linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v6 0/9] ftrace with regs + live patching for ppc64 LE (ABI v2)

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Date:	Wed, 27 Jan 2016 13:19:04 +0100
From:	Torsten Duwe <duwe@....de>
To:	Balbir Singh <bsingharora@...il.com>
Cc:	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
	Jiri Kosina <jkosina@...e.cz>, linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, live-patching@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v6 0/9] ftrace with regs + live patching for ppc64 LE
	(ABI v2)

On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 09:51:12PM +1100, Balbir Singh wrote:
> On Mon, 25 Jan 2016 16:38:48 +0100
> Torsten Duwe <duwe@....de> wrote:
> 
> > Changes since v5:
> >   * extra "std r0,LRSAVE(r1)" for gcc-6
> >     This makes the code compiler-agnostic.
> >   * Follow Petr Mladek's suggestion to avoid
> >     redefinition of HAVE_LIVEPATCH
> 
> I looked at the patches - well mostly patches 1 and 2, some quick questions
> 
> 1. I know -mprofile-kernel is a big optimization win, do we need it or can
> we incrementally add it?

There's a reason why these are first ;-)
The following ones assume -mprofile-kernel is used.
The disadvantage is all relevant registers need to be saved before calling
further C code in between functions. On the Pro side, no stack frame has been
created at that point. These are assumptions made all over the ftrace-with-regs
and live patching code here.

> 2. Some of the hardcoded checks for opcode are hard to review, I know they've
> been there in similar forms for a while. May be as an iterative step we should
> give the numbers some meaning and use proper helpers for it.

Yes, Michael has already criticised that. No further literal hex constants, I promise.

> I am going to give the patches a spin

Thanks! Make sure you use a compiler that can disable -mprofile-kernel with "notrace".

	Torsten