[PATCH v6 2/5] s390/vmcore: Use ELF header in new memory feature

[Michael Holzheu]

On Wed, 3 Jul 2013 10:15:29 -0400
Vivek Goyal <vgoyal at redhat.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jul 03, 2013 at 09:59:13AM +0200, Michael Holzheu wrote:
> > On Tue, 2 Jul 2013 12:23:23 -0400
> > Vivek Goyal <vgoyal at redhat.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Mon, Jul 01, 2013 at 09:32:36PM +0200, Michael Holzheu wrote:
> > > 
> > > [..]
> > > > +ssize_t elfcorehdr_read(char *buf, size_t count, u64 *ppos)
> > > > +{
> > > > +	void *src = (void *)(unsigned long)*ppos;
> > > > +
> > > > +	src = elfcorehdr_newmem ? src : src - OLDMEM_BASE;
> > > 
> > > Seriously, we need to get rid of all this OLDMEM_BASE logic in s390
> > > specific code. For regular kdump, it is no different than x86. Only
> > > special handling required for zfcpdump for HSA region.
> > > 
> > > Why do we need above. Is it to cover the case where elfcorehdr have
> > > been prepared by user space? Are elf headers initially stored in
> > > reserved region and then swapped. Why do we need to swap these or
> > > why kexec-tools could not take care of swapping it.
> > 
> > I know it is confusing. The "src - OLDMEM_BASE" term is currently
> > needed because of the swap issue that we have discussed already. We
> > load the ELF header into reserved memory
> > [OLDMEM_BASE, OLDMEM_BASE + OLDMEM_SIZE] that is swapped with
> > [0, OLDMEM_SIZE]. So the ELF header address has to be adjusted.
> 
> Can't kexec-tools could easily do this swapping and modify elfcorehdr=
> command line accordingly so that second kernel does not have to do
> swapping for ELF headers.
> 
> And for PT_LOAD segment swapping, we could use ELF header swapping trick
> (again in kexec-tools).
> 
> After above two changes I think all the OLD_MEMBASE magic will go away
> from s390 code and only HSA region special handling will remain.
> 
> This brings it inline with x86 code and it becomes easier to understand
> the s390 code. Otherwise there so may special corner cases that it is
> easy to get lost.

Right, I agree that it is possible to do the swap in the kexec tool.
Then we would load in the kexec tool the ELF header to address
"OLDMEM_BASE + addr" (or "crashkernel base + addr") and would specify
the kernel parameter as "elfcorehdr=addr".

Currently we specify "elfcorehdr=OLDMEM_BASE + addr" and the kernel
reverses the swap.

Michael