Re: [PATCH 2/4] x86: get rid of KERNEL_STACK_OFFSET

Steven Rostedt
2015-02-24T19:30:09Z

On Tue, 24 Feb 2015 19:51:33 +0100
Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@redhat.com> wrote:

> PER_CPU_VAR(kernel_stack) was set up in a way where it points
> five stack slots below the top of stack.
>
> Presumably, it was done to avoid one "sub $5*8,%rsp"
> in syscall/sysenter code paths, where iret frame needs to be
> created by hand.
>
> Ironically, none of them benefit from this optimization,
> since all of them need to allocate additional data on stack
> (struct pt_regs), so they still have to perform subtraction.
> And ia32_sysenter_target even needs to *undo* this optimization:
> it constructs iret stack with pushes instead of movs,
> so it needs to start right at the top.
>
> This patch eliminates KERNEL_STACK_OFFSET.
> PER_CPU_VAR(kernel_stack) now points directly to top of stack.
> pt_regs allocations are adjusted to allocate iret frame as well.
>

I always thought the KERNEL_STACK_OFFSET wasn't an optimization, but a
buffer from the real top of stack, in case we had any off by one bugs,
it wouldn't crash the system.

-- Steve