kbuild: link vmlinux only once for CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS

If CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS is enabled and the kernel is built from
a pristine state, the vmlinux is linked twice.

[1] A user runs 'make'

[2] First build with empty autoksyms.h

[3] adjust_autoksyms.sh updates autoksyms.h and recurses 'make vmlinux'

  --------(begin sub-make)--------
  [4] Second build with new autoksyms.h

  [5] link-vmlinux.sh is invoked because vmlinux is missing
  ---------(end sub-make)---------

[6] link-vmlinux.sh is invoked again despite vmlinux is up-to-date.

The reason of [6] is probably because Make already decided to update
vmlinux at the time of [2] because vmlinux was missing when Make
built up the dependency graph.

Because if_changed is implemented based on $?, this issue can be
narrowed down to how Make handles $?.

You can test it with the following simple code:

[Test Makefile]
  A: B
          @echo newer prerequisite: $?
          cp B A

  B: C
          cp C B
          touch A

[Result]
  $ rm -f A B
  $ touch C
  $ make
  cp C B
  touch A
  newer prerequisite: B
  cp B A

Here, 'A' has been touched in the recipe of 'B'.  So, the dependency
'A: B' has already been met before the recipe of 'A' is executed.
However, Make does not notice the fact that the recipe of 'B' also
updates 'A' as a side-effect.

The situation is similar in this case; the vmlinux has actually been
updated in the vmlinux_prereq target.  Make cannot predict this, so
judges the vmlinux is old.

link-vmlinux.sh is costly, so it is better to not run it when unneeded.
Split CONFIG_TRIM_UNUSED_KSYMS recursion to a dedicated target.

The reason of commit 2441e78b1919 ("kbuild: better abstract vmlinux
sequential prerequisites") was to cater to CONFIG_BUILD_DOCSRC, but
it was later removed by commit 184892925118 ("samples: move blackfin
gptimers-example from Documentation").

Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@socionext.com>
Acked-by: Nicolas Pitre <nico@linaro.org>
1 file changed