[PATCH 00/16] ELF cleanup, round 2

[Andreas Robinson <andr345@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi guys,

I've finished the latest set of patches. They're on github at

http://github.com/andr345/module-init-tools/commits/elf_cleanup2/

but I am posting them here as well, so you can choose whatever is
more convenient for you.

The first two (trivial) patches are found in the elf_cleanup branch
I started before. After writing those, I added a new branch,
elf_cleanup2 before continuing.

These tests were performed, and passed:

32-bit (Eee 901)

1. live boot (depmod, modprobe)
2. tests/runtests

64-bit (Core i7)

1. live boot (depmod, modprobe)
2. tests/runtests
3. tests/runtests --valgrind (full set, ~15 minutes)
4. modprobe --dump-modversions i915-32bit.ko
5. modprobe --dump-modversions i915-64bit.ko

i915.ko is a random module (kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915)
picked from the generic kernel in Jaunty, 2.6.28
Result 4 == 5 by the way, so things worked out as expected.


I need your input on this patch:

-------------------------------
[PATCH 09/16] modprobe: load modules with grab_elf_file_fd()

In the old implementation, the loader didn't care about whether
a file is an ELF-file or not, and let init_module() sort it out.

In the new implementation, the loading fails with errno = ENOEXEC
if the file isn't an ELF-file.

However, the new logic does not pass the testing, specifically
test-modprobe/10alias.sh. To work around this, the commit adds a
hack that replicates the old way, when grab_elf_file_fd() does
return errno = ENOEXEC.

Obviously, this needs to be fixed. To replicate the problem,
simply remove the hack.
---------------------------------

So, when asked to load a file that is not an elf-file, what should modprobe do?

1. fail silently if (error == warn && !verbose) or
2. always fail noisily, same as if e.g the file didn't exist.

Up to this point, case 1 is true.
After applying the patch, case 2 would be true, if the hack didn't revert to
the old behvior.

I'm not sure what the right thing to do is here.

Cheers,
Andreas
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