Re: [PATCH] x86: static_cpu_has_safe: discard dynamic check after init

[Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>]

On Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 07:51:07PM +0100, Borislav Petkov wrote:
>   [45] .static_cpu_has   PROGBITS         ffffffff97aa655b  16ea655b
>        00000000000002df  0000000000000000  AX       0     0     1

Ok, staring at this section was wrong. I went and looked at
the .s file and now it clicked: gcc inlines those calls to
__static_cpu_has_safe of the dynamic jump target:

        .loc 4 538 0
        movl    $125, %edi      #,
        call    __static_cpu_has_safe   #
.LBE885:
.LBE886:
.LBE914:
        .loc 1 240 0
        testb   %al, %al        # D.30157
        je      .L150   #,
        jmp     .L151   #
.L152:
.LBB915:
.LBB909:
.LBB905:
.LBB893:
.LBB892:
        .loc 4 538 0
        movl    $154, %edi      #,
        call    __static_cpu_has_safe   #
.LBE892:
.LBE893:
.LBE905:
        .loc 7 431 0
        testb   %al, %al        # D.30157
        jne     .L154   #,

which turn into:

 751:   bf 7d 00 00 00          mov    $0x7d,%edi
 756:   e8 00 00 00 00          callq  75b <fpu__copy+0xab>
 75b:   84 c0                   test   %al,%al
 75d:   74 a3                   je     702 <fpu__copy+0x52>
 75f:   eb 90                   jmp    6f1 <fpu__copy+0x41>
 761:   bf 9a 00 00 00          mov    $0x9a,%edi
 766:   e8 00 00 00 00          callq  76b <fpu__copy+0xbb>
 76b:   84 c0                   test   %al,%al

That's like 28 bytes in this particular case, which is 14 per call site,
on average.

So grepping through my tailored vmlinux, it has 35 entries with
X86_FEATURE_ALWAYS in .altinstructions X 14 = 490 bytes.

So yeah, we probably should do this, allyesconfig should give more
savings.

One thing I'd probably do differently is not call the throwaway section
.static_cpu_has but something like .altinstr_temporary or so and put it
after the replacement insns:

        .altinstr_replacement : AT(ADDR(.altinstr_replacement) - LOAD_OFFSET) {
                *(.altinstr_replacement)
		*(.altinstr_temporary)
        }

so that we know those instructions belong to the alternatives mechanism.
They'll get discared too, of course.

I could just as well be talking a lot of crap, it is waay too late here.

-- 
Regards/Gruss,
    Boris.

SUSE Linux GmbH, GF: Felix Imendörffer, Jane Smithard, Graham Norton, HRB 21284 (AG Nürnberg)
--