Re: [PATCH v4 06/10] modpost: Add modinfo flag to livepatch modules

Miroslav Benes
2019-08-20T07:54:16Z

> > How is this feature supposed to work for external modules?
> >
> > klp-convert receives:
> > "symbols from vmlinux" + "symbols from no-klp in-tree modules"
> > + "symbols from no-klp external modules" ??
> >
>
> I don't think that this use-case has been previously thought out (Miroslav,
> correct me if I'm wrong here.)
>
> I did just run an external build of a copy of
> samples/livepatch/livepatch-annotated-sample.c:
>
> - modules.livepatch is generated in external dir
> - klp-convert is invoked for the livepatch module
> - the external livepatch module successfully loads
>
> But that was only testing external livepatch modules.
>
> I don't know if we need/want to support general external modules supplementing
> Symbols.list, at least for the initial klp-convert commit. I suppose external
> livepatch modules would then need to specify additional Symbols.list(s) files
> somehow as well.

I think we discussed it briefly and decided to postpone it for later
improvements. External modules are not so important in my opinion.

> >
> > BTW, 'Symbols.list' sounds like a file to list out symbols
> > for generic purposes, but in fact, the
> > file format is very specific for the klp-convert tool.
> > Perhaps, is it better to rename it so it infers
> > this is for livepatching? What do you think?
> >
>
> I don't know if the "Symbols.list" name and leading uppercase was based on any
> convention, but something like symbols.klp would be fine with me.

symbols.klp looks ok

Miroslav