linux-stable.git/Documentation/process/changes.rst, branch v6.11

Merge tag 'rust-6.11' of https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/linux

2024-07-27T20:44:54+00:00

Pull Rust updates from Miguel Ojeda:
 "The highlight is the establishment of a minimum version for the Rust
  toolchain, including 'rustc' (and bundled tools) and 'bindgen'.

  The initial minimum will be the pinned version we currently have, i.e.
  we are just widening the allowed versions. That covers three stable
  Rust releases: 1.78.0, 1.79.0, 1.80.0 (getting released tomorrow),
  plus beta, plus nightly.

  This should already be enough for kernel developers in distributions
  that provide recent Rust compiler versions routinely, such as Arch
  Linux, Debian Unstable (outside the freeze period), Fedora Linux,
  Gentoo Linux (especially the testing channel), Nix (unstable) and
  openSUSE Slowroll and Tumbleweed.

  In addition, the kernel is now being built-tested by Rust's pre-merge
  CI. That is, every change that is attempting to land into the Rust
  compiler is tested against the kernel, and it is merged only if it
  passes. Similarly, the bindgen tool has agreed to build the kernel in
  their CI too.

  Thus, with the pre-merge CI in place, both projects hope to avoid
  unintentional changes to Rust that break the kernel. This means that,
  in general, apart from intentional changes on their side (that we will
  need to workaround conditionally on our side), the upcoming Rust
  compiler versions should generally work.

  In addition, the Rust project has proposed getting the kernel into
  stable Rust (at least solving the main blockers) as one of its three
  flagship goals for 2024H2 [1].

  I would like to thank Niko, Sid, Emilio et al. for their help
  promoting the collaboration between Rust and the kernel.

  Toolchain and infrastructure:

   - Support several Rust toolchain versions.

   - Support several bindgen versions.

   - Remove 'cargo' requirement and simplify 'rusttest', thanks to
     'alloc' having been dropped last cycle.

   - Provide proper error reporting for the 'rust-analyzer' target.

  'kernel' crate:

   - Add 'uaccess' module with a safe userspace pointers abstraction.

   - Add 'page' module with a 'struct page' abstraction.

   - Support more complex generics in workqueue's 'impl_has_work!'
     macro.

  'macros' crate:

   - Add 'firmware' field support to the 'module!' macro.

   - Improve 'module!' macro documentation.

  Documentation:

   - Provide instructions on what packages should be installed to build
     the kernel in some popular Linux distributions.

   - Introduce the new kernel.org LLVM+Rust toolchains.

   - Explain '#[no_std]'.

  And a few other small bits"

Link: https://rust-lang.github.io/rust-project-goals/2024h2/index.html#flagship-goals [1]

* tag 'rust-6.11' of https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/linux: (26 commits)
  docs: rust: quick-start: add section on Linux distributions
  rust: warn about `bindgen` versions 0.66.0 and 0.66.1
  rust: start supporting several `bindgen` versions
  rust: work around `bindgen` 0.69.0 issue
  rust: avoid assuming a particular `bindgen` build
  rust: start supporting several compiler versions
  rust: simplify Clippy warning flags set
  rust: relax most deny-level lints to warnings
  rust: allow `dead_code` for never constructed bindings
  rust: init: simplify from `map_err` to `inspect_err`
  rust: macros: indent list item in `paste!`'s docs
  rust: add abstraction for `struct page`
  rust: uaccess: add typed accessors for userspace pointers
  uaccess: always export _copy_[from|to]_user with CONFIG_RUST
  rust: uaccess: add userspace pointers
  kbuild: rust-analyzer: improve comment documentation
  kbuild: rust-analyzer: better error handling
  docs: rust: no_std is used
  rust: alloc: add __GFP_HIGHMEM flag
  rust: alloc: fix typo in docs for GFP_NOWAIT
  ...

Merge tag 'kbuild-v6.11' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/masahiroy/linux-kbuild

2024-07-23T21:32:21+00:00

Pull Kbuild updates from Masahiro Yamada:

 - Remove tristate choice support from Kconfig

 - Stop using the PROVIDE() directive in the linker script

 - Reduce the number of links for the combination of CONFIG_KALLSYMS and
   CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO_BTF

 - Enable the warning for symbol reference to .exit.* sections by
   default

 - Fix warnings in RPM package builds

 - Improve scripts/make_fit.py to generate a FIT image with separate
   base DTB and overlays

 - Improve choice value calculation in Kconfig

 - Fix conditional prompt behavior in choice in Kconfig

 - Remove support for the uncommon EMAIL environment variable in Debian
   package builds

 - Remove support for the uncommon "name " form for the DEBEMAIL
   environment variable

 - Raise the minimum supported GNU Make version to 4.0

 - Remove stale code for the absolute kallsyms

 - Move header files commonly used for host programs to scripts/include/

 - Introduce the pacman-pkg target to generate a pacman package used in
   Arch Linux

 - Clean up Kconfig

* tag 'kbuild-v6.11' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/masahiroy/linux-kbuild: (65 commits)
  kbuild: doc: gcc to CC change
  kallsyms: change sym_entry::percpu_absolute to bool type
  kallsyms: unify seq and start_pos fields of struct sym_entry
  kallsyms: add more original symbol type/name in comment lines
  kallsyms: use \t instead of a tab in printf()
  kallsyms: avoid repeated calculation of array size for markers
  kbuild: add script and target to generate pacman package
  modpost: use generic macros for hash table implementation
  kbuild: move some helper headers from scripts/kconfig/ to scripts/include/
  Makefile: add comment to discourage tools/* addition for kernel builds
  kbuild: clean up scripts/remove-stale-files
  kconfig: recursive checks drop file/lineno
  kbuild: rpm-pkg: introduce a simple changelog section for kernel.spec
  kallsyms: get rid of code for absolute kallsyms
  kbuild: Create INSTALL_PATH directory if it does not exist
  kbuild: Abort make on install failures
  kconfig: remove 'e1' and 'e2' macros from expression deduplication
  kconfig: remove SYMBOL_CHOICEVAL flag
  kconfig: add const qualifiers to several function arguments
  kconfig: call expr_eliminate_yn() at least once in expr_eliminate_dups()
  ...

kbuild: raise the minimum GNU Make requirement to 4.0

2024-07-16T07:07:14+00:00

RHEL/CentOS 7, popular distributions that install GNU Make 3.82, reached
EOM/EOL on June 30, 2024. While you may get extended support, it is a
good time to raise the minimum GNU Make version.

The new requirement, GNU Make 4.0, was released in October, 2013.

I did not touch the Makefiles under tools/ because I do not know the
requirements for building tools. I do not find any GNU Make version
checks under tools/.

Signed-off-by: Masahiro Yamada 
Reviewed-by: Nathan Chancellor

docs: rust: quick-start: add section on Linux distributions

2024-07-10T08:29:55+00:00

Now that we are starting to support several Rust compiler and `bindgen`
versions, there is a good chance some Linux distributions work out of
the box.

Thus, provide some instructions on how to set the toolchain up for a
few major Linux distributions. This simplifies the setup users need to
build the kernel.

In addition, add an introduction to the document so that it is easier
to understand its structure and move the LLVM+Rust kernel.org toolchains
paragraph there (removing "depending on the Linux version"). We may want
to reorganize the document or split it in the future, but I wanted to
focus this commit on the new information added about each particular
distribution.

Finally, remove the `rustup`'s components mention in `changes.rst` since
users do not need it if they install the toolchain via the distributions
(and anyway it was too detailed for that main document).

Cc: Jan Alexander Steffens 
Cc: Johannes Löthberg 
Cc: Fabian Grünbichler 
Cc: Josh Stone 
Cc: Randy Barlow 
Cc: Anna (navi) Figueiredo Gomes 
Cc: Matoro Mahri 
Cc: Ryan Scheel 
Cc: figsoda 
Cc: Jörg Thalheim 
Cc: Theodore Ni <43ngvg@masqt.com>
Cc: Winter 
Cc: William Brown 
Cc: Xiaoguang Wang 
Cc: Andrea Righi 
Cc: Zixing Liu 
Cc: Nathan Chancellor 
Tested-by: Benno Lossin 
Tested-by: Andreas Hindborg 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240709160615.998336-14-ojeda@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda

rust: start supporting several compiler versions

2024-07-10T08:28:52+00:00

It is time to start supporting several Rust compiler versions and thus
establish a minimum Rust version.

We may still want to upgrade the minimum sometimes in the beginning since
there may be important features coming into the language that improve
how we write code (e.g. field projections), which may or may not make
sense to support conditionally.

We will start with a window of two stable releases, and widen it over
time. Thus this patch does not move the current minimum (1.78.0), but
instead adds support for the recently released 1.79.0.

This should already be enough for kernel developers in distributions that
provide recent Rust compiler versions routinely, such as Arch Linux,
Debian Unstable (outside the freeze period), Fedora Linux, Gentoo
Linux (especially the testing channel), Nix (unstable) and openSUSE
Tumbleweed. See the documentation patch about it later in this series.

In addition, Rust for Linux is now being built-tested in Rust's pre-merge
CI [1]. That is, every change that is attempting to land into the Rust
compiler is tested against the kernel, and it is merged only if it passes
-- thanks to the Rust project for that!

Thus, with the pre-merge CI in place, both projects hope to avoid
unintentional changes to Rust that break the kernel. This means that,
in general, apart from intentional changes on their side (that we will
need to workaround conditionally on our side), the upcoming Rust compiler
versions should generally work.

For instance, currently, the beta (1.80.0) and nightly (1.81.0) branches
work as well.

Of course, the Rust for Linux CI job in the Rust toolchain may still need
to be temporarily disabled for different reasons, but the intention is
to help bring Rust for Linux into stable Rust.

Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/125209 [1]
Reviewed-by: Finn Behrens 
Tested-by: Benno Lossin 
Tested-by: Andreas Hindborg 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240709160615.998336-7-ojeda@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda

docs: document python version used for compilation

2024-05-30T19:59:10+00:00

The drm/msm driver had adopted using Python3 script to generate register
header files instead of shipping pre-generated header files. Document
the minimal Python version supported by the script.

Signed-off-by: Dmitry Baryshkov 
Reviewed-by: Abhinav Kumar 
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240509-python-version-v1-1-a7dda3a95b5f@linaro.org

Merge tag 'arm64-upstream' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arm64/linux

2024-05-14T18:09:39+00:00

Pull arm64 updates from Will Deacon:
 "The most interesting parts are probably the mm changes from Ryan which
  optimise the creation of the linear mapping at boot and (separately)
  implement write-protect support for userfaultfd.

  Outside of our usual directories, the Kbuild-related changes under
  scripts/ have been acked by Masahiro whilst the drivers/acpi/ parts
  have been acked by Rafael and the addition of cpumask_any_and_but()
  has been acked by Yury.

  ACPI:

   - Support for the Firmware ACPI Control Structure (FACS) signature
     feature which is used to reboot out of hibernation on some systems

  Kbuild:

   - Support for building Flat Image Tree (FIT) images, where the kernel
     Image is compressed alongside a set of devicetree blobs

  Memory management:

   - Optimisation of our early page-table manipulation for creation of
     the linear mapping

   - Support for userfaultfd write protection, which brings along some
     nice cleanups to our handling of invalid but present ptes

   - Extend our use of range TLBI invalidation at EL1

  Perf and PMUs:

   - Ensure that the 'pmu->parent' pointer is correctly initialised by
     PMU drivers

   - Avoid allocating 'cpumask_t' types on the stack in some PMU drivers

   - Fix parsing of the CPU PMU "version" field in assembly code, as it
     doesn't follow the usual architectural rules

   - Add best-effort unwinding support for USER_STACKTRACE

   - Minor driver fixes and cleanups

  Selftests:

   - Minor cleanups to the arm64 selftests (missing NULL check, unused
     variable)

  Miscellaneous:

   - Add a command-line alias for disabling 32-bit application support

   - Add part number for Neoverse-V2 CPUs

   - Minor fixes and cleanups"

* tag 'arm64-upstream' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/arm64/linux: (64 commits)
  arm64/mm: Fix pud_user_accessible_page() for PGTABLE_LEVELS <= 2
  arm64/mm: Add uffd write-protect support
  arm64/mm: Move PTE_PRESENT_INVALID to overlay PTE_NG
  arm64/mm: Remove PTE_PROT_NONE bit
  arm64/mm: generalize PMD_PRESENT_INVALID for all levels
  arm64: simplify arch_static_branch/_jump function
  arm64: Add USER_STACKTRACE support
  arm64: Add the arm64.no32bit_el0 command line option
  drivers/perf: hisi: hns3: Actually use devm_add_action_or_reset()
  drivers/perf: hisi: hns3: Fix out-of-bound access when valid event group
  drivers/perf: hisi_pcie: Fix out-of-bound access when valid event group
  kselftest: arm64: Add a null pointer check
  arm64: defer clearing DAIF.D
  arm64: assembler: update stale comment for disable_step_tsk
  arm64/sysreg: Update PIE permission encodings
  kselftest/arm64: Remove unused parameters in abi test
  perf/arm-spe: Assign parents for event_source device
  perf/arm-smmuv3: Assign parents for event_source device
  perf/arm-dsu: Assign parents for event_source device
  perf/arm-dmc620: Assign parents for event_source device
  ...

rust: upgrade to Rust 1.78.0

2024-05-05T18:17:25+00:00

This is the next upgrade to the Rust toolchain, from 1.77.1 to 1.78.0
(i.e. the latest) [1].

See the upgrade policy [2] and the comments on the first upgrade in
commit 3ed03f4da06e ("rust: upgrade to Rust 1.68.2").

It is much smaller than previous upgrades, since the `alloc` fork was
dropped in commit 9d0441bab775 ("rust: alloc: remove our fork of the
`alloc` crate") [3].

# Unstable features

There have been no changes to the set of unstable features used in
our own code. Therefore, the only unstable features allowed to be used
outside the `kernel` crate is still `new_uninit`.

However, since we finally dropped our `alloc` fork [3], all the unstable
features used by `alloc` (~30 language ones, ~60 library ones) are not
a concern anymore. This reduces the maintenance burden, increases the
chances of new compiler versions working without changes and gets us
closer to the goal of supporting several compiler versions.

It also means that, ignoring non-language/library features, we are
currently left with just the few language features needed to implement the
kernel `Arc`, the `new_uninit` library feature, the `compiler_builtins`
marker and the few `no_*` `cfg`s we pass when compiling `core`/`alloc`.

Please see [4] for details.

# Required changes

## LLVM's data layout

Rust 1.77.0 (i.e. the previous upgrade) introduced a check for matching
LLVM data layouts [5]. Then, Rust 1.78.0 upgraded LLVM's bundled major
version from 17 to 18 [6], which changed the data layout in x86 [7]. Thus
update the data layout in our custom target specification for x86 so
that the compiler does not complain about the mismatch:

    error: data-layout for target `target-5559158138856098584`,
    `e-m:e-p270:32:32-p271:32:32-p272:64:64-i64:64-f80:128-n8:16:32:64-S128`,
    differs from LLVM target's `x86_64-linux-gnu` default layout,
    `e-m:e-p270:32:32-p271:32:32-p272:64:64-i64:64-i128:128-f80:128-n8:16:32:64-S128`

In the future, the goal is to drop the custom target specifications.
Meanwhile, if we want to support other LLVM versions used in `rustc`
(e.g. for LTO), we will need to add some extra logic (e.g. conditional on
LLVM's version, or extracting the data layout from an existing built-in
target specification).

## `unused_imports`

Rust's `unused_imports` lint covers both unused and redundant imports.
Now, in 1.78.0, the lint detects more cases of redundant imports [8].
Thus one of the previous patches cleaned them up.

## Clippy's `new_without_default`

Clippy now suggests to implement `Default` even when `new()` is `const`,
since `Default::default()` may call `const` functions even if it is not
`const` itself [9]. Thus one of the previous patches implemented it.

# Other changes in Rust

Rust 1.78.0 introduced `feature(asm_goto)` [10] [11]. This feature was
discussed in the past [12].

Rust 1.78.0 introduced `feature(const_refs_to_static)` [13] to allow
referencing statics in constants and extended `feature(const_mut_refs)`
to allow raw mutable pointers in constants. Together, this should cover
the kernel's `VTABLE` use case. In fact, the implementation [14] in
upstream Rust added a test case for it [15].

Rust 1.78.0 with debug assertions enabled (i.e. `-Cdebug-assertions=y`,
kernel's `CONFIG_RUST_DEBUG_ASSERTIONS=y`) now always checks all unsafe
preconditions, though without a way to opt-out for particular cases [16].
It would be ideal to have a way to selectively disable certain checks
per-call site for this one (i.e. not just per check but for particular
instances of a check), even if the vast majority of the checks remain
in place [17].

Rust 1.78.0 also improved a couple issues we reported when giving feedback
for the new `--check-cfg` feature [18] [19].

# `alloc` upgrade and reviewing

As mentioned above, compiler upgrades will not update `alloc` anymore,
since we dropped our `alloc` fork [3].

Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/stable/RELEASES.md#version-1780-2024-05-02 [1]
Link: https://rust-for-linux.com/rust-version-policy [2]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/20240328013603.206764-1-wedsonaf@gmail.com/ [3]
Link: https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/linux/issues/2 [4]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/120062 [5]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/120055 [6]
Link: https://reviews.llvm.org/D86310 [7]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/117772 [8]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust-clippy/pull/10903 [9]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/119365 [10]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/119364 [11]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/ZWipTZysC2YL7qsq@Boquns-Mac-mini.home/ [12]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/119618 [13]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/120932 [14]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/120932/files#diff-e6fc1622c46054cd46b1d225c5386c5554564b3b0fa8a03c2dc2d8627a1079d9 [15]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/120969 [16]
Link: https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/linux/issues/354 [17]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/121202 [18]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/121237 [19]
Reviewed-by: Alice Ryhl 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240401212303.537355-4-ojeda@kernel.org
[ Added a few more details and links I mentioned in the list. - Miguel ]
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda

arm64: boot: Support Flat Image Tree

2024-04-12T14:48:32+00:00

Add a script which produces a Flat Image Tree (FIT), a single file
containing the built kernel and associated devicetree files.
Compression defaults to gzip which gives a good balance of size and
performance.

The files compress from about 86MB to 24MB using this approach.

The FIT can be used by bootloaders which support it, such as U-Boot
and Linuxboot. It permits automatic selection of the correct
devicetree, matching the compatible string of the running board with
the closest compatible string in the FIT. There is no need for
filenames or other workarounds.

Add a 'make image.fit' build target for arm64, as well.

The FIT can be examined using 'dumpimage -l'.

This uses the 'dtbs-list' file but processes only .dtb files, ignoring
the overlay .dtbo files.

This features requires pylibfdt (use 'pip install libfdt'). It also
requires compression utilities for the algorithm being used. Supported
compression options are the same as the Image.xxx files. Use
FIT_COMPRESSION to select an algorithm other than gzip.

While FIT supports a ramdisk / initrd, no attempt is made to support
this here, since it must be built separately from the Linux build.

Signed-off-by: Simon Glass 
Acked-by: Masahiro Yamada 
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240329032836.141899-3-sjg@chromium.org
Signed-off-by: Will Deacon

rust: upgrade to Rust 1.77.1

2024-03-29T19:12:30+00:00

This is the next upgrade to the Rust toolchain, from 1.76.0 to 1.77.1
(i.e. the latest) [1].

See the upgrade policy [2] and the comments on the first upgrade in
commit 3ed03f4da06e ("rust: upgrade to Rust 1.68.2").

# Unstable features

The `offset_of` feature (single-field `offset_of!`) that we were using
got stabilized in Rust 1.77.0 [3].

Therefore, now the only unstable features allowed to be used outside the
`kernel` crate is `new_uninit`, though other code to be upstreamed may
increase the list.

Please see [4] for details.

# Required changes

Rust 1.77.0 merged the `unused_tuple_struct_fields` lint into `dead_code`,
thus upgrading it from `allow` to `warn` [5]. In turn, this made `rustc`
complain about the `ThisModule`'s pointer field being never read, but
the previous patch adds the `as_ptr` method to it, needed by Binder [6],
so that we do not need to locally `allow` it.

# Other changes

Rust 1.77.0 introduces the `--check-cfg` feature [7], for which there
is a Call for Testing going on [8]. We were requested to test it and
we found it useful [9] -- we will likely enable it in the future.

# `alloc` upgrade and reviewing

The vast majority of changes are due to our `alloc` fork being upgraded
at once.

There are two kinds of changes to be aware of: the ones coming from
upstream, which we should follow as closely as possible, and the updates
needed in our added fallible APIs to keep them matching the newer
infallible APIs coming from upstream.

Instead of taking a look at the diff of this patch, an alternative
approach is reviewing a diff of the changes between upstream `alloc` and
the kernel's. This allows to easily inspect the kernel additions only,
especially to check if the fallible methods we already have still match
the infallible ones in the new version coming from upstream.

Another approach is reviewing the changes introduced in the additions in
the kernel fork between the two versions. This is useful to spot
potentially unintended changes to our additions.

To apply these approaches, one may follow steps similar to the following
to generate a pair of patches that show the differences between upstream
Rust and the kernel (for the subset of `alloc` we use) before and after
applying this patch:

# Get the difference with respect to the old version.
git -C rust checkout $(linux/scripts/min-tool-version.sh rustc)
git -C linux ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD -- rust/alloc |
cut -d/ -f3- |
grep -Fv README.md |
xargs -IPATH cp rust/library/alloc/src/PATH linux/rust/alloc/PATH
git -C linux diff --patch-with-stat --summary -R > old.patch
git -C linux restore rust/alloc

# Apply this patch.
git -C linux am rust-upgrade.patch

# Get the difference with respect to the new version.
git -C rust checkout $(linux/scripts/min-tool-version.sh rustc)
git -C linux ls-tree -r --name-only HEAD -- rust/alloc |
cut -d/ -f3- |
grep -Fv README.md |
xargs -IPATH cp rust/library/alloc/src/PATH linux/rust/alloc/PATH
git -C linux diff --patch-with-stat --summary -R > new.patch
git -C linux restore rust/alloc

Now one may check the `new.patch` to take a look at the additions (first
approach) or at the difference between those two patches (second
approach). For the latter, a side-by-side tool is recommended.

Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/blob/stable/RELEASES.md#version-1770-2024-03-21 [1]
Link: https://rust-for-linux.com/rust-version-policy [2]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/118799 [3]
Link: https://github.com/Rust-for-Linux/linux/issues/2 [4]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/pull/118297 [5]
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/rust-for-linux/20231101-rust-binder-v1-2-08ba9197f637@google.com/#Z31rust:kernel:lib.rs [6]
Link: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nightly/unstable-book/compiler-flags/check-cfg.html [7]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rfcs/pull/3013#issuecomment-1936648479 [8]
Link: https://github.com/rust-lang/rust/issues/82450#issuecomment-1947462977 [9]
Reviewed-by: Alice Ryhl
Tested-by: Boqun Feng
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240217002717.57507-1-ojeda@kernel.org
[ Upgraded to 1.77.1. Removed `allow(dead_code)` thanks to the previous
patch. Reworded accordingly. No changes to `alloc` during the beta. ]
Signed-off-by: Miguel Ojeda