* [PATCH v2 1/2] bpf, doc: Clarify Pseudo-C notation and w vs r register usage
2026-04-02 22:13 [PATCH v2 0/2] BPF documentation improvements Vineet Gupta
@ 2026-04-02 22:13 ` Vineet Gupta
2026-04-02 22:13 ` [PATCH v2 2/2] bpf, doc: Improve MOV/MOVSX documentation and add examples Vineet Gupta
1 sibling, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Vineet Gupta @ 2026-04-02 22:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: bpf; +Cc: bpf, jose.marchesi, ast, Eduard Zingerman, Yonghong Song,
Vineet Gupta
As a newcomer to BPF ecosystem I was confused with Pseudo-C being the
actual assembly. And while it's obvious now that w and r forms represent
32-bit and 64-bit regs respectively, it's better to call this out in
documentation explicitly and make it more newbie-proof.
Signed-off-by: Vineet Gupta <vineet.gupta@linux.dev>
---
Changes since v1
- Address review comments from AI CI-bot
---
.../bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst | 14 +++++++++++---
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst b/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst
index 39c74611752b..96181565906f 100644
--- a/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst
+++ b/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst
@@ -315,13 +315,21 @@ For arithmetic and jump instructions (``ALU``, ``ALU64``, ``JMP`` and
Arithmetic instructions
-----------------------
-``ALU`` uses 32-bit wide operands while ``ALU64`` uses 64-bit wide operands for
-otherwise identical operations. ``ALU64`` instructions belong to the
+``ALU`` uses 32-bit wide operands ('w' registers in assembly) while
+``ALU64`` uses 64-bit wide operands ('r' registers) for otherwise
+identical operations. ``ALU64`` instructions belong to the
base64 conformance group unless noted otherwise.
-The 'code' field encodes the operation as below, where 'src' refers to the
+The 'code' field encodes the operation as below, where 'src' refers to
the source operand and 'dst' refers to the value of the destination
register.
+.. note:: BPF ISA is unique as it uses "Pseudo-C" notation for the assembly
+ instructions. In the table below, the column "name" specifies the
+ encoding names. Assembly instructions (as generated by compilers)
+ are specified in the description column for some cases. Description
+ of ``DIV/SDIV``, ``MOD/SMOD`` includes additional semantic logic,
+ not actual assembly.
+
.. table:: Arithmetic instructions
===== ===== ======= ===================================================================================
--
2.53.0
^ permalink raw reply related [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread* [PATCH v2 2/2] bpf, doc: Improve MOV/MOVSX documentation and add examples
2026-04-02 22:13 [PATCH v2 0/2] BPF documentation improvements Vineet Gupta
2026-04-02 22:13 ` [PATCH v2 1/2] bpf, doc: Clarify Pseudo-C notation and w vs r register usage Vineet Gupta
@ 2026-04-02 22:13 ` Vineet Gupta
2026-04-03 5:27 ` bot+bpf-ci
1 sibling, 1 reply; 4+ messages in thread
From: Vineet Gupta @ 2026-04-02 22:13 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: bpf; +Cc: bpf, jose.marchesi, ast, Eduard Zingerman, Yonghong Song,
Vineet Gupta
- Add missing form {MOV, K, ALU}.
- Add some assembly (pseudo-C) snippets.
- Rearrange: MOV content comes before MOVSX.
- MOVSX content itself rearranged: canonical sign extension variant
for {8,16,32}-> 64 moved ahead of the special variant which only
sign extends to 32 and zeroes out the upper bits.
- Remove the hyphen '-' in "sign-extension" to make grep hit all
instances with one pattern.
Signed-off-by: Vineet Gupta <vineet.gupta@linux.dev>
---
Changes since v1
- Address review comments from AI CI-bot
- Added missing {MOV, K, ALU}
---
.../bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst | 47 +++++++++++++++----
1 file changed, 37 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst b/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst
index 96181565906f..c55628448898 100644
--- a/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst
+++ b/Documentation/bpf/standardization/instruction-set.rst
@@ -414,25 +414,52 @@ etc. This specification requires that signed modulo MUST use truncated division
a % n = a - n * trunc(a / n)
-The ``MOVSX`` instruction does a move operation with sign extension.
-``{MOVSX, X, ALU}`` :term:`sign extends<Sign Extend>` 8-bit and 16-bit operands into
-32-bit operands, and zeroes the remaining upper 32 bits.
-``{MOVSX, X, ALU64}`` :term:`sign extends<Sign Extend>` 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit
-operands into 64-bit operands. Unlike other arithmetic instructions,
-``MOVSX`` is only defined for register source operands (``X``).
+For move operations, the ``MOV`` instruction has a few different forms.
+
+``{MOV, X, ALU64}`` means::
+
+ dst = src
+
+e.g. ``r1 = r2``
``{MOV, K, ALU64}`` means::
dst = (s64)imm
-``{MOV, X, ALU}`` means::
+e.g. ``r1 = -4``
+ ``r5 = 9282009``
+
+``{MOV, K, ALU}`` means::
+
+ dst = (u32)imm
+
+e.g. ``w1 = -4``
+ ``w5 = 7302004``
+
+``{MOV, X, ALU}`` has zero extension semantics (upper 32 bits are zeroed)::
dst = (u32)src
+e.g. w5 = w9
+
+The ``MOVSX`` instruction does a move operation with sign extension and has
+a couple of forms.
+
+``{MOVSX, X, ALU64}`` :term:`sign extends<Sign Extend>` 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit
+operands into 64-bit operands.
+
+e.g. ``r1 = (s8)r2``
+
+The ``{MOVSX, X, ALU}`` form has slightly different semantics: it
+:term:`sign extends<Sign Extend>` 8-bit and 16-bit operands into
+32-bit operands, and zeroes the remaining upper 32 bits (similar to ``MOV``).
+
``{MOVSX, X, ALU}`` with 'offset' 8 means::
dst = (u32)(s32)(s8)src
+Unlike other arithmetic instructions,
+``MOVSX`` is only defined for register source operands (``X``).
The ``NEG`` instruction is only defined when the source bit is clear
(``K``).
@@ -605,7 +632,7 @@ For load and store instructions (``LD``, ``LDX``, ``ST``, and ``STX``), the
ABS 1 legacy BPF packet access (absolute) `Legacy BPF Packet access instructions`_
IND 2 legacy BPF packet access (indirect) `Legacy BPF Packet access instructions`_
MEM 3 regular load and store operations `Regular load and store operations`_
- MEMSX 4 sign-extension load operations `Sign-extension load operations`_
+ MEMSX 4 sign extension load operations `Sign extension load operations`_
ATOMIC 6 atomic operations `Atomic operations`_
============= ===== ==================================== =============
@@ -649,10 +676,10 @@ instructions that transfer data between a register and memory.
Where '<size>' is one of: ``B``, ``H``, ``W``, or ``DW``, and
'unsigned size' is one of: u8, u16, u32, or u64.
-Sign-extension load operations
+Sign extension load operations
------------------------------
-The ``MEMSX`` mode modifier is used to encode :term:`sign-extension<Sign Extend>` load
+The ``MEMSX`` mode modifier is used to encode :term:`sign extension<Sign Extend>` load
instructions that transfer data between a register and memory.
``{MEMSX, <size>, LDX}`` means::
--
2.53.0
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