2020-07-02 08:58:07

by Danny Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH] vmlinux.lds.h: Coalesce transient LLVM dead code elimination sections

A recent LLVM 11 commit [1] made LLD stop implicitly coalescing some
temporary LLVM sections, namely .{data,bss}..compoundliteral.XXX:

[30] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9ac9a000 19e9a000
000000000000cea0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[31] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 40965440
0000000000001d88 0000000000000018 I 2238 30 8
[32] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9aca6ea0 19ea6ea0
00000000000033c0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[33] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 409671c8
0000000000000948 0000000000000018 I 2238 32 8
[...]
[2213] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa3000000 1d85c000
00000000000000a0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[2214] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa30000a0 1d85c000
0000000000000040 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[...]

While these extra sections don't typically cause any breakage, they do
inflate the vmlinux size due to the overhead of storing metadata for
thousands of extra sections.

It's also worth noting that for some reason, some downstream Android
kernels can't boot at all if these sections aren't coalesced.

This issue isn't limited to any specific architecture; it affects arm64
and x86 if CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION is forced on.

Example on x86 allyesconfig:
Before: 2241 sections, 1170972 KiB
After: 56 sections, 1171169 KiB

[1] https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/9e33c096476ab5e02ab1c8442cc3cb4e32e29f17

Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/958
Cc: [email protected] # v4.4+
Suggested-by: Fangrui Song <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Danny Lin <[email protected]>
---
include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index db600ef218d7..18968cba87c7 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -94,10 +94,10 @@
*/
#ifdef CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION
#define TEXT_MAIN .text .text.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
-#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX*
+#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX* .data..compoundliteral*
#define SDATA_MAIN .sdata .sdata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
#define RODATA_MAIN .rodata .rodata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
-#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
+#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .bss..compoundliteral*
#define SBSS_MAIN .sbss .sbss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
#else
#define TEXT_MAIN .text
--
2.27.0


2020-07-02 15:57:23

by Kees Cook

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] vmlinux.lds.h: Coalesce transient LLVM dead code elimination sections

On Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 01:54:00AM -0700, Danny Lin wrote:
> A recent LLVM 11 commit [1] made LLD stop implicitly coalescing some
> temporary LLVM sections, namely .{data,bss}..compoundliteral.XXX:
>
> [30] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9ac9a000 19e9a000
> 000000000000cea0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> [31] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 40965440
> 0000000000001d88 0000000000000018 I 2238 30 8
> [32] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9aca6ea0 19ea6ea0
> 00000000000033c0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> [33] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 409671c8
> 0000000000000948 0000000000000018 I 2238 32 8
> [...]
> [2213] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa3000000 1d85c000
> 00000000000000a0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> [2214] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa30000a0 1d85c000
> 0000000000000040 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> [...]
>
> While these extra sections don't typically cause any breakage, they do
> inflate the vmlinux size due to the overhead of storing metadata for
> thousands of extra sections.
>
> It's also worth noting that for some reason, some downstream Android
> kernels can't boot at all if these sections aren't coalesced.
>
> This issue isn't limited to any specific architecture; it affects arm64
> and x86 if CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION is forced on.
>
> Example on x86 allyesconfig:
> Before: 2241 sections, 1170972 KiB
> After: 56 sections, 1171169 KiB
>
> [1] https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/9e33c096476ab5e02ab1c8442cc3cb4e32e29f17
>
> Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/958
> Cc: [email protected] # v4.4+
> Suggested-by: Fangrui Song <[email protected]>
> Signed-off-by: Danny Lin <[email protected]>
> ---
> include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 4 ++--
> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> index db600ef218d7..18968cba87c7 100644
> --- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> +++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> @@ -94,10 +94,10 @@
> */
> #ifdef CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION
> #define TEXT_MAIN .text .text.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> -#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX*
> +#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX* .data..compoundliteral*
> #define SDATA_MAIN .sdata .sdata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> #define RODATA_MAIN .rodata .rodata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> -#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> +#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .bss..compoundliteral*

Are there .data.. and .bss.. sections we do NOT want to collect? i.e.
why not include .data..* and .bss..* ?

--
Kees Cook

2020-07-02 16:05:01

by Nathan Chancellor

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] vmlinux.lds.h: Coalesce transient LLVM dead code elimination sections

On Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 08:54:53AM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 01:54:00AM -0700, Danny Lin wrote:
> > A recent LLVM 11 commit [1] made LLD stop implicitly coalescing some
> > temporary LLVM sections, namely .{data,bss}..compoundliteral.XXX:
> >
> > [30] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9ac9a000 19e9a000
> > 000000000000cea0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> > [31] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 40965440
> > 0000000000001d88 0000000000000018 I 2238 30 8
> > [32] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9aca6ea0 19ea6ea0
> > 00000000000033c0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> > [33] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 409671c8
> > 0000000000000948 0000000000000018 I 2238 32 8
> > [...]
> > [2213] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa3000000 1d85c000
> > 00000000000000a0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> > [2214] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa30000a0 1d85c000
> > 0000000000000040 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
> > [...]
> >
> > While these extra sections don't typically cause any breakage, they do
> > inflate the vmlinux size due to the overhead of storing metadata for
> > thousands of extra sections.
> >
> > It's also worth noting that for some reason, some downstream Android
> > kernels can't boot at all if these sections aren't coalesced.
> >
> > This issue isn't limited to any specific architecture; it affects arm64
> > and x86 if CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION is forced on.

It might be worth noting that this happens explicitly because of
-fdata-sections, which is currently only used with
CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION but there are other features such
as LTO that will enable this and make this relevant in the future.

https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/kernel/common/+/1329278/6#message-81b191e92ef4e98e017fa9ded5ef63ef6e60db3a

It is also worth noting that those commits add .bss..L* and .data..L*
and rodata variants. Do you know if those are relevant here?

> > Example on x86 allyesconfig:
> > Before: 2241 sections, 1170972 KiB
> > After: 56 sections, 1171169 KiB

Am I reading this right that coalescing those sections increases the
image size? Kind of interesting.

> > [1] https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/9e33c096476ab5e02ab1c8442cc3cb4e32e29f17
> >
> > Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/958
> > Cc: [email protected] # v4.4+
> > Suggested-by: Fangrui Song <[email protected]>
> > Signed-off-by: Danny Lin <[email protected]>

Reviewed-by: Nathan Chancellor <[email protected]>

> > ---
> > include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 4 ++--
> > 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> > index db600ef218d7..18968cba87c7 100644
> > --- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> > +++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> > @@ -94,10 +94,10 @@
> > */
> > #ifdef CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION
> > #define TEXT_MAIN .text .text.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> > -#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX*
> > +#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX* .data..compoundliteral*

I am fairly certain this will fix a PowerPC warning that we had
recently so good!

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/202006180904.TVUXCf6H%[email protected]/

Unfortunately, I forgot to reply to that thread...

> > #define SDATA_MAIN .sdata .sdata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> > #define RODATA_MAIN .rodata .rodata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> > -#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
> > +#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .bss..compoundliteral*
>
> Are there .data.. and .bss.. sections we do NOT want to collect? i.e.
> why not include .data..* and .bss..* ?

At one point Android was doing that for modules but stopped:

https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/kernel/common/+/1266787

I wonder if that is a problem for the main kernel image.

Cheers,
Nathan

2020-07-02 22:02:32

by Danny Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] vmlinux.lds.h: Coalesce transient LLVM dead code elimination sections

Jul 2, 2020 9:04:25 AM Nathan Chancellor <[email protected]>:

> On Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 08:54:53AM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
>> On Thu, Jul 02, 2020 at 01:54:00AM -0700, Danny Lin wrote:
>>> A recent LLVM 11 commit [1] made LLD stop implicitly coalescing some
>>> temporary LLVM sections, namely .{data,bss}..compoundliteral.XXX:
>>>
>>> [30] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9ac9a000 19e9a000
>>> 000000000000cea0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
>>> [31] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 40965440
>>> 0000000000001d88 0000000000000018 I 2238 30 8
>>> [32] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9aca6ea0 19ea6ea0
>>> 00000000000033c0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
>>> [33] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 409671c8
>>> 0000000000000948 0000000000000018 I 2238 32 8
>>> [...]
>>> [2213] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa3000000 1d85c000
>>> 00000000000000a0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
>>> [2214] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa30000a0 1d85c000
>>> 0000000000000040 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
>>> [...]
>>>
>>> While these extra sections don't typically cause any breakage, they do
>>> inflate the vmlinux size due to the overhead of storing metadata for
>>> thousands of extra sections.
>>>
>>> It's also worth noting that for some reason, some downstream Android
>>> kernels can't boot at all if these sections aren't coalesced.
>>>
>>> This issue isn't limited to any specific architecture; it affects arm64
>>> and x86 if CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION is forced on.
>
> It might be worth noting that this happens explicitly because of
> -fdata-sections, which is currently only used with
> CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION but there are other features such
> as LTO that will enable this and make this relevant in the future.
>
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/kernel/common/+/1329278/6#message-81b191e92ef4e98e017fa9ded5ef63ef6e60db3a
>
> It is also worth noting that those commits add .bss..L* and .data..L*
> and rodata variants. Do you know if those are relevant here?

As far as I can tell, those sections are exclusive to LTO which isn't in
mainline yet. I don't see any sections like that in my DCE-only vmlinux.

>
>>> Example on x86 allyesconfig:
>>> Before: 2241 sections, 1170972 KiB
>>> After: 56 sections, 1171169 KiB
>
> Am I reading this right that coalescing those sections increases the
> image size? Kind of interesting.

Oops, I accidentally swapped the numbers in the commit message.
Coalescing the sections makes the image smaller as expected.

>
>>> [1] https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/9e33c096476ab5e02ab1c8442cc3cb4e32e29f17
>>>
>>> Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/958
>>> Cc: [email protected] # v4.4+
>>> Suggested-by: Fangrui Song <[email protected]>
>>> Signed-off-by: Danny Lin <[email protected]>
>
> Reviewed-by: Nathan Chancellor <[email protected]>
>
>>> ---
>>> include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 4 ++--
>>> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
>>> index db600ef218d7..18968cba87c7 100644
>>> --- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
>>> +++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
>>> @@ -94,10 +94,10 @@
>>> */
>>> #ifdef CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION
>>> #define TEXT_MAIN .text .text.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
>>> -#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX*
>>> +#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX* .data..compoundliteral*
>
> I am fairly certain this will fix a PowerPC warning that we had
> recently so good!
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/202006180904.TVUXCf6H%[email protected]/
>
> Unfortunately, I forgot to reply to that thread...
>
>>> #define SDATA_MAIN .sdata .sdata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
>>> #define RODATA_MAIN .rodata .rodata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
>>> -#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
>>> +#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .bss..compoundliteral*
>>
>> Are there .data.. and .bss.. sections we do NOT want to collect? i.e.
>> why not include .data..* and .bss..* ?
>
> At one point Android was doing that for modules but stopped:
>
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/c/kernel/common/+/1266787
>
> I wonder if that is a problem for the main kernel image.

A comment above the code in question explicitly states that not all
.data..* sections should be coalesced. There's a .data..percpu section
in my x86 vmlinux which should probably remain separate.

>
> Cheers,
> Nathan
>

2020-07-02 23:29:01

by Danny Lin

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH v2] vmlinux.lds.h: Coalesce transient LLVM dead code elimination sections

A recent LLVM 11 commit [1] made LLD stop implicitly coalescing some
temporary LLVM sections, namely .{data,bss}..compoundliteral.XXX:

[30] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9ac9a000 19e9a000
000000000000cea0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[31] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 40965440
0000000000001d88 0000000000000018 I 2238 30 8
[32] .data..compoundli PROGBITS ffffffff9aca6ea0 19ea6ea0
00000000000033c0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[33] .rela.data..compo RELA 0000000000000000 409671c8
0000000000000948 0000000000000018 I 2238 32 8
[...]
[2213] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa3000000 1d85c000
00000000000000a0 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[2214] .bss..compoundlit NOBITS ffffffffa30000a0 1d85c000
0000000000000040 0000000000000000 WA 0 0 32
[...]

.{data,bss}..L<symbol name> sections are also created in some cases.
While there aren't any in this example, they should also be coalesced to
be safe in case some config or future LLVM change makes it start
creating more of those sections in the future. For example, enabling
global merging causes ..L_MergedGlobals sections to be created, but it's
likely that other changes will result in such sections as well.

While these extra sections don't typically cause any breakage, they do
inflate the vmlinux size due to the overhead of storing metadata for
thousands of extra sections.

It's also worth noting that for some reason, some downstream Android
kernels can't boot at all if these sections aren't coalesced.

This issue isn't limited to any specific architecture; it affects arm64
and x86 if CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION is forced on.

Example on x86 allyesconfig:
Before: 2241 sections, 1171169 KiB
After: 56 sections, 1170972 KiB

[1] https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/commit/9e33c096476ab5e02ab1c8442cc3cb4e32e29f17

Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/958
Cc: [email protected] # v4.4+
Suggested-by: Fangrui Song <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Danny Lin <[email protected]>
Reviewed-by: Nathan Chancellor <[email protected]>
---
v2:
- Fixed swapped example sizes
- Added .{data,bss}..L* sections, since it looks like they're emitted
in some cases even when LTO is disabled

include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h | 5 +++--
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
index db600ef218d7..737ecf782229 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
@@ -94,10 +94,11 @@
*/
#ifdef CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION
#define TEXT_MAIN .text .text.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
-#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX*
+#define DATA_MAIN .data .data.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .data..LPBX* \
+ .data..compoundliteral* .data..L*
#define SDATA_MAIN .sdata .sdata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
#define RODATA_MAIN .rodata .rodata.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
-#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
+#define BSS_MAIN .bss .bss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]* .bss..compoundliteral* .bss..L*
#define SBSS_MAIN .sbss .sbss.[0-9a-zA-Z_]*
#else
#define TEXT_MAIN .text
--
2.27.0