Re: [PATCH v2 1/8] scripts/sorttable: Handle RISC-V patchable ftrace entries

[Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>]

On Thu, 28 May 2026 16:23:03 +0800
Wang Han <wanghan@linux.alibaba.com> wrote:

> RISC-V uses -fpatchable-function-entry=8,4 when the compressed ISA is
> enabled and -fpatchable-function-entry=4,2 otherwise. In both cases, the
> patchable NOP area starts 8 bytes before the function symbol address.
> The __mcount_loc entries therefore point at the patchable NOP area
> associated with a function, while nm reports the function symbol at the
> entry address used for the function range check.
> 
> After RISC-V selected HAVE_BUILDTIME_MCOUNT_SORT, sorttable started
> applying that range check at build time. Without allowing entries just
> before the reported function address, the mcount sorter treats valid
> RISC-V ftrace callsites as invalid weak-function entries and writes
> them back as zero. The resulting kernel boots with no ftrace entries,
> breaking dynamic ftrace and users such as livepatch.
> 
> The failure is silent during the final link because zeroing weak-function
> entries is an expected sorttable operation. At boot, those zero entries
> are skipped by ftrace_process_locs(), so the only obvious symptom is that
> the vmlinux ftrace table has lost valid callsites and ftrace users cannot
> attach to them.
> 
> CONFIG_FTRACE_SORT_STARTUP_TEST also reports the table as sorted in this
> state: it only checks that the __mcount_loc entries are in ascending
> order, which a fully zeroed table trivially satisfies. The original
> commit relied on this check and did not see the regression.
> 
> On an affected RISC-V QEMU boot with both CONFIG_FTRACE_SORT_STARTUP_TEST
> and CONFIG_FTRACE_STARTUP_TEST enabled, the sort check still passes
> while ftrace reports zero usable entries and the early selftests fail:
> 
>   [    0.000000] ftrace section at ffffffff8101da98 sorted properly
>   [    0.000000] ftrace: allocating 0 entries in 128 pages
>   [    0.054999] Testing tracer function: .. no entries found ..FAILED!
>   [    0.172407] tracer: function failed selftest, disabling
>   [    0.178186] Failed to init function_graph tracer, init returned -19
> 
> Handle RISC-V like arm64 for the function-range check and allow
> patchable entries up to 8 bytes before the function address.
> 
> With this fix, a RISC-V QEMU smoke boot with ftrace startup tests shows
> the vmlinux ftrace table is populated and dynamic ftrace still works:
> 
>   [    0.000000] ftrace: allocating 46749 entries in 184 pages
>   [    0.051115] Testing tracer function: PASSED
>   [    1.283782] Testing dynamic ftrace: PASSED
>   [    6.275456] Testing tracer function_graph: PASSED
> 
> Fixes: 0ca1724b56af ("riscv: ftrace: select HAVE_BUILDTIME_MCOUNT_SORT")
> Suggested-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@goodmis.org>
> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260527113028.4b21a5de@fedora/
> Signed-off-by: Wang Han <wanghan@linux.alibaba.com>

Reviewed-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>

-- Steve