Hi Joel, On Wed, 27 Feb 2019 14:37:47 -0500 "Joel Fernandes (Google)" <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Introduce in-kernel headers and other artifacts which are made available > as an archive through proc (/proc/kheaders.tar.xz file). This archive makes > it possible to build kernel modules, run eBPF programs, and other > tracing programs that need to extend the kernel for tracing purposes > without any dependency on the file system having headers and build > artifacts. > > On Android and embedded systems, it is common to switch kernels but not > have kernel headers available on the file system. Raw kernel headers > also cannot be copied into the filesystem like they can be on other > distros, due to licensing and other issues. There's no linux-headers > package on Android. Further once a different kernel is booted, any > headers stored on the file system will no longer be useful. By storing > the headers as a compressed archive within the kernel, we can avoid these > issues that have been a hindrance for a long time. Hmm, isn't it easier to add kernel-headers package on Android? > The feature is also buildable as a module just in case the user desires > it not being part of the kernel image. This makes it possible to load > and unload the headers on demand. A tracing program, or a kernel module > builder can load the module, do its operations, and then unload the > module to save kernel memory. The total memory needed is 3.8MB. But it also requires to install build environment (tools etc.) on the target system... > > The code to read the headers is based on /proc/config.gz code and uses > the same technique to embed the headers. > > To build a module, the below steps have been tested on an x86 machine: > modprobe kheaders > rm -rf $HOME/headers > mkdir -p $HOME/headers > tar -xvf /proc/kheaders.tar.xz -C $HOME/headers >/dev/null > cd my-kernel-module > make -C $HOME/headers M=$(pwd) modules > rmmod kheaders It seems a bit complex, but no difference from compared with carrying kheaders.tar.gz. I think we would better have a psudo filesystem which can mount this compressed header file directly :) Then it becomes simpler, like modprobe headerfs mkdir $HOME/headers mount -t headerfs $HOME/headers And this doesn't consume any disk-space. Thank you, -- Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@xxxxxxxxxx>
