4k stacks

4k stacks

[linux-os (Dick Johnson)]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2110 bytes --]



Yesterday I sent a patch to add stack-poison so the stack usage
could be observed.

Today I wrote a small program and tested the stack usage. Both
the program and the patch is attached. The result is:

Offset : 2ec8f000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
Offset : 2ecb1000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
Offset : 2ee5f000	Available Stack bytes = 20
Offset : 2f36d000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
Offset : 2fd09000	Available Stack bytes = 3012
Offset : 2fd0b000	Available Stack bytes = 3312
Offset : 2fd0f000	Available Stack bytes = 2132
Offset : 2fd2f000	Available Stack bytes = 2744
Offset : 2fd57000	Available Stack bytes = 2900
Offset : 2fdd5000	Available Stack bytes = 1400
Offset : 2fe35000	Available Stack bytes = 2832
Offset : 2ff3f000	Available Stack bytes = 776
Offset : 2ff45000	Available Stack bytes = 3188

This, after compiling the kernel. I did not have 4k stacks
enabled for this test so any crashing of the stack beyond
one page will not hurt the system. This was on linux-2.6.13.4.

Anyway, I tried to enable 4k stacks and the machine would
not boot past trying to install the first module. It just
stopped with the interrupts disabled. So, I am now rebuilding
the kernel back as I write this. That's why I am using 2.6.13
at the moment.

Anyway, getting down to 20 bytes of stack-space available
seems to be pretty scary.


Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.13 on an i686 machine (5589.54 BogoMips).
Warning : 98.36% of all statistics are fiction.


****************************************************************
The information transmitted in this message is confidential and may be privileged.  Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient, please notify Analogic Corporation immediately - by replying to this message or by sending an email to DeliveryErrors@analogic.com - and destroy all copies of this information, including any attachments, without reading or disclosing them.

Thank you.

[-- Attachment #2: stack.tar.gz --]
[-- Type: APPLICATION/x-gzip, Size: 3902 bytes --]

Re: 4k stacks

[Grant Coady]

On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:53:25 -0500, "linux-os \(Dick Johnson\)" <linux-os@analogic.com> wrote:

>
>
>Yesterday I sent a patch to add stack-poison so the stack usage
>could be observed.
>
>Today I wrote a small program and tested the stack usage. Both
>the program and the patch is attached. The result is:
>
>Offset : 2ec8f000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
>Offset : 2ecb1000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
>Offset : 2ee5f000	Available Stack bytes = 20

Hmm:
# ./stack
Offset : 003fb000       Available Stack bytes = 3348
Offset : 0195d000       Available Stack bytes = 3620
Offset : 01961000       Available Stack bytes = 3828
Offset : 01963000       Available Stack bytes = 3088
Offset : 01b7d000       Available Stack bytes = 2952
Offset : 01b9f000       Available Stack bytes = 2616
Offset : 3753d000       Available Stack bytes = 3628
Offset : 3755d000       Available Stack bytes = 3604
Offset : 3755f000       Available Stack bytes = 3608
Offset : 37561000       Available Stack bytes = 3608
Offset : 37563000       Available Stack bytes = 3608
Offset : 37585000       Available Stack bytes = 3608
Offset : 37655000       Available Stack bytes = 3756
Offset : 37657000       Available Stack bytes = 3592
Offset : 37659000       Available Stack bytes = 3304
Offset : 37753000       Available Stack bytes = 3608
Offset : 37755000       Available Stack bytes = 3756
Offset : 377b3000       Available Stack bytes = 3880
Offset : 378e5000       Available Stack bytes = 3648
Offset : 37977000       Available Stack bytes = 3608
Offset : 37979000       Available Stack bytes = 3604
Offset : 3799d000       Available Stack bytes = 3820
Offset : 37c07000       Available Stack bytes = 3376
Offset : 37c27000       Available Stack bytes = 3652
Offset : 37dcf000       Available Stack bytes = 2580
Offset : 37def000       Available Stack bytes = 3556
Offset : 37df1000       Available Stack bytes = 3732
Offset : 37f13000       Available Stack bytes = 3612
Offset : 37f15000       Available Stack bytes = 3604
Offset : 37f35000       Available Stack bytes = 3608

I get the crash on startup when 4k + 4k is set too :(

http://bugsplatter.mine.nu/test/boxen/sempro/ with 8k 2.6.14.4.

Grant.

Re: 4k stacks

[Krzysztof Halasa]

"linux-os \(Dick Johnson\)" <linux-os@analogic.com> writes:

> Anyway, I tried to enable 4k stacks and the machine would
> not boot past trying to install the first module. It just
> stopped with the interrupts disabled.

Does that happen without your patch as well?

> Anyway, getting down to 20 bytes of stack-space available
> seems to be pretty scary.

More details maybe? .config | grep ^C ? What's on the stack above
the poison?
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa

Re: 4k stacks

[Alistair John Strachan]

On Friday 23 December 2005 01:11, Grant Coady wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Dec 2005 16:53:25 -0500, "linux-os \(Dick Johnson\)" 
<linux-os@analogic.com> wrote:
> >Yesterday I sent a patch to add stack-poison so the stack usage
> >could be observed.
> >
> >Today I wrote a small program and tested the stack usage. Both
> >the program and the patch is attached. The result is:
> >
> >Offset : 2ec8f000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
> >Offset : 2ecb1000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
> >Offset : 2ee5f000	Available Stack bytes = 20
>
> Hmm:
> # ./stack
> Offset : 003fb000       Available Stack bytes = 3348
> Offset : 0195d000       Available Stack bytes = 3620

Please do these tests once you repair the bug preventing the 4K stacks kernel 
from booting. The results are meaningless on an 8K stacks kernel.

-- 
Cheers,
Alistair.

'No sense being pessimistic, it probably wouldn't work anyway.'
Third year Computer Science undergraduate.
1F2 55 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh, UK.

Re: 4k stacks

[Denis Vlasenko]

On Thursday 22 December 2005 23:53, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote:
> 
> Yesterday I sent a patch to add stack-poison so the stack usage
> could be observed.
> 
> Today I wrote a small program and tested the stack usage. Both
> the program and the patch is attached. The result is:
> 
> Offset : 2ec8f000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
> Offset : 2ecb1000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
> Offset : 2ee5f000	Available Stack bytes = 20
> Offset : 2f36d000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
> Offset : 2fd09000	Available Stack bytes = 3012
> Offset : 2fd0b000	Available Stack bytes = 3312
> Offset : 2fd0f000	Available Stack bytes = 2132
> Offset : 2fd2f000	Available Stack bytes = 2744
> Offset : 2fd57000	Available Stack bytes = 2900
> Offset : 2fdd5000	Available Stack bytes = 1400
> Offset : 2fe35000	Available Stack bytes = 2832
> Offset : 2ff3f000	Available Stack bytes = 776
> Offset : 2ff45000	Available Stack bytes = 3188
> 
> This, after compiling the kernel. I did not have 4k stacks
> enabled for this test so any crashing of the stack beyond
> one page will not hurt the system. This was on linux-2.6.13.4.
> 
> Anyway, I tried to enable 4k stacks and the machine would
> not boot past trying to install the first module. It just
> stopped with the interrupts disabled. So, I am now rebuilding
> the kernel back as I write this. That's why I am using 2.6.13
> at the moment.
> 
> Anyway, getting down to 20 bytes of stack-space available
> seems to be pretty scary.

+       movl    %esp, %edi
+       movl    %edi, %ecx
+       andl    $~0x1000, %edi
+       subl    %edi, %ecx

ecx will be equal to ?

+       movb    $'Q', %al
+       rep     stosb
--
vda

Re: 4k stacks

[Andrew James Wade]

On Saturday 24 December 2005 07:03, Denis Vlasenko wrote:
> +       movl    %esp, %edi
> +       movl    %edi, %ecx
> +       andl    $~0x1000, %edi
> +       subl    %edi, %ecx
> 
> ecx will be equal to ?

0x1000 with 8k stacks, so long as %esp in in the top page of the 2 page
stack. 0x0 otherwise. Which explains why the poisoning crashes the kernel
with 4k stacks. 

But there's another problem with Dick Johnson's approach, and that is that
he doesn't clear the poison when a kernel stack is freed. (I don't believe
the kernel does this automatically, though I could be mistaken). And that
means that the results can't be trusted: if you have a string of 20 Qs,
_something's_ overwritten the rest, but that something wasn't necessarily
using the memory as a stack at the time. More than that, with the Qs
spread over two pages it's quite possible for one page to be overwritten
and the other still free with it's 20 or so Qs.

HTH,
Andrew Wade

Re: 4k stacks

[Andrew James Wade]

Ok, I've come up with a patch to "poison"/mark the kernel stacks with Qs
when they're allocated. (I don't think it'll mark the IRQ stacks though).
I clear the marking before the stacks are freed. The patch should work
with any-sized stacks.

There is one wrinkle though: linux has struct thread_info at the bottom of
the kernel stacks, overwriting some of the Qs. stack.c needs to be modified
to skip the first sizeof(struct thread_info) bytes of a page.

DISCLAIMER: I am a novice kernel hacker: this patch may not perform as 
advertised.

signed-off-by: <andrew.j.wade@gmail.com>

diff -uprN 2.6.15-rc5-mm3/kernel/fork.c ajw/kernel/fork.c
--- 2.6.15-rc5-mm3/kernel/fork.c	2005-12-26 01:07:57.087518486 -0500
+++ ajw/kernel/fork.c	2005-12-26 01:12:24.281198483 -0500
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@
 #include <linux/rmap.h>
 #include <linux/acct.h>
 #include <linux/cn_proc.h>
+#include <linux/string.h>
 
 #include <asm/pgtable.h>
 #include <asm/pgalloc.h>
@@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ static kmem_cache_t *mm_cachep;
 
 void free_task(struct task_struct *tsk)
 {
+	memset(tsk->thread_info, 0, THREAD_SIZE);
 	free_thread_info(tsk->thread_info);
 	free_task_struct(tsk);
 }
@@ -171,6 +173,8 @@ static struct task_struct *dup_task_stru
 		return NULL;
 	}
 
+	memset(ti, 'Q', THREAD_SIZE);
+
 	*tsk = *orig;
 	tsk->thread_info = ti;
 	setup_thread_stack(tsk, orig);

Re: 4k stacks

[Andrew James Wade]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 387 bytes --]

I've modified stack.c to handle 4k stacks. It can also provide information
for 8k stacks (fwiw) by changing STACK_GRANULARITY.

It found one stack with only 756 bytes left. I hope it's just due to a
greedy boot-time function as I'm not running anything particularly exotic.
(CIFS & Reiser4). 

Unfortunately I don't have any more time to experiment: I'm leaving for
a week.

Andrew Wade

[-- Attachment #2: stack.c --]
[-- Type: text/x-csrc, Size: 1199 bytes --]

//
//  This needs the kernel stack-poison patch to run. 
//  Merry Christmas from rjohnson@analogic.com
//  Released under GPL
//  Modified by andrew.j.wade@gmail.com
//

#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

// Alignment/size of i386 stacks:
#define STACK_GRANULARITY 4096

// skip these many bytes:
#define THREAD_INFO_SIZE 52

int main()
{
    size_t i;
    int fd;
    char *buf;
    if((fd = open("/dev/mem", O_RDONLY)) < 0)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Can't open device file for reading\n");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
    if((buf = malloc(STACK_GRANULARITY)) == NULL)
    {
        fprintf(stderr, "Can't allocate memory\n");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

    while(read(fd, buf, STACK_GRANULARITY) == STACK_GRANULARITY)
    {
        if(buf[THREAD_INFO_SIZE] == 'Q')
        {
            for(i=THREAD_INFO_SIZE; i < STACK_GRANULARITY; i++)
                if(buf[i] != 'Q')
                     break;
            if(i > THREAD_INFO_SIZE + 4)	// Could be a word of 'QQQQ'
                printf("Available Stack bytes = %5u\n", i - THREAD_INFO_SIZE);
        }
    }
    free(buf);
    close(fd);
    return 0;
}

Re: 4k stacks

[Diego Calleja]

El Mon, 26 Dec 2005 02:42:51 -0500,
Andrew James Wade <andrew.j.wade@gmail.com> escribió:

> Ok, I've come up with a patch to "poison"/mark the kernel stacks with Qs
> when they're allocated. (I don't think it'll mark the IRQ stacks though).


How does this differs from CONFIG_DEBUG_STACKOVERFLOW?

Re: 4k stacks

[Frank Sorenson]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1588 bytes --]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Andrew James Wade wrote:
> I've modified stack.c to handle 4k stacks. It can also provide information
> for 8k stacks (fwiw) by changing STACK_GRANULARITY.
> 
> It found one stack with only 756 bytes left. I hope it's just due to a
> greedy boot-time function as I'm not running anything particularly exotic.
> (CIFS & Reiser4).

Yes, it does appear to be a boot-time function.  It eventually becomes
PID 1, and the stack usage shrinks considerably.

Here is a different approach that uses a kernel module, rather than
/dev/mem.  This module will display current stack usage for each PID, as
well as the maximum usage if the kernel has the stack-poison patch.
Also, the current call trace for each PID can be displayed if loaded
with "verbose=1".

for example:
1: init - free stack now: 3640, at max usage: 740
2: ksoftirqd/0 - free stack now: 3880, at max usage: 3788
3: watchdog/0 - free stack now: 3828, at max usage: 3736
4: events/0 - free stack now: 3784, at max usage: 3012
...

Disclaimer: This seems to work for me, but I'm not a very experienced
kernel hacker, so if it breaks, take care that you don't get hurt.

Comments and fixes are welcome.

Thanks,

Frank
- --
Frank Sorenson - KD7TZK
Systems Manager, Computer Science Department
Brigham Young University
frank@tuxrocks.com
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=skKB
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[-- Attachment #2: stack_avail.c --]
[-- Type: text/x-csrc, Size: 3915 bytes --]

/*
* stack_avail - A linux kernel module to display available stack
*		If the kernel stack-poison patch has been applied, this
*		module also displays available stack at maximum usage
* Copyright Frank Sorenson <frank@tuxrocks.com> 2005
*
* Permission is hereby granted to copy, modify and redistribute this code
* in terms of the GNU Library General Public License, Version 2 or later,
* at your option.
*
*/

#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/kallsyms.h>

static int verbose = 0;

static unsigned long sinittext;
static unsigned long einittext;
static unsigned long stext;
static unsigned long etext;

// task_struct - /UML/Source/Host/linux-2.6.15-rc5-mm3+fs3/include/linux/sched.h
// thread_struct - /UML/Source/Host/linux-2.6.15-rc5-mm3+fs3/include/asm-i386/processor.h
// thread_info - /UML/Source/Host/linux-2.6.15-rc5-mm3+fs3/include/asm-i386/thread_info.h


static inline int valid_stack_ptr(struct thread_info *tinfo, void *p)
{
	return  p > (void *)tinfo &&
		p < (void *)tinfo + THREAD_SIZE - 3;
}

static int core_kernel_text(unsigned long addr)
{
	if (addr >= (unsigned long)stext &&
		addr <= (unsigned long)etext)
		return 1;

	if (addr >= (unsigned long)sinittext &&
		addr <= (unsigned long)einittext)
		return 1;
	return 0;
}

int my_kernel_text_address(unsigned long addr)
{
	if (core_kernel_text(addr))
		return 1;
	return 0;
//	return __module_text_address(addr) != NULL;
}


static inline unsigned long print_context_stack(struct thread_info *tinfo,
	unsigned long *stack, unsigned long ebp)
{
	unsigned long addr;
#ifdef  CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER
	while (valid_stack_ptr(tinfo, (void *)ebp)) {
		addr = *(unsigned long *)(ebp + 4);
		printk(" [<%08lx>] ", addr);
		print_symbol("%s", addr);
		printk("\n");
		ebp = *(unsigned long *)ebp;
	}
#else
	while (valid_stack_ptr(tinfo, stack)) {
		addr = *stack++;
		if (my_kernel_text_address(addr)) {
			printk(" [<%08lx>]", addr);
			print_symbol(" %s", addr);
			printk("\n");
		}
	}
#endif
	return ebp;
}

void show_trace(struct task_struct *task, unsigned long * stack)
{
	unsigned long ebp;

	ebp = *(unsigned long *) task->thread.esp;

	while (1) {
		struct thread_info *context;
		context = (struct thread_info *)
			((unsigned long)stack & (~(THREAD_SIZE - 1)));
		ebp = print_context_stack(context, stack, ebp);
		stack = (unsigned long*)context->previous_esp;
		if (!stack)
			break;
		printk(" =======================\n");
	}
}

static int stack_avail_load(void)
{
	struct task_struct *task;
	unsigned char *base_addr;
	unsigned char *max_addr;
	unsigned char *ptr;
	unsigned long current_avail;
	unsigned long poisoned_avail;

	sinittext = kallsyms_lookup_name("_sinittext");
	einittext = kallsyms_lookup_name("_einittext");
	stext = kallsyms_lookup_name("_stext");
	etext = kallsyms_lookup_name("_etext");

	printk("Displaying stack space available:\n");

	for_each_process(task) {
		printk("%d: %s", task->pid, task->comm);

		base_addr = (unsigned char *)(task->thread.esp & 0xFFFFF000);
		max_addr = base_addr + THREAD_SIZE - 1;
		ptr = base_addr + sizeof(struct thread_info);
		while (*ptr == 'Q') {
			ptr ++;
		}
		current_avail = (unsigned long)(task->thread.esp) -
			(unsigned long)(base_addr) - sizeof(struct thread_info);
		poisoned_avail = THREAD_SIZE - ((unsigned long)(max_addr - ptr)) -
			sizeof(struct thread_info) - 1;

		printk(" - free stack now: %lu", current_avail);
		if (poisoned_avail != 0)
			printk(", at max usage: %lu", poisoned_avail);

		if (verbose) {
			printk("\nCurrent call Trace:\n");
			show_trace(task, (unsigned long *)(task->thread.esp));
		}
		printk("\n");
	}
	return 0;
}

static void stack_avail_unload(void)
{
	printk("stack_avail module unloading\n");
}

module_init(stack_avail_load);
module_exit(stack_avail_unload);
module_param(verbose, int, 0);

MODULE_AUTHOR ("Frank Sorenson, frank@tuxrocks.com");
MODULE_DESCRIPTION ("Displays available stack space");
MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

[-- Attachment #3: Makefile --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 350 bytes --]

KVER := $(shell uname -r)
KSRC := /lib/modules/$(KVER)/build

PWD = $(shell pwd)

obj-m += stack_avail.o

all: modules

modules:
	$(MAKE) -C $(KSRC) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) BUILD_DIR=$(PWD) modules

ioctl: ioctl.c
	$(CC) $< -o $@

clean:
	@find . \
		\( -name '*.ko' -o -name '.*.cmd' \
		-o -name '*.o' -o -name '*.mod.c' \) \
		-type f -print | xargs rm -f

Re: 4k stacks

[linux-os (Dick Johnson)]

On Sat, 24 Dec 2005, Denis Vlasenko wrote:

> On Thursday 22 December 2005 23:53, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote:
>>
>> Yesterday I sent a patch to add stack-poison so the stack usage
>> could be observed.
>>
>> Today I wrote a small program and tested the stack usage. Both
>> the program and the patch is attached. The result is:
>>
>> Offset : 2ec8f000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
>> Offset : 2ecb1000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
>> Offset : 2ee5f000	Available Stack bytes = 20
>> Offset : 2f36d000	Available Stack bytes = 3104
>> Offset : 2fd09000	Available Stack bytes = 3012
>> Offset : 2fd0b000	Available Stack bytes = 3312
>> Offset : 2fd0f000	Available Stack bytes = 2132
>> Offset : 2fd2f000	Available Stack bytes = 2744
>> Offset : 2fd57000	Available Stack bytes = 2900
>> Offset : 2fdd5000	Available Stack bytes = 1400
>> Offset : 2fe35000	Available Stack bytes = 2832
>> Offset : 2ff3f000	Available Stack bytes = 776
>> Offset : 2ff45000	Available Stack bytes = 3188
>>
>> This, after compiling the kernel. I did not have 4k stacks
>> enabled for this test so any crashing of the stack beyond
>> one page will not hurt the system. This was on linux-2.6.13.4.
>>
>> Anyway, I tried to enable 4k stacks and the machine would
>> not boot past trying to install the first module. It just
>> stopped with the interrupts disabled. So, I am now rebuilding
>> the kernel back as I write this. That's why I am using 2.6.13
>> at the moment.
>>
>> Anyway, getting down to 20 bytes of stack-space available
>> seems to be pretty scary.
>
> +       movl    %esp, %edi
> +       movl    %edi, %ecx
> +       andl    $~0x1000, %edi
> +       subl    %edi, %ecx
>
> ecx will be equal to ?

Whatever the stack was minus that value ANDed with NOT 0x1000,
i.e. 0x1000 minus the stack already in use. The code assumes
that the stack starts and ends on a 0x1000 (page) boundary.
If that's not true, then all bets are off.

>
> +       movb    $'Q', %al
> +       rep     stosb
> --
> vda
>

Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.13.4 on an i686 machine (5591.11 BogoMips).
Warning : 98.36% of all statistics are fiction.
.

****************************************************************
The information transmitted in this message is confidential and may be privileged.  Any review, retransmission, dissemination, or other use of this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.  If you are not the intended recipient, please notify Analogic Corporation immediately - by replying to this message or by sending an email to DeliveryErrors@analogic.com - and destroy all copies of this information, including any attachments, without reading or disclosing them.

Thank you.

Re: 4k stacks

[Denis Vlasenko]

On Wednesday 28 December 2005 15:14, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote:
> >> Anyway, getting down to 20 bytes of stack-space available
> >> seems to be pretty scary.
> >
> > +       movl    %esp, %edi
> > +       movl    %edi, %ecx
> > +       andl    $~0x1000, %edi
> > +       subl    %edi, %ecx
> >
> > ecx will be equal to ?
> 
> Whatever the stack was minus that value ANDed with NOT 0x1000,
> i.e. 0x1000 minus the stack already in use. The code assumes
> that the stack starts and ends on a 0x1000 (page) boundary.
> If that's not true, then all bets are off.

Hmm. I must be thick today. (esp - (esp & 0xffffefff))
is always equal to (esp & 0x00001000). Which is either 0 or 0x1000.
--
vda

Re: 4k stacks

[Grant Coady]

On Tue, 27 Dec 2005 14:12:03 -0700, Frank Sorenson <frank@tuxrocks.com> wrote:

>Andrew James Wade wrote:
>> I've modified stack.c to handle 4k stacks. It can also provide information
>> for 8k stacks (fwiw) by changing STACK_GRANULARITY.
>> 
>> It found one stack with only 756 bytes left. I hope it's just due to a
>> greedy boot-time function as I'm not running anything particularly exotic.
>> (CIFS & Reiser4).
>
>Yes, it does appear to be a boot-time function.  It eventually becomes
>PID 1, and the stack usage shrinks considerably.
>

Problem I have is the stack poison patch stops box from booting when set 
to 4k stacks.  Seems to imply boot is within 5 pushl's and a return from 
4k?  Reiser3 + SATA on K7 + VIA chipset

Grant.

Re: 4k stacks

[linux-os (Dick Johnson)]

On Wed, 28 Dec 2005, Denis Vlasenko wrote:

> On Wednesday 28 December 2005 15:14, linux-os (Dick Johnson) wrote:
>>>> Anyway, getting down to 20 bytes of stack-space available
>>>> seems to be pretty scary.
>>>
>>> +       movl    %esp, %edi
>>> +       movl    %edi, %ecx
>>> +       andl    $~0x1000, %edi
>>> +       subl    %edi, %ecx
>>>
>>> ecx will be equal to ?
>>
>> Whatever the stack was minus that value ANDed with NOT 0x1000,
>> i.e. 0x1000 minus the stack already in use. The code assumes
>> that the stack starts and ends on a 0x1000 (page) boundary.
>> If that's not true, then all bets are off.
>
> Hmm. I must be thick today. (esp - (esp & 0xffffefff))
> is always equal to (esp & 0x00001000). Which is either 0 or 0x1000.
> --
>

Yes it's supposed to be ~0xfff.

  vda
>


Cheers,
Dick Johnson
Penguin : Linux version 2.6.13.4 on an i686 machine (5591.11 BogoMips).
Warning : 98.36% of all statistics are fiction.
.

****************************************************************
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