[PATCH v4 2/8] arm64, unwind: build kernel with sframe V3 info

Dylan Hatch
2026-04-21T22:52:13Z

Build with -Wa,--gsframe-3 flags to generate a .sframe section. This
will be used for in-kernel reliable stacktrace in cases where the frame
pointer alone is insufficient.

Currently, the sframe format only supports arm64, x86_64 and s390x
architectures.

Signed-off-by: Weinan Liu <wnliu@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Prasanna Kumar T S M <ptsm@linux.microsoft.com>
Signed-off-by: Dylan Hatch <dylanbhatch@google.com>
---
MAINTAINERS | 1 +
Makefile | 8 ++++++++
arch/Kconfig | 21 +++++++++++++++++++++
arch/arm64/Kconfig | 1 +
arch/arm64/include/asm/unwind_sframe.h | 8 ++++++++
arch/arm64/kernel/vdso/Makefile | 2 +-
include/asm-generic/sections.h | 4 ++++
include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 15 +++++++++++++++
8 files changed, 59 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
create mode 100644 arch/arm64/include/asm/unwind_sframe.h

diff --git a/MAINTAINERS b/MAINTAINERS
index cfc7dec88da4..a7d75f9cb5f4 100644
--- a/MAINTAINERS
+++ b/MAINTAINERS
@@ -27561,6 +27561,7 @@ STACK UNWINDING
M: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
M: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
S: Maintained
+F: arch/*/include/asm/unwind_sframe.h
F: include/linux/sframe.h
F: include/linux/unwind*.h
F: kernel/unwind/
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 2b15f0b4a0cb..6c94a5257679 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1110,6 +1110,14 @@ endif
# Ensure compilers do not transform certain loops into calls to wcslen()
KBUILD_CFLAGS += -fno-builtin-wcslen

+# build with sframe table
+ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_UNWIND_KERNEL_SFRAME
+CC_FLAGS_SFRAME := -Wa,--gsframe-3
+KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(CC_FLAGS_SFRAME)
+KBUILD_AFLAGS += $(CC_FLAGS_SFRAME)
+export CC_FLAGS_SFRAME
+endif
+
# change __FILE__ to the relative path to the source directory
ifdef building_out_of_srctree
KBUILD_CPPFLAGS += -fmacro-prefix-map=$(srcroot)/=
diff --git a/arch/Kconfig b/arch/Kconfig
index d7caf2e245ce..8d27b3249e7a 100644
--- a/arch/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/Kconfig
@@ -520,6 +520,27 @@ config SFRAME_VALIDATION

If unsure, say N.

+config ARCH_SUPPORTS_UNWIND_KERNEL_SFRAME
+ bool
+ help
+ An architecture can select this if it enables the SFrame (Simple
+ Frame) unwinder for unwinding kernel stack traces. It uses an unwind
+ table that is directly generated by the toolchain based on DWARF CFI
+ information.
+
+config HAVE_UNWIND_KERNEL_SFRAME
+ bool "Sframe unwinder"
+ depends on AS_SFRAME3
+ depends on 64BIT
+ depends on ARCH_SUPPORTS_UNWIND_KERNEL_SFRAME
+ select UNWIND_SFRAME_LOOKUP
+ help
+ This option enables the SFrame (Simple Frame) unwinder for unwinding
+ kernel stack traces. It uses unwind an table that is directly
+ generated by the toolchain based on DWARF CFI information. In
+ practice, this can provide more reliable stacktrace results than
+ unwinding with frame pointers alone.
+
config HAVE_PERF_REGS
bool
help
diff --git a/arch/arm64/Kconfig b/arch/arm64/Kconfig
index 38dba5f7e4d2..f7ae8eaaadc4 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/Kconfig
+++ b/arch/arm64/Kconfig
@@ -112,6 +112,7 @@ config ARM64
select ARCH_SUPPORTS_SCHED_SMT
select ARCH_SUPPORTS_SCHED_CLUSTER
select ARCH_SUPPORTS_SCHED_MC
+ select ARCH_SUPPORTS_UNWIND_KERNEL_SFRAME
select ARCH_WANT_BATCHED_UNMAP_TLB_FLUSH
select ARCH_WANT_COMPAT_IPC_PARSE_VERSION if COMPAT
select ARCH_WANT_DEFAULT_BPF_JIT
diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/unwind_sframe.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/unwind_sframe.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..876412881196
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/unwind_sframe.h
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+#ifndef _ASM_ARM64_UNWIND_SFRAME_H
+#define _ASM_ARM64_UNWIND_SFRAME_H
+
+#define SFRAME_REG_SP 31
+#define SFRAME_REG_FP 29
+
+#endif /* _ASM_ARM64_UNWIND_SFRAME_H */
diff --git a/arch/arm64/kernel/vdso/Makefile b/arch/arm64/kernel/vdso/Makefile
index 7dec05dd33b7..c60ef921956f 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/kernel/vdso/Makefile
+++ b/arch/arm64/kernel/vdso/Makefile
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ ccflags-y += -DDISABLE_BRANCH_PROFILING -DBUILD_VDSO
CC_FLAGS_REMOVE_VDSO := $(CC_FLAGS_FTRACE) -Os $(CC_FLAGS_SCS) \
$(RANDSTRUCT_CFLAGS) $(KSTACK_ERASE_CFLAGS) \
$(GCC_PLUGINS_CFLAGS) \
- $(CC_FLAGS_LTO) $(CC_FLAGS_CFI) \
+ $(CC_FLAGS_LTO) $(CC_FLAGS_CFI) $(CC_FLAGS_SFRAME) \
-Wmissing-prototypes -Wmissing-declarations

CC_FLAGS_ADD_VDSO := -O2 -mcmodel=tiny -fasynchronous-unwind-tables
diff --git a/include/asm-generic/sections.h b/include/asm-generic/sections.h
index 0755bc39b0d8..336d27011a58 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/sections.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/sections.h
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
* __irqentry_text_start, __irqentry_text_end
* __softirqentry_text_start, __softirqentry_text_end
* __start_opd, __end_opd
+ * __start_sframe, __end_sframe
*/
extern char _text[], _stext[], _etext[];
extern char _data[], _sdata[], _edata[];
@@ -53,6 +54,9 @@ extern char __ctors_start[], __ctors_end[];
/* Start and end of .opd section - used for function descriptors. */
extern char __start_opd[], __end_opd[];

+/* Start and end of .sframe section - used for stack unwinding. */
+extern char __start_sframe[], __end_sframe[];
+
/* Start and end of instrumentation protected text section */
extern char __noinstr_text_start[], __noinstr_text_end[];

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index 1e1580febe4b..090da633db92 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -491,6 +491,8 @@
*(.rodata1) \
} \
\
+ SFRAME \
+ \
/* PCI quirks */ \
.pci_fixup : AT(ADDR(.pci_fixup) - LOAD_OFFSET) { \
BOUNDED_SECTION_PRE_LABEL(.pci_fixup_early, _pci_fixups_early, __start, __end) \
@@ -911,6 +913,19 @@
#define TRACEDATA
#endif

+#ifdef CONFIG_HAVE_UNWIND_KERNEL_SFRAME
+#define SFRAME \
+ /* sframe */ \
+ .sframe : AT(ADDR(.sframe) - LOAD_OFFSET) { \
+ __start_sframe = .; \
+ KEEP(*(.sframe)) \
+ KEEP(*(.init.sframe)) \
+ __end_sframe = .; \
+ }
+#else
+#define SFRAME
+#endif
+
#ifdef CONFIG_PRINTK_INDEX
#define PRINTK_INDEX \
.printk_index : AT(ADDR(.printk_index) - LOAD_OFFSET) { \
--
2.54.0.rc1.555.g9c883467ad-goog