Date:   Sat, 2 Sep 2023 15:36:17 +0900
From:   Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@...nel.org>
To:     "Alessandro Carminati (Red Hat)" <alessandro.carminati@...il.com>
Cc:     Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        Daniel Bristot de Oliveira <bristot@...nel.org>,
        Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...nel.org>,
        Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>,
        Nathan Chancellor <nathan@...nel.org>,
        Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@...gle.com>,
        Nicolas Schier <nicolas@...sle.eu>,
        Alexander Lobakin <aleksander.lobakin@...el.com>,
        Nick Alcock <nick.alcock@...cle.com>,
        Kris Van Hees <kris.van.hees@...cle.com>,
        Eugene Loh <eugene.loh@...cle.com>,
        Francis Laniel <flaniel@...ux.microsoft.com>,
        Viktor Malik <vmalik@...hat.com>, linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-trace-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        live-patching@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] scripts/link-vmlinux.sh: Add alias to duplicate
 symbols for kallsyms

On Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 8:45 PM Alessandro Carminati (Red Hat)
<alessandro.carminati@...il.com> wrote:
>
> From: Alessandro Carminati <alessandro.carminati@...il.com>
>
> It is not uncommon for drivers or modules related to similar peripherals
> to have symbols with the exact same name.
> While this is not a problem for the kernel's binary itself, it becomes an
> issue when attempting to trace or probe specific functions using
> infrastructure like ftrace or kprobe.
>
> The tracing subsystem relies on the `nm -n vmlinux` output, which provides
> symbol information from the kernel's ELF binary. However, when multiple
> symbols share the same name, the standard nm output does not differentiate
> between them. This can lead to confusion and difficulty when trying to
> probe the intended symbol.
>
>  ~ # cat /proc/kallsyms | grep " name_show"
>  ffffffff8c4f76d0 t name_show
>  ffffffff8c9cccb0 t name_show
>  ffffffff8cb0ac20 t name_show
>  ffffffff8cc728c0 t name_show
>  ffffffff8ce0efd0 t name_show
>  ffffffff8ce126c0 t name_show
>  ffffffff8ce1dd20 t name_show
>  ffffffff8ce24e70 t name_show
>  ffffffff8d1104c0 t name_show
>  ffffffff8d1fe480 t name_show
>
> **kas_alias** addresses this challenge by extending the symbol names with
> unique suffixes during the kernel build process.
> The newly created aliases for these duplicated symbols are unique names
> that can be fed to the ftracefs interface. By doing so, it enables
> previously unreachable symbols to be probed.
>
>  ~ # cat /proc/kallsyms | grep " name_show"
>  ffffffff974f76d0 t name_show
>  ffffffff974f76d0 t name_show__alias__6340
>  ffffffff979cccb0 t name_show
>  ffffffff979cccb0 t name_show__alias__6341
>  ffffffff97b0ac20 t name_show
>  ffffffff97b0ac20 t name_show__alias__6342
>  ffffffff97c728c0 t name_show
>  ffffffff97c728c0 t name_show__alias__6343
>  ffffffff97e0efd0 t name_show
>  ffffffff97e0efd0 t name_show__alias__6344
>  ffffffff97e126c0 t name_show
>  ffffffff97e126c0 t name_show__alias__6345
>  ffffffff97e1dd20 t name_show
>  ffffffff97e1dd20 t name_show__alias__6346
>  ffffffff97e24e70 t name_show
>  ffffffff97e24e70 t name_show__alias__6347
>  ffffffff981104c0 t name_show
>  ffffffff981104c0 t name_show__alias__6348
>  ffffffff981fe480 t name_show
>  ffffffff981fe480 t name_show__alias__6349
>  ~ # echo "p:kprobes/evnt1 name_show__alias__6349" \
>  > >/sys/kernel/tracing/kprobe_events
>  ~ # cat /sys/kernel/tracing/kprobe_events
>  p:kprobes/evnt1 name_show__alias__6349
>
> Changes from v1:
> - Integrated changes requested by Masami to exclude symbols with prefixes
>   "_cfi" and "_pfx".
> - Introduced a small framework to handle patterns that need to be excluded
>   from the alias production.
> - Excluded other symbols using the framework.
> - Introduced the ability to discriminate between text and data symbols.
> - Added two new config symbols in this version: CONFIG_KALLSYMS_ALIAS_DATA,
>   which allows data for data, and CONFIG_KALLSYMS_ALIAS_DATA_ALL, which
>   excludes all filters and provides an alias for each duplicated symbol.
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230711151925.1092080-1-alessandro.carminati@gmail.com/
>
> Changes from v2:
> - Alias tags are created by querying DWARF information from the vmlinux.
> - The filename + line number is normalized and appended to the original name.
> - The tag begins with '@' to indicate the symbol source.
> - Not a change, but worth mentioning, since the alias is added to the existing
>   list, the old duplicated name is preserved, and the livepatch way of dealing
>   with duplicates is maintained.
> - Acknowledging the existence of scenarios where inlined functions declared in
>   header files may result in multiple copies due to compiler behavior, though
>    it is not actionable as it does not pose an operational issue.
> - Highlighting a single exception where the same name refers to different
>   functions: the case of "compat_binfmt_elf.c," which directly includes
>   "binfmt_elf.c" producing identical function copies in two separate
>   modules.
>
> sample from new v3
>
>  ~ # cat /proc/kallsyms | grep gic_mask_irq
>  ffffd0b03c04dae4 t gic_mask_irq
>  ffffd0b03c04dae4 t gic_mask_irq@...ivers_irqchip_irq-gic_c_167
>  ffffd0b03c050960 t gic_mask_irq
>  ffffd0b03c050960 t gic_mask_irq@...ivers_irqchip_irq-gic-v3_c_404
>  ~ #
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20230714150326.1152359-1-alessandro.carminati@gmail.com/
>
> Signed-off-by: Alessandro Carminati (Red Hat) <alessandro.carminati@...il.com>
> ---
>  init/Kconfig                        |  36 ++++
>  scripts/Makefile                    |   4 +
>  scripts/kas_alias/Makefile          |   4 +
>  scripts/kas_alias/a2l.c             | 268 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  scripts/kas_alias/a2l.h             |  32 ++++
>  scripts/kas_alias/duplicates_list.c |  70 ++++++++
>  scripts/kas_alias/duplicates_list.h |  15 ++
>  scripts/kas_alias/item_list.c       | 230 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  scripts/kas_alias/item_list.h       |  26 +++
>  scripts/kas_alias/kas_alias.c       | 217 ++++++++++++++++++++++
>  scripts/link-vmlinux.sh             |  11 +-
>  11 files changed, 910 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)


I added some review comments in another thread, but
one of the biggest concerns might be "910 insertions".


What this program does is quite simple,
"find duplicated names, and call addr2line".



You wrote a lot of code to self-implement these:

 - sort function
 - parse PATH env variable to find addr2line
 - fork addr2line to establish pipe communications



Have you considered writing the code in Python (or Perl)?
Is it too slow?

Most of the functions you implemented are already
available in script languages.



I am not sure if "@<file-path>" is a good solution,
but the amount of the added code looks too much to me.




--
Best Regards
Masahiro Yamada

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