Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] elfutils: don't use dlopen() for libebl modules

[Omar Sandoval <osandov at osandov dot com>]

On Tue, Jul 09, 2019 at 09:14:03PM +0200, Mark Wielaard wrote:
> Hi Omar,
> 
> On Mon, 2019-07-08 at 14:02 -0700, Omar Sandoval wrote:
> > I imagine that little by little, most of the libebl functionality could
> > be converted in this way, and that's how we could chip away at the size
> > increase of the elfutils binaries.
> > 
> > Do you have any objections to patches 1-4 of my submission [2]?
> > 
> > Thanks for the timely response!
> > 
> > 1: https://sourceware.org/ml/elfutils-devel/2019-q3/msg00022.html
> > 2: https://sourceware.org/ml/elfutils-devel/2019-q3/msg00020.html
> 
> I am still pondering this a little. But I do think (patches 1-4) is the
> (first) step forward. But I think I would like to do a 0.177 release
> with the last 4 months of fixes first. We normally do a release every
> 3-4 months, so it is about time, and it means your feature wouldn't
> have to wait that long. Although it would be a couple of months before
> it sees a release. But I think it would be good to have some time to
> make sure the idea works out in practice.
> 
> So I would propose a release end of this week/start of next week. But
> without the libebl build rewrite.
> 
> For the release there are then still 3 things pending:
> 
> - The eu-elfclassify tool
>   https://sourceware.org/ml/elfutils-devel/2019-q2/msg00018.html
>   I had hoped on some feedback from the rpm hackers, since they are
>   one if the intended users. And there are some (small) missing
>   features and tests. Lets see where we are end if the week to see
>   whether we can include that, or also postpone it to the next release.
> - The C-SKY backend:
>   https://sourceware.org/ml/elfutils-devel/2019-q2/msg00007.html
>   This is really just blocked on me not making enough time for a
>   final review. It looks good, but I am confused about one aspect
>   of the DWARF register numbering issue.
> - The dwelf_elf_e_machine_string patch:
>   https://sourceware.org/ml/elfutils-devel/2019-q2/msg00130.html
>   I didn't see any objections, so I think this is good to go.
> 
> Then after the release, somewhere next week, we'll apply your patches
> first and can then deal with any fallout and followups. I am thinking
> of moving some of the functionality into libdw proper (as cleaned up,
> exported api) to reduce the size increase a little. And add a mechanism
> for only building some of the backends (or maybe just drop some old
> ones that nobody uses anyway).

This works for me, thanks! I'll keep an eye out for any followups, and
I'm happy to help clean things up on the ebl side.