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Date:   Wed, 27 Mar 2019 17:04:40 +0100
From:   Alexey Gladkov <gladkov.alexey@gmail.com>
To:     Jessica Yu <jeyu@kernel.org>
Cc:     Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@socionext.com>,
        Michal Marek <michal.lkml@markovi.net>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        Linux Kbuild mailing list <linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org>,
        linux-api@vger.kernel.org,
        "Kirill A . Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@linux.intel.com>,
        Gleb Fotengauer-Malinovskiy <glebfm@altlinux.org>,
        "Dmitry V. Levin" <ldv@altlinux.org>,
        Dmitry Torokhov <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com>,
        Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>,
        Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [RESEND PATCH v1] moduleparam: Save information about built-in
 modules in separate file
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On Wed, Mar 27, 2019 at 04:40:25PM +0100, Jessica Yu wrote:
> +++ Alexey Gladkov [26/03/19 18:24 +0100]:
> >On Fri, Mar 22, 2019 at 02:34:12PM +0900, Masahiro Yamada wrote:
> >> Hi.
> >>
> >> (added some people to CC)
> 
> (Thanks Masahiro for the CC!)
> 
> >>
> >> On Fri, Mar 15, 2019 at 7:10 PM Alexey Gladkov <gladkov.alexey@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Problem:
> >> >
> >> > When a kernel module is compiled as a separate module, some important
> >> > information about the kernel module is available via .modinfo section of
> >> > the module.  In contrast, when the kernel module is compiled into the
> >> > kernel, that information is not available.
> >>
> >>
> >> I might be missing something, but
> >> vmlinux provides info of builtin modules
> >> in /sys/module/.
> >
> >No. There are definitely not all modules. I have a builtin sha256_generic,
> >but I can't find him in the /sys/module.
> 
> Yeah, you'll only find builtin modules under /sys/module/ if it has any module
> parameters, otherwise you won't find it there. As Masahiro already mentioned,
> if a builtin module has any parameters, they would be accessible under /sys/module/.
> 
> >> (Looks like currently only module_param and MODULE_VERSION)
> >>
> >> This patch is not exactly the same, but I see a kind of overwrap.
> >> I'd like to be sure if we want this new scheme.
> >
> >The /sys/module is only for running kernel. One of my use cases is
> >to create an initrd for a new kernel.
> >
> >>
> >> > Information about built-in modules is necessary in the following cases:
> >> >
> >> > 1. When it is necessary to find out what additional parameters can be
> >> > passed to the kernel at boot time.
> >>
> >>
> >> Actually, /sys/module/<module>/parameters/
> >> exposes this information.
> >>
> >> Doesn't it work for your purpose?
> >
> >No, since creating an initrd needs to know all the modalias before
> >I get the sysfs for new kernel. Also there are no modalias at all.
> >
> >> > 2. When you need to know which module names and their aliases are in
> >> > the kernel. This is very useful for creating an initrd image.
> >> >
> 
> Hm, I do see one possible additional use-case for preserving module alias
> information for built-in modules - modprobe will currently error (I think,
> correct me if I'm wrong) if we try invoking modprobe with an alias of a
> built-in module, simply because this information is not in modules.builtin or
> modules.alias.

Yes. Patch for modprobe in my todo list. The reason I didn’t do it was
because I wasn’t sure that the file format was final.

> Since kbuild already outputs modules.builtin, I would suggest outputting
> something like a modules.builtin.alias file (and I guess maybe a modules.builtin.param
> file too if that's deemed useful), in a format that is consumable by kmod/modprobe,
> so that modprobing an alias of a built-in module doesn't produce an error. I
> think this should be easy to do if we keep and parse the resulting .modinfo for
> builtin modules. This is just an idea, opinions welcome. I've added Lucas to CC
> in case he has any thoughts.

You don't like kernel.builtin.modinfo ?

It is much easier to create and it has almost the same format as the
modules. So I think it will be easier to parse in kmod.

-- 
Rgrds, legion