Re: [PATCH 00/11] RISC-V: Resolve the issue of loadable module on 64-bit

From: Palmer Dabbelt
Date: Wed Mar 14 2018 - 13:08:15 EST


On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 05:07:09 PDT (-0700), shea@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On Tue, 13 Mar 2018 14:30:53 PDT (-0700), shea@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Hi Palmer,

Palmer Dabbelt <palmer@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

On Tue, 13 Mar 2018 01:35:05 PDT (-0700), zong@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
These patches resolve the some issues of loadable module.
- symbol out of ranges
- unknown relocation types

The reference of external variable and function symbols
cannot exceed 32-bit offset ranges in kernel module.
The module only can work on the 32-bit OS or the 64-bit
OS with sv32 virtual addressing.

These patches will generate the .got, .got.plt and
.plt sections during loading module, let it can refer
to the symbol which locate more than 32-bit offset.
These sections depend on the relocation types:
- R_RISCV_GOT_HI20
- R_RISCV_CALL_PLT

These patches also support more relocation types
- R_RISCV_CALL
- R_RISCV_HI20
- R_RISCV_LO12_I
- R_RISCV_LO12_S
- R_RISCV_RVC_BRANCH
- R_RISCV_RVC_JUMP
- R_RISCV_ALIGN
- R_RISCV_ADD32
- R_RISCV_SUB32

Zong Li (11):
RISC-V: Add sections of PLT and GOT for kernel module
RISC-V: Add section of GOT.PLT for kernel module
RISC-V: Support GOT_HI20/CALL_PLT relocation type in kernel module
RISC-V: Support CALL relocation type in kernel module
RISC-V: Support HI20/LO12_I/LO12_S relocation type in kernel module
RISC-V: Support RVC_BRANCH/JUMP relocation type in kernel modulewq
RISC-V: Support ALIGN relocation type in kernel module
RISC-V: Support ADD32 relocation type in kernel module
RISC-V: Support SUB32 relocation type in kernel module
RISC-V: Enable module support in defconfig
RISC-V: Add definition of relocation types

arch/riscv/Kconfig | 5 ++
arch/riscv/Makefile | 3 +
arch/riscv/configs/defconfig | 2 +
arch/riscv/include/asm/module.h | 112 +++++++++++++++++++++++
arch/riscv/include/uapi/asm/elf.h | 24 +++++
arch/riscv/kernel/Makefile | 1 +
arch/riscv/kernel/module-sections.c | 156 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
arch/riscv/kernel/module.c | 175 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
arch/riscv/kernel/module.lds | 8 ++
9 files changed, 480 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 arch/riscv/include/asm/module.h
create mode 100644 arch/riscv/kernel/module-sections.c
create mode 100644 arch/riscv/kernel/module.lds

This is the second set of patches that turn on modules, and it has the same
R_RISCV_ALIGN problem as the other one

http://lists.infradead.org/pipermail/linux-riscv/2018-February/000081.html

It looks like this one uses shared libraries for modules instead of static
objects. I think using shared objects is the right thing to do, as it'll allow
us to place modules anywhere in the address space by having multiple GOTs and
PLTs.

Can you expand on this? It was my understanding that outside of the
context of multiple address spaces sharing code the GOT and PLT were
simply unnecessary overhead, what benefit would they bring here?

We don't currently have any position-dependent RISC-V code models larger than
"medany", in which all code and data must live within a single 32-bit
addressable range. The PLT and GOT sort of provide an out here, so the code
only needs to get to the table (which can then get anywhere via an indirection
layer).

This is relevant for Linux modules because it lets us load modules anywhere in
the address space. It's also a bit of a headache, as it either requires a
GOT+PLT per module (which is big) or merging tables (which is hard).

I see, thanks! We only get this benefit if we actually do the relevanat
indirection in the table, right? And if we merge tables we still have to
have all modules within 32 bits of the common table? Is this how some
future "medlarge" code model will work, or is it more of a convenient
way to reuse existing techniques until other code models are worked out?

The idea is that you'd merge the tables only when it's possible to do that
correctly, which is the tricky part.

It'd be called "largeany", the "med" part is what limits the code model to 32
bit offsets. We might just call it "large", as the "any" is kind of redundant.