linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] rseq/selftests: Use weak symbol reference, not definition, to link with glibc

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Message-ID: <62f49015-e1af-43ed-8499-507a49032662@efficios.com>
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2025 08:55:44 -0400
From: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
To: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>,
 Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, "Paul E. McKenney"
 <paulmck@...nel.org>, Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
 Shuah Khan <shuah@...nel.org>, Michael Jeanson <mjeanson@...icios.com>,
 Kienan Stewart <kstewart@...icios.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-kselftest@...r.kernel.org,
 Florian Weimer <fweimer@...hat.com>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] rseq/selftests: Use weak symbol reference, not
 definition, to link with glibc

On 2025-08-19 18:29, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> Add "extern" to the glibc-defined weak rseq symbols to convert the rseq
> selftest's usage from weak symbol definitions to weak symbol _references_.
> Effectively re-defining the glibc symbols wreaks havoc when building with
> -fno-common, e.g. generates segfaults when running multi-threaded programs,
> as dynamically linked applications end up with multiple versions of the
> symbols.
> 
> Building with -fcommon, which until recently has the been the default for
> GCC and clang, papers over the bug by allowing the linker to resolve the
> weak/tentative definition to glibc's "real" definition.
> 
> Note, the symbol itself (or rather its address), not the value of the
> symbol, is set to 0/NULL for unresolved weak symbol references, as the
> symbol doesn't exist and thus can't have a value.  Check for a NULL rseq
> size pointer to handle the scenario where the test is statically linked
> against a libc that doesn't support rseq in any capacity.
> 
> Fixes: 3bcbc20942db ("selftests/rseq: Play nice with binaries statically linked against glibc 2.35+")
> Cc: stable@...r.kernel.org
> Suggested-by: Florian Weimer <fweimer@...hat.com>
> Reported-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/all/87frdoybk4.ffs@tglx
> Signed-off-by: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@...gle.com>

+ CC: Michael Jeanson <mjeanson@...icios.com>

> ---
>   tools/testing/selftests/rseq/rseq.c | 8 ++++----
>   1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/rseq/rseq.c b/tools/testing/selftests/rseq/rseq.c
> index 663a9cef1952..dcac5cbe7933 100644
> --- a/tools/testing/selftests/rseq/rseq.c
> +++ b/tools/testing/selftests/rseq/rseq.c
> @@ -40,9 +40,9 @@
>    * Define weak versions to play nice with binaries that are statically linked
>    * against a libc that doesn't support registering its own rseq.

We should therefore update the comment above to e.g.:

/*
  * Define weak symbol references to play nice with binaries that are
  * statically linked against a libc that doesn't support registering its
  * own rseq.
  */

For the rest:

Reviewed-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>

Michael, can you try it out ?

Kienan, we may want to add a configuration forcing "-fno-common" to our
CI, this problematic pattern may be hiding other issues elsewhere. I'm
thinking of LTTng-UST tracepoint headers and libside headers.

Sean, do you want to contribute the fix to librseq as well ?

Thanks everyone for looking into this. I'll be back from vacation next
week and will resume normal operations. :-)

Mathieu

>    */
> -__weak ptrdiff_t __rseq_offset;
> -__weak unsigned int __rseq_size;
> -__weak unsigned int __rseq_flags;
> +extern __weak ptrdiff_t __rseq_offset;
> +extern __weak unsigned int __rseq_size;
> +extern __weak unsigned int __rseq_flags;
>   
>   static const ptrdiff_t *libc_rseq_offset_p = &__rseq_offset;
>   static const unsigned int *libc_rseq_size_p = &__rseq_size;
> @@ -209,7 +209,7 @@ void rseq_init(void)
>   	 * libc not having registered a restartable sequence.  Try to find the
>   	 * symbols if that's the case.
>   	 */
> -	if (!*libc_rseq_size_p) {
> +	if (!libc_rseq_size_p || !*libc_rseq_size_p) {
>   		libc_rseq_offset_p = dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "__rseq_offset");
>   		libc_rseq_size_p = dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "__rseq_size");
>   		libc_rseq_flags_p = dlsym(RTLD_NEXT, "__rseq_flags");
> 
> base-commit: c17b750b3ad9f45f2b6f7e6f7f4679844244f0b9

-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
EfficiOS Inc.
https://www.efficios.com