kbuild: improved modversioning support for external modules

With following patch a second option is enabled to obtain
symbol information from a second external module when a
external module is build.
The recommended approach is to use a common kbuild file but
that may be impractical in certain cases.
With this patch one can copy over a Module.symvers from one
external module to make symbols (and symbol versions) available
for another external module.

Updated documentation in Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt

Signed-off-by: Sam Ravnborg <sam@ravnborg.org>

1 files changed, 80 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt b/Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt
index 87d858df4e34..fcccf2432f98 100644
--- a/Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt
@@ -23,7 +23,10 @@ In this document you will find information about:
 	=== 6. Module installation
 	   --- 6.1 INSTALL_MOD_PATH
 	   --- 6.2 INSTALL_MOD_DIR
-	=== 7. Module versioning
+	=== 7. Module versioning & Module.symvers
+	   --- 7.1 Symbols fron the kernel (vmlinux + modules)
+	   --- 7.2 Symbols and external modules
+	   --- 7.3 Symbols from another external module
 	=== 8. Tips & Tricks
 	   --- 8.1 Testing for CONFIG_FOO_BAR
 
@@ -89,7 +92,8 @@ when building an external module.
 	make -C $KDIR M=$PWD modules_install
 		Install the external module(s).
 		Installation default is in /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/extra,
-		but may be prefixed with INSTALL_MOD_PATH - see separate chapter.
+		but may be prefixed with INSTALL_MOD_PATH - see separate
+		chapter.
 
 	make -C $KDIR M=$PWD clean
 		Remove all generated files for the module - the kernel
@@ -433,7 +437,7 @@ External modules are installed in the directory:
 		=> Install dir: /lib/modules/$(KERNELRELEASE)/gandalf
 
 
-=== 7. Module versioning
+=== 7. Module versioning & Module.symvers
 
 Module versioning is enabled by the CONFIG_MODVERSIONS tag.
 
@@ -443,11 +447,80 @@ when a module is loaded/used then the CRC values contained in the kernel are
 compared with similar values in the module. If they are not equal then the
 kernel refuses to load the module.
 
-During a kernel build a file named Module.symvers will be generated. This
-file includes the symbol version of all symbols within the kernel. If the 
-Module.symvers file is saved from the last full kernel compile one does not
-have to do a full kernel compile to build a module version's compatible module.
+Module.symvers contains a list of all exported symbols from a kernel build.
 
+--- 7.1 Symbols fron the kernel (vmlinux + modules)
+
+	During a kernel build a file named Module.symvers will be generated.
+	Module.symvers contains all exported symbols from the kernel and
+	compiled modules. For each symbols the corresponding CRC value
+	is stored too.
+
+	The syntax of the Module.symvers file is:
+		<CRC>       <Symbol>           <module>
+	Sample:
+		0x2d036834  scsi_remove_host   drivers/scsi/scsi_mod
+
+	For a kernel build without CONFIG_MODVERSIONING enabled the crc
+	would read: 0x00000000
+
+	Module.symvers serve two purposes.
+	1) It list all exported symbols both from vmlinux and all modules
+	2) It list CRC if CONFIG_MODVERSION is enabled
+
+--- 7.2 Symbols and external modules
+
+	When building an external module the build system needs access to
+	the symbols from the kernel to check if all external symbols are
+	defined. This is done in the MODPOST step and to obtain all
+	symbols modpost reads Module.symvers from the kernel.
+	If a Module.symvers file is present in the directory where
+	the external module is being build this file will be read too.
+	During the MODPOST step a new Module.symvers file will be written
+	containing all exported symbols that was not defined in the kernel.
+	
+--- 7.3 Symbols from another external module
+
+	Sometimes one external module uses exported symbols from another
+	external module. Kbuild needs to have full knowledge on all symbols
+	to avoid spitting out warnings about undefined symbols.
+	Two solutions exist to let kbuild know all symbols of more than
+	one external module.
+	The method with a top-level kbuild file is recommended but may be
+	impractical in certain situations.
+
+	Use a top-level Kbuild file
+		If you have two modules: 'foo', 'bar' and 'foo' needs symbols
+		from 'bar' then one can use a common top-level kbuild file so
+		both modules are compiled in same build.
+
+		Consider following directory layout:
+		./foo/ <= contains the foo module
+		./bar/ <= contains the bar module
+		The top-level Kbuild file would then look like:
+		
+		#./Kbuild: (this file may also be named Makefile)
+			obj-y := foo/ bar/
+
+		Executing:
+			make -C $KDIR M=`pwd`
+
+		will then do the expected and compile both modules with full
+		knowledge on symbols from both modules.
+
+	Use an extra Module.symvers file
+		When an external module is build a Module.symvers file is
+		generated containing all exported symbols which are not
+		defined in the kernel.
+		To get access to symbols from module 'bar' one can copy the
+		Module.symvers file from the compilation of the 'bar' module
+		to the directory where the 'foo' module is build.
+		During the module build kbuild will read the Module.symvers
+		file in the directory of the external module and when the
+		build is finished a new Module.symvers file is created
+		containing the sum of all symbols defined and not part of the
+		kernel.
+		
 === 8. Tips & Tricks
 
 --- 8.1 Testing for CONFIG_FOO_BAR