Re: [RFC PATCH 1/2] bits: introduce ffs_val()

[David Laight <david.laight.linux@gmail.com>]

On Fri, 09 Jan 2026 18:01:02 +0100
"Arnd Bergmann" <arnd@arndb.de> wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026, at 17:37, Petr Tesarik wrote:
> 
> > + * Returns:
> > + * least significant non-zero bit, 0 if all bits are zero
> > + */
> > +#define ffs_val(x)			\
> > +({					\
> > +	const typeof(x) val__ = (x);	\
> > +	val__ & -val__;			\
> > +})  
> 
> This looks good to me, but I'd suggest using 'const auto val__'
> instead of typeof(), to reduce expanding complex arguments twice.

It is more usual to just use a single _ prefix and the same name.
I wouldn't bother with 'const' either, maybe:
#define ffs_val(val) ({  \
	auto _val = val; \
	_val & -_val;    \
})

However it isn't necessarily better than using __ffs().
FIELD_PREP(mask, val) (for non-constant mask) can be (mask & -mask) * val
or val << __ffs(mask).
So the 'ffs' version is fewer instructions (assuming non-zero mask).
The timings for bsf/bsr are similar to those for imul on intel cpu,
mul wins on zen3 and bsf/bsr on zen4.
On balance the __ffs() version is actually likely to be faster.

Other architectures may fair better or worse.
Clearly you don't want to use __ffs() unless it is a single instruction.

Of course, for FIELD_GET(reg, mask) you'd need reg/(mask & -mask)
and the cost of the integer division is far more than __ffs().
(But that will give you a compile-time error if mask is a constant zero
and the compiler will convert the divide to a shift.)

And for 64bit calculations on 32bit 'all bets are off'.
Even the shift left might be problematic.

	David

> 
>     Arnd
>