From: david.laight.linux@gmail.com
To: "Willy Tarreau" <w@1wt.eu>,
"Thomas Weißschuh" <linux@weissschuh.net>,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, "Cheng Li" <lechain@gmail.com>
Cc: David Laight <david.laight.linux@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2 next 00/11] tools/nolibc: Enhance printf()
Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2026 19:11:10 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260206191121.3602-1-david.laight.linux@gmail.com> (raw)
From: David Laight <david.laight.linux@gmail.com>
Update printf() so that it handles almost all the non-fp formats.
In particular:
- Left alignment.
- Zero padding.
- Field precision.
- Variable field width and precision.
- Width modifiers q, L, t and z.
- Conversion specifiers i and X (X generates lower case).
About the only things that are missing are octal and floating point.
The tests are updated to match.
There is a slight increase in code size, but it is minimalised
by the the heavy use of bit-pattern matches.
vfprintf() is modified to buffer data for each call and do a single
write system call at the end.
This improves performance somewhat, but is actually most useful when
using strace.
Final bloat-o-meter output for nolibc-test using gcc 12.2 on x86-64:
add/remove: 2/2 grow/shrink: 8/2 up/down: 2189/-320 (1869)
Function old new delta
run_printf 1688 3121 +1433
utoa_r - 144 +144
u64toa_r - 144 +144
__nolibc_fprintf_cb 58 202 +144
expect_vfprintf 362 435 +73
__nolibc_printf 1081 1148 +67
prepare 600 657 +57
__nolibc_sprintf_cb 58 101 +43
printf 199 241 +42
dprintf.constprop 215 257 +42
snprintf.constprop 229 204 -25
result 157 107 -50
puts.isra 101 - -101
utoa_r.isra 144 - -144
Total: Before=32966, After=34835, chg +5.67%
u64toa_r() was previously inlined into __nolibc_printf() so
__nolibc_printf() actually increases by about 200 bytes.
The largest increases come from supporting variable field widths ("%*d")
(mostly the extra va_arg() call), the subtle difference between zero pad
("%06d") and field precision ("%6.6d"), and the special rules for zero.
The 50 bytes saved from result() are from changing it to use "%.*s".
This offsets most of the cost of supporting variable widths.
(It is also removes the only call to puts().)
Changes for v2:
Mostly changes to improve the readability of the code.
- New patch #1 inserted to rename the variable 'c' to 'ch'.
- Use #define 'magic' for the bit-masks that check multiple characters.
The check for the conversion flag characters is then based on:
ch_flag = _NOLIBC_PF_CHAR_IS_ONE_OF(ch, ' ', '#', '+', '-', '0');
- Re-order the changes so that the old patch 10 (Use bit-pattern for
integral formats) is done at the same time as bit-masks are used for
the flags characters and length modifiers.
This means the restructuring changes are done before new features are
added.
- Put all the changes to the selftest together at the end.
There is one extra test for ("%#01x", 0x1234) (should be "0x1234")
which is problematic because once you've removed the length of the "0x"
from the field width there are -1 character postions for the digits.
David Laight (11):
tools/nolibc/printf: Change variable used for format chars from 'c' to
'ch'
tools/nolibc/printf: Move snprintf length check to callback
tools/nolibc/printf: Add buffering to vfprintf() callback.
tools/nolibc/printf: Output pad characters in 16 byte chunks
tools/nolibc/printf: Simplify __nolibc_printf()
tools/nolibc/printf: Use bit-masks to hold requested flag, length and
conversion chars
tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for conversion flags "#- +" and
format "%X"
tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for zero padding and field precision
selftests/nolibc: Improve reporting of vfprintf() errors
selftests/nolibc: Increase coverage of printf format tests
selftests/nolibc: Use printf("%.*s", n, "") to align test output
tools/include/nolibc/stdio.h | 445 ++++++++++++++-----
tools/testing/selftests/nolibc/nolibc-test.c | 97 ++--
2 files changed, 386 insertions(+), 156 deletions(-)
--
2.39.5
next reply other threads:[~2026-02-06 19:11 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 60+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-02-06 19:11 david.laight.linux [this message]
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 01/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Change variable used for format chars from 'c' to 'ch' david.laight.linux
2026-02-07 18:51 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-16 18:52 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 02/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Move snprintf length check to callback david.laight.linux
2026-02-07 19:12 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-07 23:28 ` David Laight
2026-02-08 15:12 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-08 22:49 ` David Laight
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 03/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Add buffering to vfprintf() callback david.laight.linux
2026-02-07 19:29 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-07 23:36 ` David Laight
2026-02-16 19:07 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-17 11:51 ` David Laight
2026-02-18 17:52 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 04/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Output pad characters in 16 byte chunks david.laight.linux
2026-02-07 19:38 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-07 23:43 ` David Laight
2026-02-08 15:14 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-16 19:30 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 22:29 ` David Laight
2026-02-18 17:30 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 05/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Simplify __nolibc_printf() david.laight.linux
2026-02-07 20:05 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-07 23:50 ` David Laight
2026-02-08 12:20 ` David Laight
2026-02-08 14:44 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-08 16:54 ` David Laight
2026-02-08 17:06 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 06/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Use bit-masks to hold requested flag, length and conversion chars david.laight.linux
2026-02-08 15:22 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-16 19:52 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 22:47 ` David Laight
2026-02-18 17:36 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-18 22:57 ` David Laight
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 07/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for conversion flags "#- +" and format "%X" david.laight.linux
2026-02-08 15:47 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-08 17:14 ` David Laight
2026-02-08 16:06 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-16 19:57 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 22:50 ` David Laight
2026-02-18 17:39 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 20:11 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 22:52 ` David Laight
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 08/11] tools/nolibc/printf: Add support for zero padding and field precision david.laight.linux
2026-02-08 16:16 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-08 17:31 ` David Laight
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 09/11] selftests/nolibc: Improve reporting of vfprintf() errors david.laight.linux
2026-02-16 20:05 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-17 10:48 ` David Laight
2026-02-18 17:48 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 10/11] selftests/nolibc: Increase coverage of printf format tests david.laight.linux
2026-02-16 20:14 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 20:23 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-16 22:54 ` David Laight
2026-02-18 17:41 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-06 19:11 ` [PATCH v2 next 11/11] selftests/nolibc: Use printf("%.*s", n, "") to align output david.laight.linux
2026-02-08 16:20 ` Willy Tarreau
2026-02-16 20:22 ` Thomas Weißschuh
2026-02-06 21:36 ` [PATCH v2 next 00/11] tools/nolibc: Enhance printf() David Laight
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=20260206191121.3602-1-david.laight.linux@gmail.com \
--to=david.laight.linux@gmail.com \
--cc=lechain@gmail.com \
--cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
--cc=linux@weissschuh.net \
--cc=w@1wt.eu \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
This is an external index of several public inboxes,
see mirroring instructions on how to clone and mirror
all data and code used by this external index.