Merge branch 'x86-vdso-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip

* 'x86-vdso-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip:
  x86-64, vdso: Do not allocate memory for the vDSO
  clocksource: Change __ARCH_HAS_CLOCKSOURCE_DATA to a CONFIG option
  x86, vdso: Drop now wrong comment
  Document the vDSO and add a reference parser
  ia64: Replace clocksource.fsys_mmio with generic arch data
  x86-64: Move vread_tsc and vread_hpet into the vDSO
  clocksource: Replace vread with generic arch data
  x86-64: Add --no-undefined to vDSO build
  x86-64: Allow alternative patching in the vDSO
  x86: Make alternative instruction pointers relative
  x86-64: Improve vsyscall emulation CS and RIP handling
  x86-64: Emulate legacy vsyscalls
  x86-64: Fill unused parts of the vsyscall page with 0xcc
  x86-64: Remove vsyscall number 3 (venosys)
  x86-64: Map the HPET NX
  x86-64: Remove kernel.vsyscall64 sysctl
  x86-64: Give vvars their own page
  x86-64: Document some of entry_64.S
  x86-64: Fix alignment of jiffies variable

1 files changed, 27 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/ABI/stable/vdso b/Documentation/ABI/stable/vdso
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8a1cbb594497
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/ABI/stable/vdso
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+On some architectures, when the kernel loads any userspace program it
+maps an ELF DSO into that program's address space.  This DSO is called
+the vDSO and it often contains useful and highly-optimized alternatives
+to real syscalls.
+
+These functions are called just like ordinary C function according to
+your platform's ABI.  Call them from a sensible context.  (For example,
+if you set CS on x86 to something strange, the vDSO functions are
+within their rights to crash.)  In addition, if you pass a bad
+pointer to a vDSO function, you might get SIGSEGV instead of -EFAULT.
+
+To find the DSO, parse the auxiliary vector passed to the program's
+entry point.  The AT_SYSINFO_EHDR entry will point to the vDSO.
+
+The vDSO uses symbol versioning; whenever you request a symbol from the
+vDSO, specify the version you are expecting.
+
+Programs that dynamically link to glibc will use the vDSO automatically.
+Otherwise, you can use the reference parser in Documentation/vDSO/parse_vdso.c.
+
+Unless otherwise noted, the set of symbols with any given version and the
+ABI of those symbols is considered stable.  It may vary across architectures,
+though.
+
+(As of this writing, this ABI documentation as been confirmed for x86_64.
+ The maintainers of the other vDSO-using architectures should confirm
+ that it is correct for their architecture.)
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