Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S966260AbXFGAnF (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Jun 2007 20:43:05 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1757708AbXFGAmz (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Jun 2007 20:42:55 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([192.83.249.54]:43217 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755600AbXFGAmy (ORCPT ); Wed, 6 Jun 2007 20:42:54 -0400 Message-ID: <4667547B.8080502@zytor.com> Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:42:35 -0700 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070419) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jeremy Fitzhardinge CC: "Eric W. Biederman" , Vivek Goyal , Rusty Russell , Andi Kleen , v12n , lkml Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC 6/7] i386: make the bzImage payload an ELF file References: <20070606225837.654272428@goop.org> <20070606230922.476662240@goop.org> <4667462A.2010404@zytor.com> <466749C8.2010700@goop.org> <46674C96.7090104@zytor.com> <46674F68.6030100@goop.org> In-Reply-To: <46674F68.6030100@goop.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.95.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1350 Lines: 31 Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote: > > Certainly, but much harder to implement. The ELF parser needs to be > prepared to move itself around to get out of the way of the ELF file. > It's a fairly large change from how it works now. > It doesn't if we simply declare that a certain chunk of memory is available to it, for the case where it runs in the native configuration. Since it doesn't have to support *any* ELF file, just the kernel one, that's an option. On the other hand, I guess with the decompressor/ELF parser being PIC, one would simply look for the highest used address, and relocate itself above that point. It's not really all that different from what the decompressor does today, except that it knows the address a priori. > I was thinking of making the ELF file entirely descriptive, since its > just a set of ELF headers inserted into the existing bzImage structure, > and it still relies on the bzImage being build properly in the first place. Again, it's an option. The downside is that you don't get the automatic test coverage of having it be exercised as often as possible. -hpa - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/