[PATCH RFC] selftests: kvm: fix sync_regs_test with newer gccs

From: Vitaly Kuznetsov
Date: Tue Oct 08 2019 - 10:57:21 EST


Commit 204c91eff798a ("KVM: selftests: do not blindly clobber registers in
guest asm") was intended to make test more gcc-proof, however, the result
is exactly the opposite: on newer gccs (e.g. 8.2.1) the test breaks with

==== Test Assertion Failure ====
x86_64/sync_regs_test.c:168: run->s.regs.regs.rbx == 0xBAD1DEA + 1
pid=14170 tid=14170 - Invalid argument
1 0x00000000004015b3: main at sync_regs_test.c:166 (discriminator 6)
2 0x00007f413fb66412: ?? ??:0
3 0x000000000040191d: _start at ??:?
rbx sync regs value incorrect 0x1.

Disassembly show the following:

00000000004019e0 <guest_code>:
4019e0: 55 push %rbp
4019e1: 89 dd mov %ebx,%ebp
4019e3: 53 push %rbx
4019e4: 48 83 ec 08 sub $0x8,%rsp
4019e8: 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 nopl 0x0(%rax,%rax,1)
4019ef: 00
4019f0: 31 c9 xor %ecx,%ecx
4019f2: ba 10 90 40 00 mov $0x409010,%edx
4019f7: be 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%esi
4019fc: 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
4019fe: bf 01 00 00 00 mov $0x1,%edi
401a03: 83 c5 01 add $0x1,%ebp
401a06: e8 15 2b 00 00 callq 404520 <ucall>
401a0b: 89 eb mov %ebp,%ebx
401a0d: eb e1 jmp 4019f0 <guest_code+0x10>
401a0f: 90 nop

and apparently this is broken. If we add 'volatile' qualifier to 'stage'
we get the following code:

00000000004019e0 <guest_code>:
4019e0: 53 push %rbx
4019e1: 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 nopl 0x0(%rax)
4019e8: 31 c9 xor %ecx,%ecx
4019ea: ba 10 90 40 00 mov $0x409010,%edx
4019ef: be 02 00 00 00 mov $0x2,%esi
4019f4: 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
4019f6: bf 01 00 00 00 mov $0x1,%edi
4019fb: 83 c3 01 add $0x1,%ebx
4019fe: e8 1d 2b 00 00 callq 404520 <ucall>
401a03: eb e3 jmp 4019e8 <guest_code+0x8>
401a05: 66 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 data16 nopw %cs:0x0(%rax,%rax,1)
401a0c: 00 00 00 00

and everything seems to work. The only problem is that I now get a new
warning from gcc:

x86_64/sync_regs_test.c: In function âguest_codeâ:
x86_64/sync_regs_test.c:25:6: warning: optimization may eliminate reads
and/or writes to register variables [-Wvolatile-register-var]

checkpatch.pl doesn't like me either:

"WARNING: Use of volatile is usually wrong: see
Documentation/process/volatile-considered-harmful.rst"

I can think of an 'ultimate' solution to open code ucall() in a single
asm block making sure the register we need is preserved but this looks
like an overkill.

Fixes: 204c91eff798a ("KVM: selftests: do not blindly clobber registers in guest asm")
Signed-off-by: Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86_64/sync_regs_test.c | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86_64/sync_regs_test.c b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86_64/sync_regs_test.c
index 11c2a70a7b87..25c54250d591 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86_64/sync_regs_test.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/kvm/x86_64/sync_regs_test.c
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ void guest_code(void)
* use a callee-save register, otherwise the compiler
* saves it around the call to GUEST_SYNC.
*/
- register u32 stage asm("rbx");
+ register volatile u32 stage asm("rbx");
for (;;) {
GUEST_SYNC(0);
stage++;
--
2.20.1