Trying to run the x86 relocs tool on a BSD based HOSTCC (cross compilation environment) leads to errors like VOFFSET arch/x86/boot/compressed/../voffset.h - due to: vmlinux CC arch/x86/boot/compressed/misc.o - due to: arch/x86/boot/compressed/../voffset.h OBJCOPY arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.bin - due to: vmlinux RELOCS arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.relocs - due to: vmlinux empty (sub)expressionarch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile:118: recipe for target 'arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.relocs' failed make[3]: *** [arch/x86/boot/compressed/vmlinux.relocs] Error 1 and when cross compiling a MIPS kernel on a BSD based HOSTCC we get errors like SYNC include/config/auto.conf.cmd - due to: .config egrep: empty (sub)expression UPD include/config/kernel.release HOSTCC scripts/dtc/dtc.o - due to target missing It turns out that relocs.c on x86 uses patterns like "something(|_end)" while MIPS uses egrep with (|MINOR_|PATCHLEVEL_) In both cases it is not valid syntax or gives undefined results according to POSIX 9.5.3 ERE Grammar https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap09.html It seems to be silently accepted by the Linux regcmp() or egrep implementation while a BSD host complains. Such patterns can be replaced by a transformation like "(|p1|p2)" -> "(p1|p2)?" Test Linux: root@letux:~# echo foo | egrep '^(|foo)$' foo root@letux:~# echo fool | egrep '^(foo)?$' root@letux:~# echo fun | egrep '^(|foo)$' root@letux:~# echo f | egrep '^(|foo)$' root@letux:~# echo | egrep '^(|foo)$' root@letux:~# echo foo | egrep '^(foo)?$' foo root@letux:~# echo fool | egrep '^(foo)?$' root@letux:~# echo fun | egrep '^(foo)?$' root@letux:~# echo f | egrep '^(foo)?$' root@letux:~# echo | egrep '^(foo)?$' root@letux:~# Test BSD: iMac:master hns$ echo foo | egrep '^(|foo)$' egrep: empty (sub)expression iMac:master hns$ echo fool | egrep '^(foo)?$' egrep: empty (sub)expression iMac:master hns$ echo fun | egrep '^(|foo)$' egrep: empty (sub)expression iMac:master hns$ echo f | egrep '^(|foo)$' egrep: empty (sub)expression iMac:master hns$ echo | egrep '^(|foo)$' egrep: empty (sub)expression iMac:master hns$ echo foo | egrep '^(foo)?$' foo iMac:master hns$ echo fool | egrep '^(foo)?$' iMac:master hns$ echo fun | egrep '^(foo)?$' iMac:master hns$ echo f | egrep '^(foo)?$' iMac:master hns$ echo | egrep '^(foo)?$' iMac:master hns$ H. Nikolaus Schaller (2): x86/tools/relocs: Fix non-POSIX regexp arch: mips: Fix non-POSIX regexp arch/mips/Makefile | 2 +- arch/x86/tools/relocs.c | 8 ++++---- 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) -- 2.31.1