Re: [PATCH] kbuild: use -flive-patching when CONFIG_LIVEPATCH is enabled

[Josh Poimboeuf]

On Thu, Dec 20, 2018 at 09:33:05AM +0100, Miroslav Benes wrote:
> > > Though, upstream, almost everybody seems to use kpatch-build, for which
> > > this patch doesn't help.  And people will continue to do so until we
> > > have decent source-based tooling.  Will the klp-convert patches be
> > > revived soon?
> >
> > Let me add Joao, who's working on that.
> > 
> > Joao, I think you had something basically ready for upstream exposure, 
> > right?
> 
> I think that when Joao posted it a long time ago, the conclusion was that 
> it would be better to wait for the source-based tooling and have the 
> complete solution. I may misremember though.
> 
> If Josh thinks that it would be acceptable to have klp-convert merged even 
> without the tooling, I'm all for it.
> 
> We're about to start using it at SUSE and staying close to upstream would 
> definitely be better.

A complete toolchain should definitely be the end goal.

But as a usable first step, only *some* of the tooling is required,
since some of the steps can be done manually, right?

So starting out, for something usable, I believe the following would be
the bare minimum:

  * -flive-patching

  * The analysis tool which analyzes the -fdump-ipa-clones files

  * klp-convert

  * Documentation describing the end-to-end patch creation process,
    including the manual steps and how to use the above tools

Did I miss anything?

Then over time we can fill in the gaps (manual steps) with automation.

-- 
Josh