When you clean the build tree for ARCH=arm, you may see the following
error message from 'nm' command:

$ make -j24 ARCH=arm clean
  CLEAN   arch/arm/crypto
  CLEAN   arch/arm/kernel
  CLEAN   arch/arm/mach-at91
  CLEAN   arch/arm/mach-omap2
  CLEAN   arch/arm/vdso
  CLEAN   certs
  CLEAN   lib
  CLEAN   usr
  CLEAN   net/wireless
  CLEAN   drivers/firmware/efi/libstub
nm: 'arch/arm/boot/compressed/../../../../vmlinux': No such file
/bin/sh: 1: arithmetic expression: expecting primary: " "
  CLEAN   arch/arm/boot/compressed
  CLEAN   drivers/scsi
  CLEAN   drivers/tty/vt
  CLEAN   arch/arm/boot
  CLEAN   vmlinux.symvers modules.builtin modules.builtin.modinfo

Even if you rerun the same command, the error message will not be
shown despite vmlinux is already gone.

To reproduce it, the parallel option -j is needed. Single thread
cleaning always executes 'archclean', 'vmlinuxclean' in this order,
so vmlinux still exists when arch/arm/boot/compressed/ is cleaned.

Looking at arch/arm/boot/compressed/Makefile does not help understand
the reason of the error message. Both KBSS_SZ and LDFLAGS_vmlinux are
assigned with '=' operator, hence, they are not expanded unless used.
Obviously, 'make clean' does not use them.

In fact, the root cause exists in the top Makefile:

  export LDFLAGS_vmlinux

Since LDFLAGS_vmlinux is an exported variable, LDFLAGS_vmlinux in
arch/arm/boot/compressed/Makefile is expanded when scripts/Makefile.clean
has a command to execute. This is why the error message shows up only
when there exist build artifacts in arch/arm/boot/compressed/.

Adding 'unexport LDFLAGS_vmlinux' to arch/arm/boot/compressed/Makefile
will fix it as far as ARCH=arm is concerned, but I think the proper fix
is to get rid of 'export LDFLAGS_vmlinux' from the top Makefile.

LDFLAGS_vmlinux in the top Makefile contains linker flags for the top
vmlinux. LDFLAGS_vmlinux in arch/arm/boot/compressed/Makefile is for
arch/arm/boot/compressed/vmlinux. They just happen to have the same
variable name, but are used for different purposes. Stop shadowing
LDFLAGS_vmlinux.

This commit passes LDFLAGS_vmlinux to scripts/link-vmlinux.sh via a
command line parameter instead of via an environment variable. LD and
KBUILD_LDFLAGS are exported, but I did the same for consistency. Anyway,
they must be included in cmd_link-vmlinux to allow if_changed to detect
the changes in LD or KBUILD_LDFLAGS.

The following Makefiles are not affected:

  arch/arm/boot/compressed/Makefile
  arch/h8300/boot/compressed/Makefile
  arch/nios2/boot/compressed/Makefile
  arch/parisc/boot/compressed/Makefile
  arch/s390/boot/compressed/Makefile
  arch/sh/boot/compressed/Makefile
  arch/sh/boot/romimage/Makefile
  arch/x86/boot/compressed/Makefile

They use ':=' or '=' to clear the LDFLAGS_vmlinux inherited from the
top Makefile.

We need to take a closer look at the impact to unicore32 and xtensa.

arch/unicore32/boot/compressed/Makefile only uses '+=' operator for
LDFLAGS_vmlinux. So, the decompressor previously inherited the linker
flags from the top Makefile.

However, commit 70fac51f ("unicore32 additional architecture files:
boot process") was merged before commit 1f2bfbd0 ("kbuild: link of
vmlinux moved to a script"). So, I rather consider this is a bug fix of
1f2bfbd0.

arch/xtensa/boot/boot-elf/Makefile is also affected, but this is also
considered a fix for the same reason. It did not inherit LDFLAGS_vmlinux
when commit 4bedea94 ("[PATCH] xtensa: Architecture support for
Tensilica Xtensa Part 2") was merged. I deleted $(LDFLAGS_vmlinux),
which is now empty.
Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada <masahiroy@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
Tested-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>