Re: Absolute symbols in vmlinux_64.lds.S

From: Eric W. Biederman
Date: Tue Mar 10 2009 - 17:25:44 EST


"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>>
>> I have no complaint with that. I believe the symbols are absolute
>> simply because they were originally coded that way and the relocatable
>> kernel work on x86_64 didn't need them to change.
>>
>
> I have a vague memory of a bug in the x86-64 ld.

Oh. I'm certain of it. ld has all kinds of bugs off and on,
occasionally we are bound to run into a few of them.

ld bugs isn't the reason for using absolute linker symbols. We use a
bunch of relative linker symbols as well. All of the generic linker
scripts sections use them as well as a few of the x86_64 specific
sections.

For crazy things like 0 relative per cpu sections it might matter.
For the rest of the symbols absolute or relative simply
doesn't matter.

Is anyone interested in writing a patch testing it and changing things?

If not things should be good enough for now.

Eric
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