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author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2019-09-22 10:34:46 -0700 |
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committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2019-09-22 10:34:46 -0700 |
commit | e0703556644a531e50b5dc61b9f6ea83af5f6604 (patch) | |
tree | a0aa73809630d716f25b124cd2aa99a1f4743a55 /Documentation/kbuild | |
parent | 8808cf8cbc4da1ceef9307fba7e499563908c211 (diff) | |
parent | 2e6fcfeb9df6048a63fe0d5f7dfa39274bacbb71 (diff) | |
download | linux-e0703556644a531e50b5dc61b9f6ea83af5f6604.tar.bz2 |
Merge tag 'modules-for-v5.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jeyu/linux
Pull modules updates from Jessica Yu:
"The main bulk of this pull request introduces a new exported symbol
namespaces feature. The number of exported symbols is increasingly
growing with each release (we're at about 31k exports as of 5.3-rc7)
and we currently have no way of visualizing how these symbols are
"clustered" or making sense of this huge export surface.
Namespacing exported symbols allows kernel developers to more
explicitly partition and categorize exported symbols, as well as more
easily limiting the availability of namespaced symbols to other parts
of the kernel. For starters, we have introduced the USB_STORAGE
namespace to demonstrate the API's usage. I have briefly summarized
the feature and its main motivations in the tag below.
Summary:
- Introduce exported symbol namespaces.
This new feature allows subsystem maintainers to partition and
categorize their exported symbols into explicit namespaces. Module
authors are now required to import the namespaces they need.
Some of the main motivations of this feature include: allowing
kernel developers to better manage the export surface, allow
subsystem maintainers to explicitly state that usage of some
exported symbols should only be limited to certain users (think:
inter-module or inter-driver symbols, debugging symbols, etc), as
well as more easily limiting the availability of namespaced symbols
to other parts of the kernel.
With the module import requirement, it is also easier to spot the
misuse of exported symbols during patch review.
Two new macros are introduced: EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS() and
EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS_GPL(). The API is thoroughly documented in
Documentation/kbuild/namespaces.rst.
- Some small code and kbuild cleanups here and there"
* tag 'modules-for-v5.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/jeyu/linux:
module: Remove leftover '#undef' from export header
module: remove unneeded casts in cmp_name()
module: move CONFIG_UNUSED_SYMBOLS to the sub-menu of MODULES
module: remove redundant 'depends on MODULES'
module: Fix link failure due to invalid relocation on namespace offset
usb-storage: export symbols in USB_STORAGE namespace
usb-storage: remove single-use define for debugging
docs: Add documentation for Symbol Namespaces
scripts: Coccinelle script for namespace dependencies.
modpost: add support for generating namespace dependencies
export: allow definition default namespaces in Makefiles or sources
module: add config option MODULE_ALLOW_MISSING_NAMESPACE_IMPORTS
modpost: add support for symbol namespaces
module: add support for symbol namespaces.
export: explicitly align struct kernel_symbol
module: support reading multiple values per modinfo tag
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/kbuild')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst | 7 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/kbuild/namespaces.rst | 154 |
2 files changed, 159 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst index 24e763482650..d2ae799237fd 100644 --- a/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst +++ b/Documentation/kbuild/modules.rst @@ -470,9 +470,12 @@ build. The syntax of the Module.symvers file is:: - <CRC> <Symbol> <module> + <CRC> <Symbol> <Namespace> <Module> <Export Type> - 0x2d036834 scsi_remove_host drivers/scsi/scsi_mod + 0xe1cc2a05 usb_stor_suspend USB_STORAGE drivers/usb/storage/usb-storage EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL + + The fields are separated by tabs and values may be empty (e.g. + if no namespace is defined for an exported symbol). For a kernel build without CONFIG_MODVERSIONS enabled, the CRC would read 0x00000000. diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/namespaces.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/namespaces.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..982ed7b568ac --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/kbuild/namespaces.rst @@ -0,0 +1,154 @@ +================= +Symbol Namespaces +================= + +The following document describes how to use Symbol Namespaces to structure the +export surface of in-kernel symbols exported through the family of +EXPORT_SYMBOL() macros. + +.. Table of Contents + + === 1 Introduction + === 2 How to define Symbol Namespaces + --- 2.1 Using the EXPORT_SYMBOL macros + --- 2.2 Using the DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE define + === 3 How to use Symbols exported in Namespaces + === 4 Loading Modules that use namespaced Symbols + === 5 Automatically creating MODULE_IMPORT_NS statements + +1. Introduction +=============== + +Symbol Namespaces have been introduced as a means to structure the export +surface of the in-kernel API. It allows subsystem maintainers to partition +their exported symbols into separate namespaces. That is useful for +documentation purposes (think of the SUBSYSTEM_DEBUG namespace) as well as for +limiting the availability of a set of symbols for use in other parts of the +kernel. As of today, modules that make use of symbols exported into namespaces, +are required to import the namespace. Otherwise the kernel will, depending on +its configuration, reject loading the module or warn about a missing import. + +2. How to define Symbol Namespaces +================================== + +Symbols can be exported into namespace using different methods. All of them are +changing the way EXPORT_SYMBOL and friends are instrumented to create ksymtab +entries. + +2.1 Using the EXPORT_SYMBOL macros +================================== + +In addition to the macros EXPORT_SYMBOL() and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(), that allow +exporting of kernel symbols to the kernel symbol table, variants of these are +available to export symbols into a certain namespace: EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS() and +EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS_GPL(). They take one additional argument: the namespace. +Please note that due to macro expansion that argument needs to be a +preprocessor symbol. E.g. to export the symbol `usb_stor_suspend` into the +namespace `USB_STORAGE`, use:: + + EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS(usb_stor_suspend, USB_STORAGE); + +The corresponding ksymtab entry struct `kernel_symbol` will have the member +`namespace` set accordingly. A symbol that is exported without a namespace will +refer to `NULL`. There is no default namespace if none is defined. `modpost` +and kernel/module.c make use the namespace at build time or module load time, +respectively. + +2.2 Using the DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE define +============================================= + +Defining namespaces for all symbols of a subsystem can be very verbose and may +become hard to maintain. Therefore a default define (DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE) +is been provided, that, if set, will become the default for all EXPORT_SYMBOL() +and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() macro expansions that do not specify a namespace. + +There are multiple ways of specifying this define and it depends on the +subsystem and the maintainer's preference, which one to use. The first option +is to define the default namespace in the `Makefile` of the subsystem. E.g. to +export all symbols defined in usb-common into the namespace USB_COMMON, add a +line like this to drivers/usb/common/Makefile:: + + ccflags-y += -DDEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE=USB_COMMON + +That will affect all EXPORT_SYMBOL() and EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL() statements. A +symbol exported with EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS() while this definition is present, will +still be exported into the namespace that is passed as the namespace argument +as this argument has preference over a default symbol namespace. + +A second option to define the default namespace is directly in the compilation +unit as preprocessor statement. The above example would then read:: + + #undef DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE + #define DEFAULT_SYMBOL_NAMESPACE USB_COMMON + +within the corresponding compilation unit before any EXPORT_SYMBOL macro is +used. + +3. How to use Symbols exported in Namespaces +============================================ + +In order to use symbols that are exported into namespaces, kernel modules need +to explicitly import these namespaces. Otherwise the kernel might reject to +load the module. The module code is required to use the macro MODULE_IMPORT_NS +for the namespaces it uses symbols from. E.g. a module using the +usb_stor_suspend symbol from above, needs to import the namespace USB_STORAGE +using a statement like:: + + MODULE_IMPORT_NS(USB_STORAGE); + +This will create a `modinfo` tag in the module for each imported namespace. +This has the side effect, that the imported namespaces of a module can be +inspected with modinfo:: + + $ modinfo drivers/usb/storage/ums-karma.ko + [...] + import_ns: USB_STORAGE + [...] + + +It is advisable to add the MODULE_IMPORT_NS() statement close to other module +metadata definitions like MODULE_AUTHOR() or MODULE_LICENSE(). Refer to section +5. for a way to create missing import statements automatically. + +4. Loading Modules that use namespaced Symbols +============================================== + +At module loading time (e.g. `insmod`), the kernel will check each symbol +referenced from the module for its availability and whether the namespace it +might be exported to has been imported by the module. The default behaviour of +the kernel is to reject loading modules that don't specify sufficient imports. +An error will be logged and loading will be failed with EINVAL. In order to +allow loading of modules that don't satisfy this precondition, a configuration +option is available: Setting MODULE_ALLOW_MISSING_NAMESPACE_IMPORTS=y will +enable loading regardless, but will emit a warning. + +5. Automatically creating MODULE_IMPORT_NS statements +===================================================== + +Missing namespaces imports can easily be detected at build time. In fact, +modpost will emit a warning if a module uses a symbol from a namespace +without importing it. +MODULE_IMPORT_NS() statements will usually be added at a definite location +(along with other module meta data). To make the life of module authors (and +subsystem maintainers) easier, a script and make target is available to fixup +missing imports. Fixing missing imports can be done with:: + + $ make nsdeps + +A typical scenario for module authors would be:: + + - write code that depends on a symbol from a not imported namespace + - `make` + - notice the warning of modpost telling about a missing import + - run `make nsdeps` to add the import to the correct code location + +For subsystem maintainers introducing a namespace, the steps are very similar. +Again, `make nsdeps` will eventually add the missing namespace imports for +in-tree modules:: + + - move or add symbols to a namespace (e.g. with EXPORT_SYMBOL_NS()) + - `make` (preferably with an allmodconfig to cover all in-kernel + modules) + - notice the warning of modpost telling about a missing import + - run `make nsdeps` to add the import to the correct code location + |