Re: [tip:x86/asm] x86/i386: Make sure stack-protector segment base is cache aligned

Tejun Heo
2009-09-04T05:07:09Z

H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> On 09/03/2009 08:47 PM, Tejun Heo wrote:
>> H. Peter Anvin wrote:
>>> On 09/03/2009 07:59 PM, Tejun Heo wrote:
>>>> Another question. Other than saving and loading an extra segment
>>>> register on kernel entry/exit, whether using the same or different
>>>> segment registers doesn't look like would make difference
>>>> performance-wise. If I'm interpreting the wording in the optimization
>>>> manual correctly, it means that each non-zero segment based memory
>>>> access will be costly regardless of which specific segment register is
>>>> in use and there's no way we can merge segment based dereferences for
>>>> stackprotector and percpu variables.
>>>>
>>> It's correct that it doesn't make any difference for access, only for load.
>> Heh... here's a naive and hopeful plan. How about we beg gcc
>> developers to allow different segment register and offset in newer gcc
>> versions and then use the same one when building with the new gcc?
>> This should solve the i386 problem too. It would be the best as we
>> get to keep the separate segment register from the userland. Too
>> hopeful?
>
> I think it's possible to set the register in more recent gcc. Doing the
> sane thing and having a symbol for an offset is probably worse.

I was thinking about altering the build process so that we can use sed
to substitute %gs:40 with %fs:40 while compiling. If it's already
possible to override the register in more recent gcc, no need to go
into that horror.

> I can talk to H.J. Lu about this tomorrow.

Great, please keep us posted.

Thanks.

--
tejun