With GCC 12 allmodconfig prom_init fails to build:

  Error: External symbol 'memset' referenced from prom_init.c
  make[2]: *** [arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile:204: arch/powerpc/kernel/prom_init_check] Error 1

The allmodconfig build enables KASAN, so all calls to memset in
prom_init should be converted to __memset by the #ifdefs in
asm/string.h, because prom_init must use the non-KASAN instrumented
versions.

The build failure happens because there's a call to memset that hasn't
been caught by the pre-processor and converted to __memset. Typically
that's because it's a memset generated by the compiler itself, and that
is the case here.

With GCC 12, allmodconfig enables CONFIG_INIT_STACK_ALL_PATTERN, which
causes the compiler to emit memset calls to initialise on-stack
variables with a pattern.

Because prom_init is non-user-facing boot-time only code, as a
workaround just disable stack variable initialisation to unbreak the
build.

Reported-by: Sudip Mukherjee <sudipm.mukherjee@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
---
 arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile b/arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile
index f91f0f29a566..c8cf924bf9c0 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ CFLAGS_prom.o += $(DISABLE_LATENT_ENTROPY_PLUGIN)
 CFLAGS_prom_init.o += -fno-stack-protector
 CFLAGS_prom_init.o += -DDISABLE_BRANCH_PROFILING
 CFLAGS_prom_init.o += -ffreestanding
+CFLAGS_prom_init.o += $(call cc-option, -ftrivial-auto-var-init=uninitialized)
 
 ifdef CONFIG_FUNCTION_TRACER
 # Do not trace early boot code
-- 
2.35.3

On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 6:44 AM Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au> wrote:
>
> With GCC 12, allmodconfig enables CONFIG_INIT_STACK_ALL_PATTERN, which
> causes the compiler to emit memset calls to initialise on-stack
> variables with a pattern.

Ahh, and that explains why "volatile" made no difference. That did
seem very odd.

Thanks for figuring it out,

                   Linus

On Mon, Jul 18, 2022 at 2:44 PM Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au> wrote:
>
> With GCC 12 allmodconfig prom_init fails to build:
>
>   Error: External symbol 'memset' referenced from prom_init.c
>   make[2]: *** [arch/powerpc/kernel/Makefile:204: arch/powerpc/kernel/prom_init_check] Error 1
>

<snip>

>
> Reported-by: Sudip Mukherjee <sudipm.mukherjee@gmail.com>
> Signed-off-by: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>

And, this has fixed the build failure.
Thanks Michael.


-- 
Regards
Sudip