Re: [PATCH v4 0/2] gdb: Fix internal inferior calls through GNU IFUNCs
Muhammad Kamran <[email protected]> Tue, 4 Aug 2026 10:02:58 +0100
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.gdb.patches |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
Ping. Is this patch series OK to push?
This would also unblock the GNU IFUNC malloc implementation in glibc.
Thanks,
Kamran
On 30/06/2026 12:04, Muhammad Kamran wrote:
> This series fixes a GDB inferior-call issue exposed by malloc being a GNU
> IFUNC in glibc on AArch64. The underlying problem is not AArch64-specific:
> it can affect any inferior helper found through find_function_in_inferior's
> minimal-symbol fallback when that helper is a GNU IFUNC.
>
> GDB calls find_function_in_inferior ("malloc") when expression evaluation
> needs to allocate memory in the inferior, for example for string literal
> arguments. In the minimal-symbol fallback, GDB created a synthetic ordinary
> function pointer from the minimal symbol address. If the symbol was a GNU
> IFUNC, this lost the IFUNC marker, so call_function_by_hand did not resolve
> the symbol before calling it.
>
> Patch 1 checks the minimal symbol kind directly and propagates the GNU IFUNC
> marker to the synthetic function type for mst_text_gnu_ifunc and
> mst_data_gnu_ifunc symbols. The existing fallback address and return type
> are unchanged.
>
> Patch 2 fixes the follow-on return-type issue after IFUNC resolution. When
> the resolved target type, or the type inferred from the resolver return type,
> does not provide a usable return type, find_function_addr now keeps the
> original function type's return type. This preserves the synthetic fallback
> return type used by find_function_in_inferior ("malloc").
>
> The tests add an internal inferior-call case using an IFUNC malloc and run it
> through the existing gdb.base/gnu-ifunc.exp matrix for resolver attr,
> resolver debug info, and resolved-target debug info.
>
> Changes since v3:
> * Move the ifunc resolver into a shared library.
>
> Changes since v2:
> * Rework the minimal-symbol fallback to check the minimal symbol kind
> directly as suggested by Simon.
> * Add coverage for both debug and no-debug IFUNC malloc variants by
> using the existing framework.
> * Preserve the original IFUNC return type when the resolved target type
> is unknown.
>
> Muhammad Kamran (2):
> gdb: Preserve IFUNC marker when finding inferior functions
> gdb: Keep original IFUNC return type when target type is unknown
>
> gdb/infcall.c | 12 +++-
> .../gdb.base/gnu-ifunc-inferior-call-final.c | 27 ++++++++
> .../gnu-ifunc-inferior-call-resolver.c | 43 ++++++++++++
> .../gdb.base/gnu-ifunc-inferior-call.c | 37 +++++++++++
> gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/gnu-ifunc.exp | 66 +++++++++++++++++++
> gdb/valops.c | 5 ++
> 6 files changed, 188 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> create mode 100644 gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/gnu-ifunc-inferior-call-final.c
> create mode 100644 gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/gnu-ifunc-inferior-call-resolver.c
> create mode 100644 gdb/testsuite/gdb.base/gnu-ifunc-inferior-call.c
>