linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 11/33] i386 boot: Add an ELF header to bzImage

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Message-ID: <m1mzanx3p2.fsf@ebiederm.dsl.xmission.com>
Date:	Tue, 01 Aug 2006 20:38:01 -0600
From:	ebiederm@...ssion.com (Eric W. Biederman)
To:	Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...p.org>
Cc:	fastboot@...l.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Horms <horms@...ge.net.au>,
	Jan Kratochvil <lace@...kratochvil.net>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Magnus Damm <magnus.damm@...il.com>,
	Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@...ibm.com>, Linda Wang <lwang@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 11/33] i386 boot: Add an ELF header to bzImage

Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@...p.org> writes:

> Eric W. Biederman wrote:
>> +.macro note name, type
>> +	.balign 4
>> +	.int	2f - 1f			# n_namesz
>> +	.int	4f - 3f			# n_descsz
>> +	.int	\type			# n_type
>> +	.balign 4
>> +1:	.asciz "\name"
>> +2:	.balign 4
>> +3:
>> +.endm
>> +.macro enote
>> +4:	.balign 4
>> +.endm
>>
>
> This is very similar to the macro I introduced in the Paravirt note segment
> patch.  Do think they should be made common?

Yes.  At the point of merging these two approaches I think the notes
should just be put into vmlinux and copied either into the ELF
header or more likely into a segment that build.c tacks onto
the kernel.

It is such a small piece of my overall picture I wasn't really looking
at that.

>> +/* Elf notes to help bootloaders identify what program they are booting.
>> + */
>> +
>> +/* Standardized Elf image notes for booting... The name for all of these is
> ELFBoot */
>> +#define ELF_NOTE_BOOT		"ELFBoot"
>>
>
> I wonder if this should be something to suggest its Linux-specific?  Or do you
> see this being used by a wider audience?

This note is used in etherboot and LinuxBIOS right now so it isn't terribly linux
specific.  And whatever the virtues of it's name it is actually in use.

I had a preliminary RFC for using these in a winder context at one point but I
ran out of energy for pushing it.

I think the information in those note headers is interesting beyond that I
really don't much care.

Eric

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