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From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>
To: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
Cc: Albert Cahalan <acahalan@gmail.com>,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, 76306.1226@compuserve.com,
	ak@muc.de, akpm@osdl.org
Subject: Re: i386 ABI and the stack
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:59:09 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <449C9C6D.7050905@zytor.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.64.0606231844460.6483@g5.osdl.org>

Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> We always have. It's the x86 ABI.
> 
> The x86-64 ABI has a 128-byte(*) zone that is safe from signals etc, so 
> you can use a small amount of stack below the stackpointer safely. Not so 
> on x86.
> 
> 		Linus
> 
> (*) That "128 byte" is from memory. Maybe it's bigger.

Adding a small redzone like this to i386 would be easy, though -- just 
drop the stack pointer by that much when creating a signal frame.  128 
bytes isn't enough to interfere with libraries.

Unlike other enhancements that have been proposed to the i386 ABI (like 
regparm), this has the advantage of being fully backwards-compatible 
with old binaries and libraries.  As long as you have a kernel that 
knows to preserve the redzone, then you can use the new -mredzone 
option, but you cross-call classical ABI functions without any problems, 
and old ABI programs won't even notice.

	-hpa

  reply	other threads:[~2006-06-24  1:59 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2006-06-24  1:37 i386 ABI and the stack Albert Cahalan
2006-06-24  1:47 ` Linus Torvalds
2006-06-24  1:59   ` H. Peter Anvin [this message]
2006-06-24  2:11     ` Linus Torvalds
2006-06-24  2:43       ` Albert Cahalan
2006-06-24  5:20         ` H. Peter Anvin
2006-06-24 11:03         ` Arjan van de Ven
2006-06-24  1:50 ` H. Peter Anvin

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