[PATCH] i386: Distinguish absolute symbols

Ld knows about 2 kinds of symbols,  absolute and section
relative.  Section relative symbols symbols change value
when a section is moved and absolute symbols do not.

Currently in the linker script we have several labels
marking the beginning and ending of sections that
are outside of sections, making them absolute symbols.
Having a mixture of absolute and section relative
symbols refereing to the same data is currently harmless
but it is confusing.

This must be done carefully as newer revs of ld do not place
symbols that appear in sections without data and instead
ld makes those symbols global :(

My ultimate goal is to build a relocatable kernel.  The
safest and least intrusive technique is to generate
relocation entries so the kernel can be relocated at load
time.  The only penalty would be an increase in the size
of the kernel binary.  The problem is that if absolute and
relocatable symbols are not properly specified absolute symbols
will be relocated or section relative symbols won't be, which
is fatal.

The practical motivation is that when generating kernels that
will run from a reserved area for analyzing what caused
a kernel panic, it is simpler if you don't need to hard code
the physical memory location they will run at, especially
for the distributions.

[AK: and merged:]

o Also put a message so that in future people can be aware of it and
  avoid introducing absolute symbols.

Signed-off-by: Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@suse.de>

1 files changed, 5 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index e60d6f2..9f47477 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 
 #define RODATA								\
 	. = ALIGN(4096);						\
-	__start_rodata = .;						\
 	.rodata           : AT(ADDR(.rodata) - LOAD_OFFSET) {		\
+		VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__start_rodata) = .;			\
 		*(.rodata) *(.rodata.*)					\
 		*(__vermagic)		/* Kernel version magic */	\
 	}								\
@@ -119,17 +119,17 @@
 		*(__ksymtab_strings)					\
 	}								\
 									\
+	/* Unwind data binary search table */				\
+	EH_FRAME_HDR							\
+									\
 	/* Built-in module parameters. */				\
 	__param : AT(ADDR(__param) - LOAD_OFFSET) {			\
 		VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__start___param) = .;			\
 		*(__param)						\
 		VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__stop___param) = .;			\
+		VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__end_rodata) = .;			\
 	}								\
 									\
-	/* Unwind data binary search table */				\
-	EH_FRAME_HDR							\
-									\
-	__end_rodata = .;						\
 	. = ALIGN(4096);
 
 #define SECURITY_INIT							\