linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] kbuild: re-implement CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED

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Date:   Tue, 9 Mar 2021 15:45:36 -0500 (EST)
From:   Nicolas Pitre <nico@...xnic.net>
To:     Rasmus Villemoes <linux@...musvillemoes.dk>
cc:     Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@...nel.org>,
        Linux Kbuild mailing list <linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org>,
        Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Jessica Yu <jeyu@...nel.org>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-arch <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 3/4] kbuild: re-implement CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS to
 make it work in one-pass

On Tue, 9 Mar 2021, Rasmus Villemoes wrote:

> On 09/03/2021 20.54, Nicolas Pitre wrote:
> > On Wed, 10 Mar 2021, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> > 
> 
> >>> I'm not sure I do understand every detail here, especially since it is
> >>> so far away from the version that I originally contributed. But the
> >>> concept looks good.
> >>>
> >>> I still think that there is no way around a recursive approach to get
> >>> the maximum effect with LTO, but given that true LTO still isn't applied
> >>> to mainline after all those years, the recursive approach brings
> >>> nothing. Maybe that could be revisited if true LTO ever makes it into
> >>> mainline, and the desire to reduce the binary size is still relevant
> >>> enough to justify it.
> >>
> >> Hmm, I am confused.
> >>
> >> Does this patch change the behavior in the
> >> combination with the "true LTO"?
> >>
> >> Please let me borrow this sentence from your article:
> >> "But what LTO does is more like getting rid of branches that simply
> >> float in the air without being connected to anything or which have
> >> become loose due to optimization."
> >> (https://lwn.net/Articles/746780/)
> >>
> >> This patch throws unneeded EXPORT_SYMBOL metadata
> >> into the /DISCARD/ section of the linker script.
> >>
> >> The approach is different (preprocessor vs linker), but
> >> we will still get the same result; the unneeded
> >> EXPORT_SYMBOLs are disconnected from the main trunk.
> >>
> >> Then, the true LTO will remove branches floating in the air,
> >> right?
> >>
> >> So, what will be lost by this patch?
> > 
> > Let's say you have this in module_foo:
> > 
> > int foo(int x)
> > {
> > 	return 2 + bar(x);
> > }
> > EXPORT_SYMBOL(foo);
> > 
> > And module_bar:
> > 
> > int bar(int y)
> > {
> > 	return 3 * baz(y);
> > }
> > EXPORT_SYMBOL(bar);
> > 
> > And this in the main kernel image:
> > 
> > int baz(int z)
> > {
> > 	return plonk(z);
> > }
> > EXPORT_SYMBOLbaz);
> > 
> > Now we build the kernel and modules. Then we realize that nothing 
> > references symbol "foo". We can trim the "foo" export. But it would be 
> > necessary to recompile module_foo with LTO (especially if there is 
> > some other code in that module) to realize that nothing 
> > references foo() any longer and optimize away the reference to bar(). 
> 
> But, does LTO even do that to modules? Sure, the export metadata for foo
> vanishes, so there's no function pointer reference to foo, but given
> that modules are just -r links, the compiler/linker can't really assume
> that the generated object won't later be linked with something that does
> require foo? At least for the simpler case of --gc-sections, ld docs say:
> 
> '--gc-sections'
> ...
> 
>     This option can be set when doing a partial link (enabled with
>      option '-r').  In this case the root of symbols kept must be
>      explicitly specified either by one of the options '--entry',
>      '--undefined', or '--gc-keep-exported' or by a 'ENTRY' command in
>      the linker script.
> 
> and I would assume that for LTO, --gc-keep-exported would be the only
> sane semantics (keep any external symbol with default visibility).
> 
> Can you point me at a tree/set of LTO patches and a toolchain where the
> previous implementation would actually eventually eliminate bar() from
> module_bar?

All that I readily have is a link to the article I wrote with the 
results I obtained at the time: https://lwn.net/Articles/746780/.
The toolchain and kernel tree are rather old at this point and some 
effort would be required to modernize everything.

I don't remember if there was something special to do LTO on modules. 
Maybe Andi Kleen had something in his patchset for that: 
https://github.com/andikleen/linux-misc/blob/lto-415-2/Documentation/lto-build
He mentions that LTO isn't very effective with modules enabled, but what 
I demonstrated in myarticle is that LTO becomes very effective with or 
without modules as long as CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS is enabled.

Having CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS in one pass is likely to still be pretty 
effective even if possibly not not optimal. And maybe people don't 
really care for the missing 10% anyway (I'm just throwing a number in 
the air 
here).


Nicolas