kbuild: remove top-level built-in.a

The symbol table in the final archive is unneeded; the linker does not
require the symbol table after the --whole-archive option. Every object
file in the archive is included in the link anyway.

Pass thin archives from subdirectories directly to the linker, and
remove the final archiving step.

Fix up the document and comments as well.

Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <yamada.masahiro@socionext.com>
Acked-by: Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@gmail.com>

2 files changed, 8 insertions, 30 deletions

diff --git a/scripts/Makefile.build b/scripts/Makefile.build
index fd03d60f6c5a..681ab58a1548 100644
--- a/scripts/Makefile.build
+++ b/scripts/Makefile.build
@@ -394,14 +394,10 @@ $(obj)/%.asn1.c $(obj)/%.asn1.h: $(src)/%.asn1 $(objtree)/scripts/asn1_compiler
 $(sort $(subdir-obj-y)): $(subdir-ym) ;
 
 #
-# Rule to compile a set of .o files into one .o file
+# Rule to compile a set of .o files into one .a file (without symbol table)
 #
 ifdef builtin-target
 
-# built-in.a archives are made with no symbol table or index which
-# makes them small and fast, but unable to be used by the linker.
-# scripts/link-vmlinux.sh builds an aggregate built-in.a with a symbol
-# table and index.
 quiet_cmd_ar_builtin = AR      $@
       cmd_ar_builtin = rm -f $@; \
                      $(AR) rcSTP$(KBUILD_ARFLAGS) $@ $(filter $(real-obj-y), $^)
@@ -426,7 +422,7 @@ $(modorder-target): $(subdir-ym) FORCE
         $(Q)(cat /dev/null; $(modorder-cmds)) > $@
 
 #
-# Rule to compile a set of .o files into one .a file
+# Rule to compile a set of .o files into one .a file (with symbol table)
 #
 ifdef lib-target
 quiet_cmd_link_l_target = AR      $@
diff --git a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
index c8cf45362bd6..4788def71358 100755
--- a/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
+++ b/scripts/link-vmlinux.sh
@@ -44,24 +44,6 @@ info()
         fi
 }
 
-# Thin archive build here makes a final archive with symbol table and indexes
-# from vmlinux objects INIT and MAIN, which can be used as input to linker.
-# KBUILD_VMLINUX_LIBS archives should already have symbol table and indexes
-# added.
-#
-# Traditional incremental style of link does not require this step
-#
-# built-in.a output file
-#
-archive_builtin()
-{
-        info AR built-in.a
-        rm -f built-in.a;
-        ${AR} rcsTP${KBUILD_ARFLAGS} built-in.a                 \
-                                ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_INIT}          \
-                                ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_MAIN}
-}
-
 # Link of vmlinux.o used for section mismatch analysis
 # ${1} output file
 modpost_link()
@@ -69,7 +51,8 @@ modpost_link()
         local objects
 
         objects="--whole-archive                                \
-                built-in.a                                      \
+                ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_INIT}                          \
+                ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_MAIN}                          \
                 --no-whole-archive                              \
                 --start-group                                   \
                 ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_LIBS}                          \
@@ -88,7 +71,8 @@ vmlinux_link()
 
         if [ "${SRCARCH}" != "um" ]; then
                 objects="--whole-archive                        \
-                        built-in.a                              \
+                        ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_INIT}                  \
+                        ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_MAIN}                  \
                         --no-whole-archive                      \
                         --start-group                           \
                         ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_LIBS}                  \
@@ -99,7 +83,8 @@ vmlinux_link()
                         -T ${lds} ${objects}
         else
                 objects="-Wl,--whole-archive                    \
-                        built-in.a                              \
+                        ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_INIT}                  \
+                        ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_MAIN}                  \
                         -Wl,--no-whole-archive                  \
                         -Wl,--start-group                       \
                         ${KBUILD_VMLINUX_LIBS}                  \
@@ -160,7 +145,6 @@ cleanup()
         rm -f .tmp_System.map
         rm -f .tmp_kallsyms*
         rm -f .tmp_vmlinux*
-        rm -f built-in.a
         rm -f System.map
         rm -f vmlinux
         rm -f vmlinux.o
@@ -217,8 +201,6 @@ fi;
 # final build of init/
 ${MAKE} -f "${srctree}/scripts/Makefile.build" obj=init
 
-archive_builtin
-
 #link vmlinux.o
 info LD vmlinux.o
 modpost_link vmlinux.o