pci_3
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  %u_boot_list_2_drivers_3
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Alignment issues
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----------------
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The linker script uses alphabetic sorting to group the different linker
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lists together. Each group has its own struct and potentially its own
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alignment. But when the linker packs the structs together it cannot ensure
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that a linker list starts on the expected alignment boundary.
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For example, if the first list has a struct size of 8 and we place 3 of
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them in the image, that means that the next struct will start at offset
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0x18 from the start of the linker_list section. If the next struct has
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a size of 16 then it will start at an 8-byte aligned offset, but not a
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16-byte aligned offset.
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With sandbox on x86_64, a reference to a linker list item using
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ll_entry_get() can force alignment of that particular linker_list item,
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if it is in the same file as the linker_list item is declared.
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Consider this example, where struct driver is 0x80 bytes::
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    ll_entry_declare(struct driver, fred, driver)
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    ...
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    void *p = ll_entry_get(struct driver, fred, driver)
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If these two lines of code are in the same file, then the entry is forced
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to be aligned at the 'struct driver' alignment, which is 16 bytes. If the
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second line of code is in a different file, then no action is taken, since
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the compiler cannot update the alignment of the linker_list item.
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In the first case, an 8-byte 'fill' region is added::
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   __u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testbus_drv
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               0x0000000000270018       0x80 test/built-in.o
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               0x0000000000270018                _u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testbus_drv
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   __u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testfdt1_drv
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               0x0000000000270098       0x80 test/built-in.o
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               0x0000000000270098                _u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testfdt1_drv
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   *fill*         0x0000000000270118        0x8
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   __u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testfdt_drv
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               0x0000000000270120       0x80 test/built-in.o
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               0x0000000000270120                _u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testfdt_drv
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   __u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testprobe_drv
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               0x00000000002701a0       0x80 test/built-in.o
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               0x00000000002701a0                _u_boot_list_2_driver_2_testprobe_drv
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With this, the linker_list no-longer works since items after testfdt1_drv
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are not at the expected address.
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Ideally we would have a way to tell gcc not to align structs in this way.
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It is not clear how we could do this, and in any case it would require us
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to adjust every struct used by the linker_list feature.
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The simplest fix seems to be to force each separate linker_list to start
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on the largest possible boundary that can be required by the compiler. This
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is the purpose of CONFIG_LINKER_LIST_ALIGN
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.. kernel-doc:: include/linker_lists.h
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   :internal:
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