diff --git a/tools/objtool/check.c b/tools/objtool/check.c
index 3a31b238f885..38047c6aa575 100644
--- a/tools/objtool/check.c
+++ b/tools/objtool/check.c
@@ -543,6 +543,28 @@ static int add_jump_destinations(struct objtool_file *file)
 				  dest_off);
 			return -1;
 		}
+
+		/*
+		 * For GCC 8+, create parent/child links for any cold
+		 * subfunctions.  This is _mostly_ redundant with a similar
+		 * initialization in read_symbols().
+		 *
+		 * If a function has aliases, we want the *first* such function
+		 * in the symbol table to be the subfunction's parent.  In that
+		 * case we overwrite the initialization done in read_symbols().
+		 *
+		 * However this code can't completely replace the
+		 * read_symbols() code because this doesn't detect the case
+		 * where the parent function's only reference to a subfunction
+		 * is through a switch table.
+		 */
+		if (insn->func && insn->jump_dest->func &&
+		    insn->func != insn->jump_dest->func &&
+		    !strstr(insn->func->name, ".cold.") &&
+		    strstr(insn->jump_dest->func->name, ".cold.")) {
+			insn->func->cfunc = insn->jump_dest->func;
+			insn->jump_dest->func->pfunc = insn->func;
+		}
 	}
 
 	return 0;