Re: [PATCH] powerpc/vdso: Provide clock_getres_time64()

Christophe Leroy (CS GROUP)
2026-01-22T11:31:42Z

Le 22/01/2026 à 12:07, Thomas Weißschuh a écrit :
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 11:58:04AM +0100, Christophe Leroy (CS GROUP) wrote:
>>
>>
>> Le 22/01/2026 à 11:49, Thomas Weißschuh a écrit :
>>> On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 11:27:43AM +0100, Christophe Leroy (CS GROUP) wrote:
>>>> Hi Thomas,
>>>>
>>>> Le 22/01/2026 à 10:50, Thomas Weißschuh a écrit :
>>>>> Hi Alexander,
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 09:39:09AM +0000, Sverdlin, Alexander wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Thomas, Christophe,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, 2026-01-14 at 08:26 +0100, Thomas Weißschuh wrote:
>>>>>>> For consistency with __vdso_clock_gettime64() there should also be a
>>>>>>> 64-bit variant of clock_getres(). This will allow the extension of
>>>>>>> CONFIG_COMPAT_32BIT_TIME to the vDSO and finally the removal of 32-bit
>>>>>>> time types from the kernel and UAPI.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Thomas Weißschuh <thomas.weissschuh@linutronix.de>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've bisected this patch to cause the following build failure on my side:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> LDS arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.lds
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/sigtramp32-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/gettimeofday-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/datapage-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/cacheflush-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/note-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/getcpu-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/getrandom-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vgetrandom-chacha-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32C arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vgettimeofday-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32C arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vgetrandom-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32A arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/crtsavres-32.o
>>>>>> VDSO32L arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.so.dbg
>>>>>> arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.so.dbg: dynamic relocations are not supported
>>>>>> make[2]: *** [arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/Makefile:79: arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.so.dbg] Error 1
>>>>>> make[1]: *** [arch/powerpc/Makefile:388: vdso_prepare] Error 2
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for the report!
>>>>>
>>>>>> Does it ring any bells? What could I try/test?
>>>>>
>>>>> Not immediately, but I'll look into it.
>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm using gcc-15.2.0 and binutils 2.45.1.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is this a toolchain from https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.kernel.org%2Fpub%2Ftools%2Fcrosstool%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cchristophe.leroy%40csgroup.eu%7C7f1accdfc7ef4d8ea82c08de59a664b8%7C8b87af7d86474dc78df45f69a2011bb5%7C0%7C0%7C639046768343248286%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7WB%2FCB2ZDhP9bD0GYwEftyRwfDCoRwuQ5uMA98JhfmE%3D&reserved=0 ?
>>>>> Could you also share your configuration?
>>>>
>>>> I've just been able to reproduce it with ppc64_defconfig +
>>>> CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE
>>>
>>> Thanks for the hint, no I can reproduce it, too.
>>>>
>>>> VDSO32L arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.so.dbg
>>>> arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.so.dbg: dynamic relocations are not
>>>> supported
>>>> make[2]: *** [arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/Makefile:79:
>>>> arch/powerpc/kernel/vdso/vdso32.so.dbg] Error 1
>>>> make[1]: *** [arch/powerpc/Makefile:388: vdso_prepare] Error 2
>>>> make: *** [Makefile:248: __sub-make] Error 2
>>>>
>>>> I'll investigate
>>>
>>> It seems the compiler decides to call memset(), which is not valid from the
>>> vDSO. We are are using -ffreestanding. Disabling CONFIG_INIT_STACK_ALL_ZERO
>>> fixes the issue. So I guess we should a) figure out why -ffreestanding does
>>> not seem to work here and b) exclude the vDSO from the stack initialization
>>> logic.
>>>
>>
>> Ah, ok.
>>
>> Reminds me commit b91c8c42ffdd ("lib/vdso: Force inlining of
>> __cvdso_clock_gettime_common()")
>
> Good pointer.
>
>> Problem fixed with:
>>
>> diff --git a/lib/vdso/gettimeofday.c b/lib/vdso/gettimeofday.c
>> index 95df0153f05ab..4399e143d43a5 100644
>> --- a/lib/vdso/gettimeofday.c
>> +++ b/lib/vdso/gettimeofday.c
>> @@ -421,7 +421,7 @@ static __maybe_unused __kernel_old_time_t
>> __cvdso_time(__kernel_old_time_t *time
>> #endif /* VDSO_HAS_TIME */
>>
>> #ifdef VDSO_HAS_CLOCK_GETRES
>> -static __maybe_unused
>> +static __always_inline
>> bool __cvdso_clock_getres_common(const struct vdso_time_data *vd, clockid_t
>> clock,
>> struct __kernel_timespec *res)
>> {
>
> Do you want to run the measurements for this one, too and submit a fix?
> This should get us past the immediate breakage.

I'm travelling at the moment and won't be able to come with measurement
before next month. But the performance degradation is obvious.

With the fix, the function is stackless:

00000728 <__c_kernel_clock_getres>:
728: 28 03 00 17 cmplwi r3,23
72c: 41 81 00 50 bgt 77c <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x54>
730: 81 45 00 04 lwz r10,4(r5)
734: 6d 49 80 00 xoris r9,r10,32768
738: 2c 09 ff ff cmpwi r9,-1
73c: 40 82 00 08 bne 744 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x1c>
740: 3c a5 00 01 addis r5,r5,1
744: 39 20 00 01 li r9,1
748: 7d 29 18 30 slw r9,r9,r3
74c: 71 2a 08 93 andi. r10,r9,2195
750: 41 82 00 18 beq 768 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x40>
754: 81 25 08 c8 lwz r9,2248(r5)
758: 2c 04 00 00 cmpwi r4,0
75c: 40 82 00 40 bne 79c <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x74>
760: 38 60 00 00 li r3,0
764: 4e 80 00 20 blr
768: 71 2a 00 60 andi. r10,r9,96
76c: 40 82 00 24 bne 790 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x68>
770: 75 29 00 ff andis. r9,r9,255
774: 39 20 00 01 li r9,1
778: 40 82 ff e0 bne 758 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x30>
77c: 38 00 00 f7 li r0,247
780: 44 00 00 02 sc
784: 40 e3 00 08 bns+ 78c <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x64>
788: 7c 63 00 d0 neg r3,r3
78c: 4e 80 00 20 blr
790: 3d 20 00 0f lis r9,15
794: 61 29 42 40 ori r9,r9,16960
798: 4b ff ff c0 b 758 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x30>
79c: 39 40 00 00 li r10,0
7a0: 91 24 00 04 stw r9,4(r4)
7a4: 91 44 00 00 stw r10,0(r4)
7a8: 4b ff ff b8 b 760 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x38>

Without the fix, see below, __c_kernel_clock_getres() has to setup a
stack in order to call __cvdso_clock_getres_common(), and in addition we
see that __cvdso_clock_getres_common() is more or less the same size as
__c_kernel_clock_getres() above, so time increase unquestionable.

00000000 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common>:
0: 28 04 00 17 cmplwi r4,23
4: 41 81 00 8c bgt 90 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x90>
8: 81 43 00 04 lwz r10,4(r3)
c: 6d 49 80 00 xoris r9,r10,32768
10: 2c 09 ff ff cmpwi r9,-1
14: 40 82 00 08 bne 1c <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x1c>
18: 3c 63 00 01 addis r3,r3,1
1c: 39 20 00 01 li r9,1
20: 7d 24 20 30 slw r4,r9,r4
24: 70 89 08 93 andi. r9,r4,2195
28: 41 82 00 34 beq 5c <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x5c>
2c: 81 23 08 c8 lwz r9,2248(r3)
30: 39 40 00 00 li r10,0
34: 2c 05 00 00 cmpwi r5,0
38: 41 82 00 1c beq 54 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x54>
3c: 38 c0 00 00 li r6,0
40: 38 e0 00 00 li r7,0
44: 91 45 00 08 stw r10,8(r5)
48: 91 25 00 0c stw r9,12(r5)
4c: 90 c5 00 00 stw r6,0(r5)
50: 90 e5 00 04 stw r7,4(r5)
54: 38 60 00 01 li r3,1
58: 48 00 00 20 b 78 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x78>
5c: 70 89 00 60 andi. r9,r4,96
60: 40 82 00 20 bne 80 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x80>
64: 74 84 00 ff andis. r4,r4,255
68: 38 60 00 00 li r3,0
6c: 39 40 00 00 li r10,0
70: 39 20 00 01 li r9,1
74: 40 82 ff c0 bne 34 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x34>
78: 54 63 07 fe clrlwi r3,r3,31
7c: 4e 80 00 20 blr
80: 3d 20 00 0f lis r9,15
84: 39 40 00 00 li r10,0
88: 61 29 42 40 ori r9,r9,16960
8c: 4b ff ff a8 b 34 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x34>
90: 38 60 00 00 li r3,0
94: 4b ff ff e4 b 78 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common+0x78>

000007c0 <__c_kernel_clock_getres>:
7c0: 94 21 ff d0 stwu r1,-48(r1)
7c4: 7c 08 02 a6 mflr r0
7c8: bf a1 00 24 stmw r29,36(r1)
7cc: 7c 7e 1b 78 mr r30,r3
7d0: 7c bd 2b 78 mr r29,r5
7d4: 7c 9f 23 78 mr r31,r4
7d8: 38 a0 00 10 li r5,16
7dc: 90 01 00 34 stw r0,52(r1)
7e0: 38 80 00 00 li r4,0
7e4: 38 61 00 08 addi r3,r1,8
7e8: 48 00 00 01 bl 7e8 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x28>
7e8: R_PPC_REL24 memset
7ec: 7f c4 f3 78 mr r4,r30
7f0: 7f a3 eb 78 mr r3,r29
7f4: 38 a1 00 08 addi r5,r1,8
7f8: 4b ff f8 09 bl 0 <__cvdso_clock_getres_common>
7fc: 2c 03 00 00 cmpwi r3,0
800: 40 82 00 24 bne 824 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x64>
804: 38 00 00 f7 li r0,247
808: 7f c3 f3 78 mr r3,r30
80c: 7f e4 fb 78 mr r4,r31
810: 44 00 00 02 sc
814: 40 e3 00 08 bns+ 81c <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x5c>
818: 7c 63 00 d0 neg r3,r3
81c: 39 61 00 30 addi r11,r1,48
820: 48 00 00 00 b 820 <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x60>
820: R_PPC_REL24 _restgpr_29_x
824: 2c 1f 00 00 cmpwi r31,0
828: 41 82 00 14 beq 83c <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x7c>
82c: 81 21 00 0c lwz r9,12(r1)
830: 91 3f 00 00 stw r9,0(r31)
834: 81 21 00 14 lwz r9,20(r1)
838: 91 3f 00 04 stw r9,4(r31)
83c: 38 60 00 00 li r3,0
840: 4b ff ff dc b 81c <__c_kernel_clock_getres+0x5c>

>
> I'll still try to get the stack initialization out of the vDSO.
> It might bite us at any time in the future. As these options are meant
> to prevent information leaks and the vDSO has no sensitive information in
> the first place, we might as well filter them out.

Well, from the first day we converted powerpc to C time vdso, we've done
our best in order to keep vdso stackless. So I'm not sure it is worth
dealing with the above. Indeed if keeping it as is helps us detect
everytime a change jeoperdises the stackless approach, that's not bad.

Christophe