Re: [RFC PATCH 2/2] livepatch: Clear relocation targets on a module removal

From: Joe Lawrence
Date: Mon Sep 02 2019 - 13:05:06 EST


On 9/2/19 12:13 PM, Miroslav Benes wrote:
I can easily foresee more problems like those in the future. Going
forward we have to always keep track of which special sections are
needed for which architectures. Those special sections can change over
time, or can simply be overlooked for a given architecture. It's
fragile.

Indeed. It bothers me a lot. Even x86 "port" is not feature complete in
this regard (jump labels, alternatives,...) and who knows what lurks in
the corners of the other architectures we support.

So it is in itself reason enough to do something about late module
patching.


Hi Miroslav,

I was tinkering with the "blue-sky" ideas that I mentioned to Josh the other day. I dunno if you had a chance to look at what removing that code looks like, but I can continue to flesh out that idea if it looks interesting:

https://github.com/joe-lawrence/linux/tree/blue-sky

A full demo would require packaging up replacement .ko's with a livepatch, as well as "blacklisting" those deprecated .kos, etc. But that's all I had time to cook up last week before our holiday weekend here.

Regards,

-- Joe