Re: [PATCH 1/2] x86, stackvalidate: Compile-time stack frame pointer validation

[Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>]

On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 09:04:54AM -0500, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 28, 2015 at 02:16:06PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Mon, Apr 27, 2015 at 08:56:27AM -0500, Josh Poimboeuf wrote:
> > > Frame pointer based stack traces aren't always reliable.  One big reason
> > > is that most asm functions don't set up the frame pointer.
> > > 
> > > Fix that by enforcing that all asm functions honor CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER.
> > > This is done with a new stackvalidate host tool which is automatically
> > > run for every compiled .S file and which validates that every asm
> > > function does the proper frame pointer setup.
> > 
> > Would it make sense (maybe as an additional CONFIG_*_DEBUG thing) to
> > also process the output of GCC with this tool? To both double check GCC
> > and to give the tool more input?
> 
> I tried that, but I discovered that gcc's usage of frame pointers would
> be a lot harder to validate.  It only sets up the frame pointer in code
> paths which have call instructions.  There are a lot of functions which
> have conditional jumps at the beginning which can jump straight to a
> return instruction without first doing the frame pointer setup.

Hmm, would not such code break your patching?