87c482bdfa
Helge Deller
87c482bdfa
modules: Ensure natural alignment for .altinstructions and __bug_table sections
In the kernel image vmlinux.lds.S linker scripts the .altinstructions and __bug_table sections are 4- or 8-byte aligned because they hold 32- and/or 64-bit values. Most architectures use altinstructions and BUG() or WARN() in modules as well, but in the module linker script (module.lds.S) those sections are currently missing. As consequence the linker will store their content byte-aligned by default, which then can lead to unnecessary unaligned memory accesses by the CPU when those tables are processed at runtime. Usually unaligned memory accesses are unnoticed, because either the hardware (as on x86 CPUs) or in-kernel exception handlers (e.g. on parisc or sparc) emulate and fix them up at runtime. Nevertheless, such unaligned accesses introduce a performance penalty and can even crash the kernel if there is a bug in the unalignment exception handlers (which happened once to me on the parisc architecture and which is why I noticed that issue at all). This patch fixes a non-critical issue and might be backported at any time. It's trivial and shouldn't introduce any regression because it simply tells the linker to use a different (8-byte alignment) for those sections by default. Signed-off-by: Helge Deller <deller@gmx.de> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/Yr8%2Fgr8e8I7tVX4d@p100/ Signed-off-by: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Linux kernel ============ There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first. In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or ``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/ There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory, several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation. Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.
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