Is there a downside to using -Bsymbolic-functions?

Question

I recently discovered the linker option "-Bsymbolic-functions" in GNU ld:

-Bsymbolic
  When creating a shared library, bind references to global symbols to the 
  definition within the shared library, if any. Normally, it is possible 
  for a program linked against a shared library to override the definition 
  within the shared library. 

  This option is only meaningful on ELF platforms which support shared libraries.

-Bsymbolic-functions
  When creating a shared library, bind references to global function symbols 
  to the definition within the shared library, if any.  

  This option is only meaningful on ELF platforms which support shared libraries.

This seems to be the inverse of the GCC option -fvisibility=hidden, in that instead of preventing the export of the referenced function to other shared objects, it prevents library-internal references to that function from being bound to an an exported function of a different shared object. I informed myself that -Bsymbolic-functions will prevent the creation of PLT entries for the functions, which is a nice side effect.

1. But I was wondering whether there is perhaps a finer-grained control over this, like overwriting -Bsymbolic for individual function definitions of a library.

2. Should I be aware of any pitfalls of using -Bsymbolic-functions? I plan to only use that, because the -Bsymbolic will break exceptions, I think (it will make it so that references to typeinfo objects are not unified, I think).

Thanks!

Answer 1

Answering my own question because I just earned a Tumbleweed badge for it... and I found out subsequently

But I was wondering whether there is perhaps a finer-grained control over this, like overwriting -Bsymbolic for individual function definitions of a library.

Yes, there is the option --dynamic-list which does exactly that

Should I be aware of any pitfalls of using -Bsymbolic-functions? I plan to only use that, because the -Bsymbolic will break exceptions, I think (it will make it so that references to typeinfo objects are not unified, I think).

I looked more into it, and it seems there is no issue. The libstdc++ library apparently does it or at least did consider it and they only had to add --dynamic-list-cpp-new to still have operator new unified (to prevent issues with multiple allocator / deallocators mixing up in a program but I would argue such programs are broken anyway). Ubuntu uses it or used it by default, and it seems it causes conflicts with some packages. But overall it should work nicely I expect.

Answer 2

There are cases with side effects. A documented one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfe/+bug/644645 I would also like to figure out more about it, because I have such a case right now.

Answer 3

building glibc with -Bsymbolic-functions is not recommended neither. Here is the result I got:

Core was generated by `/home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/elf/ld-linux                                                               .'.
Program terminated with signal 11, Segmentation fault.
#0  0x400a3e90 in _int_free ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
(gdb) where
#0  0x400a3e90 in _int_free ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#1  0x4016b94b in __libc_dlsym ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#2  0x4004c2c7 in __gconv_find_shlib ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#3  0x40042320 in find_derivation ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#4  0x40042889 in __gconv_find_transform ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#5  0x400d6f00 in __wcsmbs_load_conv ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#6  0x400c86f6 in mbrtowc ()
   from /home/lano1106/dev/packages/glibc/repos/core-i686/src/glibc-build/libc.so.6
#7  0x08048914 in ?? ()
#8  0x00000000 in ?? ()

Answer 4

Well you could say it is a "hardening" option as it ensures your calls to in-library functions surely end up there. But one issue that I found is some projects test-suites.

For example the libvirt test-suite would want to call into the just built libvirt0.so but also mock some of the calls that will be done from there.

Due to -Bsymbolic-functions being used on the build that breaks the test as the original and not the mocked function is called.

Example backtraces Good case:

#0  virHostCPUGetThreadsPerSubcore (arch=VIR_ARCH_PPC64) at ../../../tests/virhostcpumock.c:30
#1  0x00007ffff7c1e4c4 in virHostCPUGetInfoPopulateLinux (cpuinfo=<optimized out>, arch=VIR_ARCH_PPC64, cpus=0x7fffffffdf38, mhz=<optimized out>, nodes=0x7fffffffdf40, sockets=0x7fffffffdf44, cores=0x7fffffffdf48, threads=0x7fffffffdf4c)
    at ../../../src/util/virhostcpu.c:661                                           
#2  0x0000555555557e6f in linuxTestCompareFiles (outputfile=0x55555558f150 "/build/libvirt-OUKR8i/libvirt-4.10.0/tests/virhostcpudata/linux-ppc64-subcores2.expected", arch=VIR_ARCH_PPC64,·
    cpuinfofile=0x5555555a3f10 "/build/libvirt-OUKR8i/libvirt-4.10.0/tests/virhostcpudata/linux-ppc64-subcores2.cpuinfo") at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:44
#3  linuxTestHostCPU (opaque=<optimized out>) at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:189
#4  0x000055555555914d in virTestRun (title=0x55555555c0a1 "subcores2", body=0x555555557cc0 <linuxTestHostCPU>, data=0x7fffffffe0c0) at ../../../tests/testutils.c:176
#5  0x000055555555781a in mymain () at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:263          
#6  0x0000555555559df4 in virTestMain (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe2c8, func=0x5555555577b0 <mymain>) at ../../../tests/testutils.c:1114
#7  0x00007ffff79bb09b in __libc_start_main (main=0x5555555576a0 <main>, argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe2c8, init=<optimized out>, fini=<optimized out>, rtld_fini=<optimized out>, stack_end=0x7fffffffe2b8) at ../csu/libc-start.c:308
#8  0x00005555555576ea in _start () at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:278 

Bad case:

#0  virHostCPUGetThreadsPerSubcore (arch=arch@entry=VIR_ARCH_PPC64) at ../../../src/util/virhostcpu.c:1119
#1  0x00007ffff7c27e04 in virHostCPUGetInfoPopulateLinux (cpuinfo=<optimized out>, arch=VIR_ARCH_PPC64, cpus=0x7fffffffdea8, mhz=<optimized out>, nodes=0x7fffffffdeb0, sockets=0x7fffffffdeb4, cores=0x7fffffffdeb8, threads=0x7fffffffdebc)
    at ../../../src/util/virhostcpu.c:661                                           
#2  0x0000555555557e6f in linuxTestCompareFiles (outputfile=0x5555555a5c30 "/build/libvirt-4biJ7f/libvirt-4.10.0/tests/virhostcpudata/linux-ppc64-subcores2.expected", arch=VIR_ARCH_PPC64,·
    cpuinfofile=0x55555558fd20 "/build/libvirt-4biJ7f/libvirt-4.10.0/tests/virhostcpudata/linux-ppc64-subcores2.cpuinfo") at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:44
#3  linuxTestHostCPU (opaque=<optimized out>) at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:189
#4  0x000055555555914d in virTestRun (title=0x55555555c0a1 "subcores2", body=0x555555557cc0 <linuxTestHostCPU>, data=0x7fffffffe030) at ../../../tests/testutils.c:176
#5  0x000055555555781a in mymain () at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:263          
#6  0x0000555555559df4 in virTestMain (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe238, func=0x5555555577b0 <mymain>) at ../../../tests/testutils.c:1114
#7  0x00007ffff79b009b in __libc_start_main () from /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6
#8  0x00005555555576ea in _start () at ../../../tests/virhostcputest.c:278 

Compare the source for virHostCPUGetThreadsPerSubcore in those two and you will see the difference.

Another case I have seen are:

• static variables becoming multiple instances in singularity
• segfaulting tests in sssd
• autofs issues with global variables

Since the original question was about potential drawbacks I thought it is worth to mention those somewhat common category of related issues as well.