Re: [RFC,v2] x86_64: save_args out of line

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Wed Nov 19 2008 - 05:34:44 EST



* Roland McGrath <roland@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > but that's the exception. Most of the annotations could be
> > auto-generated.
>
> Not really. An implicit .cfi_undefined can be auto-generated for an
> unannotated instruction with an output register. An implicit
> .cfi_register can be auto-generated for an unannotated
> register-to-register move. An implicit .cfi_same_value can be
> auto-generated when you can tell a register is being written with
> the register or stack slot tha the current CFI state says holds the
> caller's value of that register. Beyond that, it gets into either
> assumptions or hairy analysis of how stack slots are being used and
> so forth.

i dont buy that argument at all.

Yes, of course full "no changes to the current code at all" automation
is hard.

But _at minimum_ GAS should automate a large part of this and help us
out syntactically: make it really easy to human-annotate instructions
in a _minimal way_. Also, automate the easy bits while at it. Plus
warn about missing annotations - nesting errors, etc. etc.

there's a ton of easy things GAS could do here that it does not do.

> [...] Explicit (but simple) macros in the assembly is what I favor.

Yeah. This is the second-best option - but has some limitations. Still
it is much better than what we have now.

What _clearly_ sucks is the current mess of:

CFI_ADJUST_CFA_OFFSET 8
/*CFI_REL_OFFSET ss,0*/
pushq %rax /* rsp */
CFI_ADJUST_CFA_OFFSET 8
CFI_REL_OFFSET rsp,0
pushq $(1<<9) /* eflags - interrupts on */
CFI_ADJUST_CFA_OFFSET 8
/*CFI_REL_OFFSET rflags,0*/
pushq $__KERNEL_CS /* cs */
CFI_ADJUST_CFA_OFFSET 8
/*CFI_REL_OFFSET cs,0*/
pushq \child_rip /* rip */
CFI_ADJUST_CFA_OFFSET 8
CFI_REL_OFFSET rip,0
pushq %rax /* orig rax */
CFI_ADJUST_CFA_OFFSET 8

Compared to what we could have (stupid mockup):

pushq_cf1 %rax /* rsp */
pushq_cf1 $(1<<9) /* eflags - interrupts on */
pushq_cf1 $__KERNEL_CS /* cs */
pushq_cf2 \child_rip /* rip */
pushq_cf1 %rax /* orig rax */

Whoever claims that this cannot be automated in _large_ part isnt
thinking it through really. Those CFI annotations should never have
been added in this form.

Ingo
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/