From: Jihan LIN <linjh22s@gmail.com>

Although dependencies for gendwarfksyms were recently added to the
packaging rules [1-2], the corresponding documentation was missing.

Document the required build dependencies for gendwarfksyms, and
include a few examples for installing these dependencies on some
distributions.

[1] commit 657f96cb7c06 ("kbuild: deb-pkg: Add libdw-dev:native to
Build-Depends-Arch")
[2] commit 5bd6bdd0f76e ("kbuild: rpm-pkg: Add (elfutils-devel or
libdw-devel) to BuildRequires")
Signed-off-by: Jihan LIN <linjh22s@gmail.com>
---
 Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
index ed366250a54eac3a72c2f529da94a9e803704ae4..0e153d13b052da6edcf65950739730c123cd49db 100644
--- a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
@@ -14,6 +14,29 @@ selected, **gendwarfksyms** is used instead to calculate symbol versions
 from the DWARF debugging information, which contains the necessary
 details about the final module ABI.
 
+Dependencies
+------------
+
+libelf, libdw and zlib are dependencies of gendwarfksyms.
+
+Here are a few examples for installing these dependencies:
+
+* Arch Linux and derivatives::
+
+	sudo pacman --needed -S zlib libelf
+
+* Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives::
+
+	sudo apt install libelf-dev libdw-dev zlib1g-dev
+
+* Fedora and derivatives::
+
+	sudo dnf install elfutils-libelf-devel elfutils-devel zlib-devel
+
+* openSUSE and derivatives::
+
+	sudo zypper install libelf-devel libdw-devel zlib-devel
+
 Usage
 -----
 

-- 
2.51.0

On 1/14/26 12:47 PM, Jihan LIN via B4 Relay wrote:
> From: Jihan LIN <linjh22s@gmail.com>
> 
> Although dependencies for gendwarfksyms were recently added to the
> packaging rules [1-2], the corresponding documentation was missing.
> 
> Document the required build dependencies for gendwarfksyms, and
> include a few examples for installing these dependencies on some
> distributions.
> 
> [1] commit 657f96cb7c06 ("kbuild: deb-pkg: Add libdw-dev:native to
> Build-Depends-Arch")
> [2] commit 5bd6bdd0f76e ("kbuild: rpm-pkg: Add (elfutils-devel or
> libdw-devel) to BuildRequires")
> Signed-off-by: Jihan LIN <linjh22s@gmail.com>
> ---
>  Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 23 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
> index ed366250a54eac3a72c2f529da94a9e803704ae4..0e153d13b052da6edcf65950739730c123cd49db 100644
> --- a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
> @@ -14,6 +14,29 @@ selected, **gendwarfksyms** is used instead to calculate symbol versions
>  from the DWARF debugging information, which contains the necessary
>  details about the final module ABI.
>  
> +Dependencies
> +------------
> +
> +libelf, libdw and zlib are dependencies of gendwarfksyms.
> +
> +Here are a few examples for installing these dependencies:
> +
> +* Arch Linux and derivatives::
> +
> +	sudo pacman --needed -S zlib libelf
> +
> +* Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives::
> +
> +	sudo apt install libelf-dev libdw-dev zlib1g-dev
> +
> +* Fedora and derivatives::
> +
> +	sudo dnf install elfutils-libelf-devel elfutils-devel zlib-devel
> +
> +* openSUSE and derivatives::
> +
> +	sudo zypper install libelf-devel libdw-devel zlib-devel
> +

Nit: I suggest slightly adjusting the text to something like:

"""
Gendwarfksyms depends on the libelf, libdw, and zlib libraries.

Here are a few examples of how to install these dependencies:
"""

.. and swap the items on the pacman line to 'libelf zlib' so the order
is always libelf, libdw, zlib.

Looks ok to me nonetheless, the list is consistent with similar examples
in Documentation/admin-guide/verify-bugs-and-bisect-regressions.rst.

Reviewed-by: Petr Pavlu <petr.pavlu@suse.com>

-- 
Thanks,
Petr

On Tue, Jan 20, 2026 at 01:17:48PM +0100, Petr Pavlu wrote:
> Nit: I suggest slightly adjusting the text to something like:
> 
> """
> Gendwarfksyms depends on the libelf, libdw, and zlib libraries.
> 
> Here are a few examples of how to install these dependencies:
> """
> 
> .. and swap the items on the pacman line to 'libelf zlib' so the order
> is always libelf, libdw, zlib.

I applied the following diff to this change and applied these to
kbuild-next.

diff --git a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
index 0e153d13b052..c5e4617b4b41 100644
--- a/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
+++ b/Documentation/kbuild/gendwarfksyms.rst
@@ -17,13 +17,13 @@ details about the final module ABI.
 Dependencies
 ------------
 
-libelf, libdw and zlib are dependencies of gendwarfksyms.
+gendwarfksyms depends on the libelf, libdw, and zlib libraries.
 
-Here are a few examples for installing these dependencies:
+Here are a few examples of how to install these dependencies:
 
 * Arch Linux and derivatives::
 
-	sudo pacman --needed -S zlib libelf
+	sudo pacman --needed -S libelf zlib
 
 * Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives::