Re: [RFC][v7][PATCH 8/9]: Define clone2() syscall

Linus Torvalds
2009-09-30T19:15:40Z

On Wed, 30 Sep 2009, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
>
> Right, you still need to save all the registers from the entry code.
> I was under the wrong assumption that task_pt_regs(current)
> would give the full register set on all architectures.
>
> However, I'd still hope that a new system call can be defined in
> a way that you only need to have an assembly wrapper to save
> the full pt_regs, but no arch specific code to get the syscall arguments
> out of that again. In do_clone(), you need a pointer to pt_regs and
> the user stack pointer, but that can be generated from
> user_stack_pointer(regs).

I don't think it can. You don't know what the system call stack layout is.

> Does task_pt_regs(current) give the right pointer on all architectures
> or do we also need to pass the regs into the syscall?

I do not believe that it gives the right pointer in general. In fact, I
can guarantee it doesn't. Even on x86 it only works for certain contexts
(non-vm86 mode at a minimum), and on architectures like alpha it's not at
all sufficient, because even if you can locate the 'pt_regs' structure,
you _also_ need the extra guarantees of the pt_regs being next to the
extended signal state register structure - and that only happens for magic
sequences like signal handling and explicit setups like fork/clone.

So I do repeat: if you think you can do all of this in generic code, then
you're sadly and totally mistaken. Don't even try. It may work on some
architectures, but it's simply fundamentally _wrong_.

Linus