Re: [PATCH v2] x86: Avoid relocation information in final vmlinux

From: Borislav Petkov
Date: Wed Nov 23 2022 - 10:55:29 EST


On Wed, Nov 23, 2022 at 04:43:20PM +0100, Petr Pavlu wrote:
> The only post-link analysis tool in this case should be arch/x86/tools/relocs.
> It produces a vmlinux.relocs file which is appended to vmlinux.bin. This is
> all internal to the Linux build. I'm not aware of any external tooling, such
> as kernel debuggers, that would require this relocation information in
> vmlinux.

It would be good to know why --emit-relocs was added in the first place
- that might give us a hint. Lemme talk to Micha.

> The size command used in your example includes only allocatable code, data and
> bss sections. It does not show size of any relocation sections.

This:

361M vmlinux.before
361M vmlinux.after

is simple ls output.

Maybe I need something else enabled in my .config which would show this
significant difference *and* *explain* it.

Thx.

--
Regards/Gruss,
Boris.

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