From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S266211AbUGASHu (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Jul 2004 14:07:50 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S266213AbUGASHu (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Jul 2004 14:07:50 -0400 Received: from caramon.arm.linux.org.uk ([212.18.232.186]:62477 "EHLO caramon.arm.linux.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S266211AbUGASH1 (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Jul 2004 14:07:27 -0400 Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2004 19:07:20 +0100 From: Russell King To: Tom Rini Cc: Linux Kernel List , Linus Torvalds , Andrew Morton Subject: Re: binutils woes Message-ID: <20040701190720.C8389@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> Mail-Followup-To: Tom Rini , Linux Kernel List , Linus Torvalds , Andrew Morton References: <20040701175231.B8389@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> <20040701174731.GD15960@smtp.west.cox.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <20040701174731.GD15960@smtp.west.cox.net>; from trini@kernel.crashing.org on Thu, Jul 01, 2004 at 10:47:31AM -0700 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Jul 01, 2004 at 10:47:31AM -0700, Tom Rini wrote: > On Thu, Jul 01, 2004 at 05:52:31PM +0100, Russell King wrote: > > > Hi guys, > > > > On ARM, we appear to have somewhat of a problem with binutils. At > > least the following binutils suffer from a problem whereby it is > > possible to create programs which contain undefined symbols: > [snip] > > I think the only way we can ensure kernel correctness is to add a > > subsequent stage to kbuild such that whenever we generate a final > > program, we grep the 'nm' output for undefined symbols. > > > > Comments? > > Is there a version of binutils that really does get things right? If > so, can't you Just Say No to older versions and force people to upgrade > (with a simple testcase done upfront) ? I've just tested: GNU assembler 2.15.90 20040409 Copyright 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This program is free software; you may redistribute it under the terms of the GNU General Public License. This program has absolutely no warranty. This assembler was configured for a target of `arm-linux'. and it also is aflicted with the same problem. I guess the answer to your question is that currently there are no recent versions which work correctly. Looking at the timescale of 2.13 through to present day, we're talking potentially of 2 years of binutils versions with this problem, and even if it was fixed tomorrow, I don't think it's acceptable to say "use the latest binutils version." Also, I have just received another report that somewhere in the kernel is an undefined reference to another symbol - I_BIT, but where we have no idea at present... -- Russell King Linux kernel 2.6 ARM Linux - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/ maintainer of: 2.6 PCMCIA - http://pcmcia.arm.linux.org.uk/ 2.6 Serial core