Re: [PATCH 2/3] x86/hash: swap parameters of crc32_u32()

From: Jan Beulich
Date: Mon Feb 24 2014 - 07:41:47 EST


>>> On 24.02.14 at 13:32, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 02/24/2014 03:46 AM, Daniel Borkmann wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --- 3.14-rc3-x86-hash-crc32.orig/arch/x86/lib/hash.c
>>>>>>> +++ 3.14-rc3-x86-hash-crc32/arch/x86/lib/hash.c
>>>>>>> @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
>>>>>>> #include <asm/cpufeature.h>
>>>>>>> #include <asm/hash.h>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -static inline u32 crc32_u32(u32 crc, u32 val)
>>>>>>> +static inline u32 crc32_u32(u32 val, u32 crc)
>>>>>>> {
>>>>>>> #ifdef CONFIG_AS_CRC32
>>>>>>> asm ("crc32l %1,%0\n" : "+r" (crc) : "rm" (val));
>>>>>>
>
> OK, this whole tread is really confusing, but the change proposed seems
> actively wrong.
>
> First of all:
>
> static inline uint32_t
> rte_hash_crc_4byte(uint32_t data, uint32_t init_val)
> {
> return _mm_crc32_u32(data, init_val);
> }
>
> ... from the DPDK code is confusing all by itself, because the
> definition of the _mm_crc32_u32() intrinsic per the Intel SDM is:
>
> unsigned int _mm_crc32_u32(unsigned int crc, unsigned int data);
>
> ... where "crc" is the destination operand, i.e. the accumulator if you
> actually would be computing a CRC32C.
>
> So I'm guessing this hash is deliberately using the CRC32 instruction
> "backwards", which would actually make sense: an actual CRC is actually
> a pretty poor hash due to linearity.
>
> This has confused people elsewhere, too:
>
> http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.networking.dpdk.devel/954
>
> So if this is a bug it is a bug in the upstream code, but I'm guessing
> the operand reversal is intentional.

Ah, right. So the issue really is that this should have been stated
somewhere explicitly, avoiding the confusion.

> Therefore, this patch should be actively NAKed.
>
> Nacked-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@xxxxxxxxx>

Agreed based on the above.

Jan

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