Message-ID: <20250507231403.377725-12-samitolvanen@google.com>
Date: Wed,  7 May 2025 23:14:09 +0000
From: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>
To: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@...nel.org>
Cc: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>, Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@...e.com>, 
	Daniel Gomez <da.gomez@...sung.com>, linux-modules@...r.kernel.org, 
	linux-kbuild@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, 
	Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>
Subject: [PATCH v3 5/5] Documentation/kbuild: Add new gendwarfksyms kABI rules

Document the "byte_size" and "type_string" kABI stability rules.

Signed-off-by: Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>
---
 Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst | 97 ++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 92 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
index 9694ec99d190..ed366250a54e 100644
--- a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
@@ -125,14 +125,17 @@ the rules. The fields are as follows:
   qualified name of the DWARF Debugging Information Entry (DIE).
 - `value`: Provides rule-specific data.
 
-The following helper macro, for example, can be used to specify rules
+The following helper macros, for example, can be used to specify rules
 in the source code::
 
-	#define __KABI_RULE(hint, target, value)                             \
-		static const char __PASTE(__gendwarfksyms_rule_,             \
+	#define ___KABI_RULE(hint, target, value)			    \
+		static const char __PASTE(__gendwarfksyms_rule_,	     \
 					  __COUNTER__)[] __used __aligned(1) \
 			__section(".discard.gendwarfksyms.kabi_rules") =     \
-				"1\0" #hint "\0" #target "\0" #value
+				"1\0" #hint "\0" target "\0" value
+
+	#define __KABI_RULE(hint, target, value) \
+		___KABI_RULE(hint, #target, #value)
 
 
 Currently, only the rules discussed in this section are supported, but
@@ -223,6 +226,87 @@ Example usage::
 	KABI_ENUMERATOR_IGNORE(e, C);
 	KABI_ENUMERATOR_VALUE(e, LAST, 2);
 
+Managing structure size changes
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+A data structure can be partially opaque to modules if its allocation is
+handled by the core kernel, and modules only need to access some of its
+members. In this situation, it's possible to append new members to the
+structure without breaking the ABI, as long as the layout for the original
+members remains unchanged.
+
+To append new members, we can hide them from symbol versioning as
+described in section :ref:`Hiding members <hiding_members>`, but we can't
+hide the increase in structure size. The `byte_size` rule allows us to
+override the structure size used for symbol versioning.
+
+The rule fields are expected to be as follows:
+
+- `type`: "byte_size"
+- `target`: The fully qualified name of the target data structure
+  (as shown in **--dump-dies** output).
+- `value`: A positive decimal number indicating the structure size
+  in bytes.
+
+Using the `__KABI_RULE` macro, this rule can be defined as::
+
+        #define KABI_BYTE_SIZE(fqn, value) \
+                __KABI_RULE(byte_size, fqn, value)
+
+Example usage::
+
+	struct s {
+                /* Unchanged original members */
+		unsigned long a;
+                void *p;
+
+                /* Appended new members */
+                KABI_IGNORE(0, unsigned long n);
+	};
+
+	KABI_BYTE_SIZE(s, 16);
+
+Overriding type strings
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+In rare situations where distributions must make significant changes to
+otherwise opaque data structures that have inadvertently been included
+in the published ABI, keeping symbol versions stable using the more
+targeted kABI rules can become tedious. The `type_string` rule allows us
+to override the full type string for a type or a symbol, and even add
+types for versioning that no longer exist in the kernel.
+
+The rule fields are expected to be as follows:
+
+- `type`: "type_string"
+- `target`: The fully qualified name of the target data structure
+  (as shown in **--dump-dies** output) or symbol.
+- `value`: A valid type string (as shown in **--symtypes**) output)
+  to use instead of the real type.
+
+Using the `__KABI_RULE` macro, this rule can be defined as::
+
+	#define KABI_TYPE_STRING(type, str) \
+		___KABI_RULE("type_string", type, str)
+
+Example usage::
+
+	/* Override type for a structure */
+	KABI_TYPE_STRING("s#s",
+		"structure_type s { "
+			"member base_type int byte_size(4) "
+				"encoding(5) n "
+			"data_member_location(0) "
+		"} byte_size(8)");
+
+	/* Override type for a symbol */
+	KABI_TYPE_STRING("my_symbol", "variable s#s");
+
+The `type_string` rule should be used only as a last resort if maintaining
+a stable symbol versions cannot be reasonably achieved using other
+means. Overriding a type string increases the risk of actual ABI breakages
+going unnoticed as it hides all changes to the type.
+
 Adding structure members
 ------------------------
 
@@ -276,6 +360,8 @@ The examples include `KABI_(RESERVE|USE|REPLACE)*` macros that help
 simplify the process and also ensure the replacement member is correctly
 aligned and its size won't exceed the reserved space.
 
+.. _hiding_members:
+
 Hiding members
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
@@ -305,4 +391,5 @@ member to a union where one of the fields has a name starting with
                 unsigned long b;
         };
 
-With **--stable**, both versions produce the same symbol version.
+With **--stable**, both versions produce the same symbol version. The
+examples include a `KABI_IGNORE` macro to simplify the code.
-- 
2.49.0.987.g0cc8ee98dc-goog

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