shouldn't asm-generic/barebox.lds.h be arch-independent?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  perusing the code to see how the final barebox executable is created
and ran across this opening to include/asm-generic/barebox.lds.h:

#if defined CONFIG_ARCH_IMX25 || \
        defined CONFIG_ARCH_IMX35 || \
        defined CONFIG_ARCH_IMX51 || \
        defined CONFIG_ARCH_IMX53 || \
        defined CONFIG_ARCH_IMX6 || \
        defined CONFIG_X86 || \
        defined CONFIG_ARCH_EP93XX
#include <mach/barebox.lds.h>
#endif

#ifndef PRE_IMAGE
#define PRE_IMAGE
#endif

  i find that more than a little confusing and inappropriate -- it
strikes me that the allegedly "generic" lds.h file shouldn't be
testing for an arbitrary set of inexplicable machine/arch
combinations, especially when there is absolutely no explanation about
what makes that particular set of symbols magic with respect to this
file.

  a minute or two of perusing shows that what it's for is inserting
some special "pre-image" content into the executable, but that means
that for each new selection that needs that, this file will have to be
changed and that's just messy.

  the linux kernel has a simpler strategy for
asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h, as you see in this patch snippet that added
bss first section functionality to that file earlier this year:

+/*
+ * Allow archectures to redefine BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS to add extra
+ * sections to the front of bss.
+ */
+#ifndef BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS
+#define BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS
+#endif
+
 #define BSS(bss_align)                                                 \
        . = ALIGN(bss_align);                                           \
        .bss : AT(ADDR(.bss) - LOAD_OFFSET) {                           \
+               BSS_FIRST_SECTIONS                                      \
                *(.bss..page_aligned)                                   \
                *(.dynbss)                                              \
                *(.bss)                                                 \

  that would seem to be a much nicer solution as it pushes the
selection of pre-image content back to the architectures where it
belongs.

  the fact that the current approach is prone to "error" can be seen
in the file arch/mips/lib/barebox.lds.S:

#include <asm-generic/barebox.lds.h>

OUTPUT_ARCH(mips)
ENTRY(_start)
SECTIONS
{
        . = TEXT_BASE;

        . = ALIGN(4);
        .text      :
        {
                _start = .;
                *(.text_entry*)
                _stext = .;
                _text = .;
                __bare_init_start = .;
                *(.text_bare_init*)
                __bare_init_end = .;
                *(.text*)
        }
        BAREBOX_BARE_INIT_SIZE

        PRE_IMAGE  <--- ?????

apparently, the MIPS architecture is including the "PRE_IMAGE"
content, despite the fact that it can't possibly be defined.  it's not
wrong, it's just pointless and potentially confusing.

  is there some reason this wasn't done the same way the linux kernel
does it?

rday

-- 

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Robert P. J. Day                                 Ottawa, Ontario, CANADA
                        http://crashcourse.ca

Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
LinkedIn:                               http://ca.linkedin.com/in/rpjday
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