When CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS is enabled, Kbuild recursively traverses
the directory tree to determine which EXPORT_SYMBOL to trim. If an
EXPORT_SYMBOL turns out to be unused by anyone, Kbuild begins the
second traverse, where some source files are recompiled with their
EXPORT_SYMBOL() tuned into a no-op.
Linus stated negative opinions about this slowness in commits:
- 5cf0fd591f ("Kbuild: disable TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS option")
- a555bdd0c5 ("Kbuild: enable TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS again, with some guarding")
We can do this better now. The final data structures of EXPORT_SYMBOL
are generated by the modpost stage, so modpost can selectively emit
KSYMTAB entries that are really used by modules.
Commit f73edc8951 ("kbuild: unify two modpost invocations") is another
ground-work to do this in a one-pass algorithm. With the list of modules,
modpost sets sym->used if it is used by a module. modpost emits KSYMTAB
only for symbols with sym->used==true.
BTW, Nicolas explained why the trimming was implemented with recursion:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/2o2rpn97-79nq-p7s2-nq5-8p83391473r@syhkavp.arg/
Actually, we never achieved that level of optimization where the chain
reaction of trimming comes into play because:
- CONFIG_LTO_CLANG cannot remove any unused symbols
- CONFIG_LD_DEAD_CODE_DATA_ELIMINATION is enabled only for vmlinux,
but not modules
If deeper trimming is required, we need to revisit this, but I guess
that is unlikely to happen.
Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>
5e9e95cc91