Re: [PATCH 2/4] kbuild: avoid too many execution of scripts/pahole-flags.sh

From: Martin Rodriguez Reboredo
Date: Sun Oct 22 2023 - 20:30:37 EST


On 10/17/23 07:37, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
scripts/pahole-flags.sh is executed so many times.

You can check how many times it is invoked during the build, as follows:

$ cat <<EOF >> scripts/pahole-flags.sh
> echo "scripts/pahole-flags.sh was executed" >&2
> EOF

$ make -s
scripts/pahole-flags.sh was executed
scripts/pahole-flags.sh was executed
scripts/pahole-flags.sh was executed
scripts/pahole-flags.sh was executed
scripts/pahole-flags.sh was executed
[ lots of repeated lines suppressed... ]

This scripts is exectuted more than 20 times during the kernel build
because PAHOLE_FLAGS is a recursively expanded variable and exported
to sub-processes.

With the GNU Make >= 4.4, it is executed more than 60 times because
exported variables are also passed to other $(shell ) invocations.
Without careful coding, it is known to cause an exponential fork
explosion. [1]

The use of $(shell ) in an exported recursive variable is likely wrong
because $(shell ) is always evaluated due to the 'export' keyword, and
the evaluation can occur multiple times by the nature of recursive
variables.

Convert the shell script to a Makefile, which is included only when
CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF=y.

[1]: https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/index.php?64746

Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
[...]
+include-$(CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF)+= scripts/Makefile.btf

Would have used a tab.

[...]
Reviewed-by: Martin Rodriguez Reboredo <yakoyoku@xxxxxxxxx>