Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote: > Xen relies on the kernel image being an ELF file, and it uses an ELF > section to hold various pieces of useful information about the kernel, > including the preferred entrypoint. It doesn't rely on entry code being > at a specific address or anything; maintaining it should be transparent > to, and independent from, anything else going on in head.S. > Approaching the problem from the mindset "Xen relies on.." is not always the right thing for Linux. It might make your task easier, but it makes things significantly more complicated when you consider multiple hypervisors. Setting the precedent that Xen can insert some arbitrary stringified ELF section that is completely hypervisor specific is really a bad precedent to set for Linux. When you have 100 hypervisors, all with their own wacked out section requirements, some of which might require things being at (overlapping) fixed addresses, you've got a much, much worse problem than if you had a clean boot ABI spec'd out to begin with. The mindset I think we should be using and scrutinizing every patch with is - "Is this a good thing for the future maintainability and stability of Linux?" Zach
