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Kris Van Hees authored
Create file module.builtin.ranges that can be used to find where
built-in modules are located by their addresses. This will be useful for
tracing tools to find what functions are for various built-in modules.

The offset range data for builtin modules is generated using:
 - modules.builtin: associates object files with module names
 - vmlinux.map: provides load order of sections and offset of first member
    per section
 - vmlinux.o.map: provides offset of object file content per section
 - .*.cmd: build cmd file with KBUILD_MODFILE

The generated data will look like:

.text 00000000-00000000 = _text
.text 0000baf0-0000cb10 amd_uncore
.text 0009bd10-0009c8e0 iosf_mbi
...
.text 00b9f080-00ba011a intel_skl_int3472_discrete
.text 00ba0120-00ba03c0 intel_skl_int3472_discrete intel_skl_int3472_tps68470
.text 00ba03c0-00ba08d6 intel_skl_int3472_tps68470
...
.data 00000000-00000000 = _sdata
.data 0000f020-0000f680 amd_uncore

For each ELF section, it lists the offset of the first symbol.  This can
be used to determine the base address of the section at runtime.

Next, it lists (in strict ascending order) offset ranges in that section
that cover the symbols of one or more builtin modules.  Multiple ranges
can apply to a single module, and ranges can be shared between modules.

The CONFIG_BUILTIN_MODULE_RANGES option controls whether offset range data
is generated for kernel modules that are built into the kernel image.

How it works:

 1. The modules.builtin file is parsed to obtain a list of built-in
    module names and their associated object names (the .ko file that
    the module would be in if it were a loadable module, hereafter
    referred to as <kmodfile>).  This object name can be used to
    identify objects in the kernel compile because any C or assembler
    code that ends up into a built-in module will have the option
    -DKBUILD_MODFILE=<kmodfile> present in its build command, and those
    can be found in the .<obj>.cmd file in the kernel build tree.

    If an object is part of multiple modules, they will all be listed
    in the KBUILD_MODFILE option argument.

    This allows us to conclusively determine whether an object in the
    kernel build belong to any modules, and which.

 2. The vmlinux.map is parsed next to determine the base address of each
    top level section so that all addresses into the section can be
    turned into offsets.  This makes it possible to handle sections
    getting loaded at different addresses at system boot.

    We also determine an 'anchor' symbol at the beginning of each
    section to make it possible to calculate the true base address of
    a section at runtime (i.e. symbol address - symbol offset).

    We collect start addresses of sections that are included in the top
    level section.  This is used when vmlinux is linked using vmlinux.o,
    because in that case, we need to look at the vmlinux.o linker map to
    know what object a symbol is found in.

    And finally, we process each symbol that is listed in vmlinux.map
    (or vmlinux.o.map) based on the following structure:

    vmlinux linked from vmlinux.a:

      vmlinux.map:
        <top level section>
          <included section>  -- might be same as top level section)
            <object>          -- built-in association known
              <symbol>        -- belongs to module(s) object belongs to
              ...

    vmlinux linked from vmlinux.o:

      vmlinux.map:
        <top level section>
          <included section>  -- might be same as top level section)
            vmlinux.o         -- need to use vmlinux.o.map
              <symbol>        -- ignored
              ...

      vmlinux.o.map:
        <section>
            <object>          -- built-in association known
              <symbol>        -- belongs to module(s) object belongs to
              ...

 3. As sections, objects, and symbols are processed, offset ranges are
    constructed in a straight-forward way:

      - If the symbol belongs to one or more built-in modules:
          - If we were working on the same module(s), extend the range
            to include this object
          - If we were working on another module(s), close that range,
            and start the new one
      - If the symbol does not belong to any built-in modules:
          - If we were working on a module(s) range, close that range

Signed-off-by: default avatarKris Van Hees <kris.van.hees@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: default avatarNick Alcock <nick.alcock@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: default avatarAlan Maguire <alan.maguire@oracle.com>
Reviewed-by: default avatarSteven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Tested-by: default avatarSam James <sam@gentoo.org>
Reviewed-by: default avatarSami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>
Tested-by: default avatarSami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@google.com>
Signed-off-by: default avatarMasahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>
5f5e7344
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The Linux Kernel documentation

This is the top level of the kernel's documentation tree. Kernel documentation, like the kernel itself, is very much a work in progress; that is especially true as we work to integrate our many scattered documents into a coherent whole. Please note that improvements to the documentation are welcome; join the linux-doc list at vger.kernel.org if you want to help out.

Working with the development community

The essential guides for interacting with the kernel's development community and getting your work upstream.

Internal API manuals

Manuals for use by developers working to interface with the rest of the kernel.

Development tools and processes

Various other manuals with useful information for all kernel developers.

User-oriented documentation

The following manuals are written for users of the kernel — those who are trying to get it to work optimally on a given system and application developers seeking information on the kernel's user-space APIs.

See also: the Linux man pages, which are kept separately from the kernel's own documentation.

Firmware-related documentation

The following holds information on the kernel's expectations regarding the platform firmwares.

Architecture-specific documentation

Other documentation

There are several unsorted documents that don't seem to fit on other parts of the documentation body, or may require some adjustments and/or conversion to reStructuredText format, or are simply too old.

Translations

Indices and tables

  • :ref:`genindex`