Merge tag 'docs-5.7' of git://git.lwn.net/linux

Pull documentation updates from Jonathan Corbet:
 "This has been a busy cycle for documentation work.

  Highlights include:

   - Lots of RST conversion work by Mauro, Daniel ALmeida, and others.
     Maybe someday we'll get to the end of this stuff...maybe...

   - Some organizational work to bring some order to the core-api
     manual.

   - Various new docs and additions to the existing documentation.

   - Typo fixes, warning fixes, ..."

* tag 'docs-5.7' of git://git.lwn.net/linux: (123 commits)
  Documentation: x86: exception-tables: document CONFIG_BUILDTIME_TABLE_SORT
  MAINTAINERS: adjust to filesystem doc ReST conversion
  docs: deprecated.rst: Add BUG()-family
  doc: zh_CN: add translation for virtiofs
  doc: zh_CN: index files in filesystems subdirectory
  docs: locking: Drop :c:func: throughout
  docs: locking: Add 'need' to hardirq section
  docs: conf.py: avoid thousands of duplicate label warning on Sphinx
  docs: prevent warnings due to autosectionlabel
  docs: fix reference to core-api/namespaces.rst
  docs: fix pointers to io-mapping.rst and io_ordering.rst files
  Documentation: Better document the softlockup_panic sysctl
  docs: hw-vuln: tsx_async_abort.rst: get rid of an unused ref
  docs: perf: imx-ddr.rst: get rid of a warning
  docs: filesystems: fuse.rst: supress a Sphinx warning
  docs: translations: it: avoid duplicate refs at programming-language.rst
  docs: driver.rst: supress two ReSt warnings
  docs: trace: events.rst: convert some new stuff to ReST format
  Documentation: Add io_ordering.rst to driver-api manual
  Documentation: Add io-mapping.rst to driver-api manual
  ...

1 files changed, 14 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/x86/exception-tables.rst b/Documentation/x86/exception-tables.rst
index ed6d4b0cf62c..81a393867f10 100644
--- a/Documentation/x86/exception-tables.rst
+++ b/Documentation/x86/exception-tables.rst
@@ -257,6 +257,9 @@ the fault, in our case the actual value is c0199ff5:
 the original assembly code: > 3:      movl $-14,%eax
 and linked in vmlinux     : > c0199ff5 <.fixup+10b5> movl   $0xfffffff2,%eax
 
+If the fixup was able to handle the exception, control flow may be returned
+to the instruction after the one that triggered the fault, ie. local label 2b.
+
 The assembly code::
 
  > .section __ex_table,"a"
@@ -344,3 +347,14 @@ pointer which points to one of:
      it as special.
 
 More functions can easily be added.
+
+CONFIG_BUILDTIME_TABLE_SORT allows the __ex_table section to be sorted post
+link of the kernel image, via a host utility scripts/sorttable. It will set the
+symbol main_extable_sort_needed to 0, avoiding sorting the __ex_table section
+at boot time. With the exception table sorted, at runtime when an exception
+occurs we can quickly lookup the __ex_table entry via binary search.
+
+This is not just a boot time optimization, some architectures require this
+table to be sorted in order to handle exceptions relatively early in the boot
+process. For example, i386 makes use of this form of exception handling before
+paging support is even enabled!