[PATCH v5 3/7] Change the symbols order when --ffunction-sections is enabled

[Rong Xu <xur@google.com>]

When the -ffunction-sections compiler option is enabled, each function
is placed in a separate section named .text.function_name rather than
putting all functions in a single .text section.

However, using -function-sections can cause problems with the
linker script. The comments included in include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
note these issues.:
  “TEXT_MAIN here will match .text.fixup and .text.unlikely if dead
   code elimination is enabled, so these sections should be converted
   to use ".." first.”

It is unclear whether there is a straightforward method for converting
a suffix to "..".

This patch modifies the order of subsections within the text output
section. Specifically, it repositions sections with certain fixed patterns
(for example .text.unlikely) before TEXT_MAIN, ensuring that they are
grouped and matched together. It also places .text.hot section at the
beginning of a page to help the TLB performance.

Note that the limitation arises because the linker script employs glob
patterns instead of regular expressions for string matching. While there
is a method to maintain the current order using complex patterns, this
significantly complicates the pattern and increases the likelihood of
errors.

Co-developed-by: Han Shen <shenhan@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Han Shen <shenhan@google.com>
Signed-off-by: Rong Xu <xur@google.com>
Suggested-by: Sriraman Tallam <tmsriram@google.com>
Suggested-by: Krzysztof Pszeniczny <kpszeniczny@google.com>
Tested-by: Yonghong Song <yonghong.song@linux.dev>
---
 include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 19 ++++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index eeadbaeccf88..fd901951549c 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -553,19 +553,24 @@
  * .text section. Map to function alignment to avoid address changes
  * during second ld run in second ld pass when generating System.map
  *
- * TEXT_MAIN here will match .text.fixup and .text.unlikely if dead
- * code elimination is enabled, so these sections should be converted
- * to use ".." first.
+ * TEXT_MAIN here will match symbols with a fixed pattern (for example,
+ * .text.hot or .text.unlikely) if dead code elimination or
+ * function-section is enabled. Match these symbols first before
+ * TEXT_MAIN to ensure they are grouped together.
+ *
+ * Also placing .text.hot section at the beginning of a page, this
+ * would help the TLB performance.
  */
 #define TEXT_TEXT							\
 		ALIGN_FUNCTION();					\
+		*(.text.asan.* .text.tsan.*)				\
+		*(.text.unknown .text.unknown.*)			\
+		*(.text.unlikely .text.unlikely.*)			\
+		. = ALIGN(PAGE_SIZE);					\
 		*(.text.hot .text.hot.*)				\
 		*(TEXT_MAIN .text.fixup)				\
-		*(.text.unlikely .text.unlikely.*)			\
-		*(.text.unknown .text.unknown.*)			\
 		NOINSTR_TEXT						\
-		*(.ref.text)						\
-		*(.text.asan.* .text.tsan.*)
+		*(.ref.text)
 
 
 /* sched.text is aling to function alignment to secure we have same
-- 
2.47.0.105.g07ac214952-goog