Re: [PATCH v8 1/6] arch: enable relative relocations for arm64, power and x86

From: Linus Torvalds
Date: Sun Mar 11 2018 - 16:20:33 EST


On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 5:38 AM, Ard Biesheuvel
<ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Before updating certain subsystems to use place relative 32-bit
> relocations in special sections, to save space and reduce the
> number of absolute relocations that need to be processed at runtime
> by relocatable kernels, introduce the Kconfig symbol and define it
> for some architectures that should be able to support and benefit
> from it.

Are there actually architectures hat _don't_ support those relative
32-bit relocations? That really feels pretty fundamental.

I would have expected all of them to do it - is your selection of
arm64/powerpc/x86 perhaps more about "I have tested these" than about
anything else?

Because I'd almost prefer to just do the switch-over unconditionally
if that is at all possible?

Linus