RE: [bp:tip-x86-alternatives 1/1] error[E0588]: packed type cannot transitively contain a `#[repr(align)]` type

[David Laight]

From: Borislav Petkov
> Sent: 12 January 2023 16:15
...
> > In this case, it gives:
> >
> >     A type with `packed` representation hint has a field with `align`
> >     representation hint.
> > ...
> 
> so the struct is:
> 
> struct alt_instr {
>         s32 instr_offset;       /* original instruction */
>         s32 repl_offset;        /* offset to replacement instruction */
> 
>         union {
>                 struct {
>                         u32 cpuid: 16;  /* CPUID bit set for replacement */
>                         u32 flags: 16;  /* patching control flags */
>                 };
>                 u32 ft_flags;
>         };
> 
>         u8  instrlen;           /* length of original instruction */
>         u8  replacementlen;     /* length of new instruction */
> } __packed;
> 
> and everything is naturally aligned.

While there would be no padding between any of the stricture members
that is largely irrelevant.
The __packed removes the two pad bytes from the end of the structure
and also tells the compiler that the structure itself may not be
aligned in memory.

So the bitfields can be misaligned in memory.
Quite why they are bitfields is anybodies guess, u16 would suffice.
Using u16 would also generate a known memory layout (bitfields are
best part of compiler defined - certainly not endianness defined.)

If the intent of the __packed is to save 2 bytes on every copy
of the structure then __packed __aligned(2) will have the same
effect while allowing the compiler to use 16-bit accesses.

	David

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