Re: Help needed to get Rust dtrace USDT working on/with FreeBSD linker

On Tue, Jun 7, 2022, at 3:40 AM, Konstantin Belousov wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 06, 2022 at 03:44:32AM +0800, Michael Yan Ka Chiu wrote:
> > On Mon, Jun 6, 2022, at 3:01 AM, Konstantin Belousov wrote:
> > > On Sun, Jun 05, 2022 at 04:26:37PM +0800, Michael Yan Ka Chiu wrote:
> > > > Hi everyone,
> > > > 
> > > > I’m working on a PR to get the Rust Usdt crate working on FreeBSD. This crate
> > > > basically allow adding DTrace probes to rust sources by compiling the probe during
> > > > macro invocation and embed to a custom section (set_dtrace_probe) using inline 
> > > > assembly.
> > > > 
> > > > The problem I am encountering is that the linker will optimize the compiled probes
> > > > out in the custom section, the only workaround I have found is to force the linker to
> > > > link all the dead code by invoking `-C link-dead-code=yes`. On Illumos, the workaround
> > > > is to reference another section such that the Illumos linker will not throw the probes 
> > > > away; however the same workaround does not work on FreeBSD.
> > > > 
> > > > I wonder if there're any tricks similar to the Illumos fix, by putting some inline asm there
> > > > to trick the linker and not throw out the probes.
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks In advance,
> > > > Michael
> > > > 
> > > > References:
> > > > The PR: https://github.com/oxidecomputer/usdt/pull/63
> > > > The illumos fix: https://github.com/oxidecomputer/usdt/blob/eac0fe5f03c3fbf23468ead5cb140f62d51ac3f3/usdt-impl/src/record.rs#L251
> > > > 
> > > >  
> > > 
> > > GNU as seems to gain support for the "R" flag for sections, which should
> > > prevent them from linker GC.  Not sure if llvm toolchain has this, it
> > > requires both as and lld to recognize the flag.
> > > 
> > > Anyway, try it?  See GNU as documentation for the .section directive,
> > > ELF type flags.
> > 
> > Thanks! This seems to solve a big part of the issue.
> > 
> > If i pass “cargo:rustc-link-arg=-Xlinker” and “cargo:rustc-link-arg=—no-gc-sections” it does prevent the linker from removing the probes.
> > 
> > I am still looking for solutions that does not involve explicit involvement of the flags by the crate consumer, and maybe something not turning gc off entirely but this is a great progress.
> 
> Did you tried the "R" section flag, as I noted above?

Yes sir, I am using the “R” flag and it works amazingly well. Sorry I misread your email the first time.