Merge tag 'objtool-core-2025-12-01' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip

Pull objtool updates from Ingo Molnar:

- klp-build livepatch module generation (Josh Poimboeuf)

Int

Merge tag 'objtool-core-2025-12-01' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip

Pull objtool updates from Ingo Molnar:

- klp-build livepatch module generation (Josh Poimboeuf)

Introduce new objtool features and a klp-build script to generate
livepatch modules using a source .patch as input.

This builds on concepts from the longstanding out-of-tree kpatch
project which began in 2012 and has been used for many years to
generate livepatch modules for production kernels. However, this is a
complete rewrite which incorporates hard-earned lessons from 12+
years of maintaining kpatch.

Key improvements compared to kpatch-build:

- Integrated with objtool: Leverages objtool's existing control-flow
graph analysis to help detect changed functions.

- Works on vmlinux.o: Supports late-linked objects, making it
compatible with LTO, IBT, and similar.

- Simplified code base: ~3k fewer lines of code.

- Upstream: No more out-of-tree #ifdef hacks, far less cruft.

- Cleaner internals: Vastly simplified logic for
symbol/section/reloc inclusion and special section extraction.

- Robust __LINE__ macro handling: Avoids false positive binary diffs
caused by the __LINE__ macro by introducing a fix-patch-lines
script which injects #line directives into the source .patch to
preserve the original line numbers at compile time.

- Disassemble code with libopcodes instead of running objdump
(Alexandre Chartre)

- Disassemble support (-d option to objtool) by Alexandre Chartre,
which supports the decoding of various Linux kernel code generation
specials such as alternatives:

17ef: sched_balance_find_dst_group+0x62f mov 0x34(%r9),%edx
17f3: sched_balance_find_dst_group+0x633 | <alternative.17f3> | X86_FEATURE_POPCNT
17f3: sched_balance_find_dst_group+0x633 | call 0x17f8 <__sw_hweight64> | popcnt %rdi,%rax
17f8: sched_balance_find_dst_group+0x638 cmp %eax,%edx

... jump table alternatives:

1895: sched_use_asym_prio+0x5 test $0x8,%ch
1898: sched_use_asym_prio+0x8 je 0x18a9 <sched_use_asym_prio+0x19>
189a: sched_use_asym_prio+0xa | <jump_table.189a> | JUMP
189a: sched_use_asym_prio+0xa | jmp 0x18ae <sched_use_asym_prio+0x1e> | nop2
189c: sched_use_asym_prio+0xc mov $0x1,%eax
18a1: sched_use_asym_prio+0x11 and $0x80,%ecx

... exception table alternatives:

native_read_msr:
5b80: native_read_msr+0x0 mov %edi,%ecx
5b82: native_read_msr+0x2 | <ex_table.5b82> | EXCEPTION
5b82: native_read_msr+0x2 | rdmsr | resume at 0x5b84 <native_read_msr+0x4>
5b84: native_read_msr+0x4 shl $0x20,%rdx

.... x86 feature flag decoding (also see the X86_FEATURE_POPCNT
example in sched_balance_find_dst_group() above):

2faaf: start_thread_common.constprop.0+0x1f jne 0x2fba4 <start_thread_common.constprop.0+0x114>
2fab5: start_thread_common.constprop.0+0x25 | <alternative.2fab5> | X86_FEATURE_ALWAYS | X86_BUG_NULL_SEG
2fab5: start_thread_common.constprop.0+0x25 | jmp 0x2faba <.altinstr_aux+0x2f4> | jmp 0x4b0 <start_thread_common.constprop.0+0x3f> | nop5
2faba: start_thread_common.constprop.0+0x2a mov $0x2b,%eax

... NOP sequence shortening:

1048e2: snapshot_write_finalize+0xc2 je 0x104917 <snapshot_write_finalize+0xf7>
1048e4: snapshot_write_finalize+0xc4 nop6
1048ea: snapshot_write_finalize+0xca nop11
1048f5: snapshot_write_finalize+0xd5 nop11
104900: snapshot_write_finalize+0xe0 mov %rax,%rcx
104903: snapshot_write_finalize+0xe3 mov 0x10(%rdx),%rax

... and much more.

- Function validation tracing support (Alexandre Chartre)

- Various -ffunction-sections fixes (Josh Poimboeuf)

- Clang AutoFDO (Automated Feedback-Directed Optimizations) support
(Josh Poimboeuf)

- Misc fixes and cleanups (Borislav Petkov, Chen Ni, Dylan Hatch, Ingo
Molnar, John Wang, Josh Poimboeuf, Pankaj Raghav, Peter Zijlstra,
Thorsten Blum)

* tag 'objtool-core-2025-12-01' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip: (129 commits)
objtool: Fix segfault on unknown alternatives
objtool: Build with disassembly can fail when including bdf.h
objtool: Trim trailing NOPs in alternative
objtool: Add wide output for disassembly
objtool: Compact output for alternatives with one instruction
objtool: Improve naming of group alternatives
objtool: Add Function to get the name of a CPU feature
objtool: Provide access to feature and flags of group alternatives
objtool: Fix address references in alternatives
objtool: Disassemble jump table alternatives
objtool: Disassemble exception table alternatives
objtool: Print addresses with alternative instructions
objtool: Disassemble group alternatives
objtool: Print headers for alternatives
objtool: Preserve alternatives order
objtool: Add the --disas=<function-pattern> action
objtool: Do not validate IBT for .return_sites and .call_sites
objtool: Improve tracing of alternative instructions
objtool: Add functions to better name alternatives
objtool: Identify the different types of alternatives
...

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objtool: Improve tracing of alternative instructions

When tracing function validation, improve the reporting of
alternative instruction by more clearly showing the different
alternatives beginning a

objtool: Improve tracing of alternative instructions

When tracing function validation, improve the reporting of
alternative instruction by more clearly showing the different
alternatives beginning and end.

Signed-off-by: Alexandre Chartre <alexandre.chartre@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251121095340.464045-16-alexandre.chartre@oracle.com

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objtool: Improve register reporting during function validation

When tracing function validation, instruction state changes can
report changes involving registers. These registers are reported
with t

objtool: Improve register reporting during function validation

When tracing function validation, instruction state changes can
report changes involving registers. These registers are reported
with the name "r<num>" (e.g. "r3"). Print the CPU specific register
name instead of a generic name (e.g. print "rbx" instead of "r3"
on x86).

Signed-off-by: Alexandre Chartre <alexandre.chartre@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251121095340.464045-13-alexandre.chartre@oracle.com

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objtool: Trace instruction state changes during function validation

During function validation, objtool maintains a per-instruction state,
in particular to track call frame information. When tracing

objtool: Trace instruction state changes during function validation

During function validation, objtool maintains a per-instruction state,
in particular to track call frame information. When tracing validation,
print any instruction state changes.

Signed-off-by: Alexandre Chartre <alexandre.chartre@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251121095340.464045-12-alexandre.chartre@oracle.com

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objtool: Add option to trace function validation

Add an option to trace and have information during the validation
of specified functions. Functions are specified with the --trace
option which can b

objtool: Add option to trace function validation

Add an option to trace and have information during the validation
of specified functions. Functions are specified with the --trace
option which can be a single function name (e.g. --trace foo to
trace the function with the name "foo"), or a shell wildcard
pattern (e.g. --trace foo* to trace all functions with a name
starting with "foo").

Signed-off-by: Alexandre Chartre <alexandre.chartre@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251121095340.464045-11-alexandre.chartre@oracle.com

show more ...