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diff --git a/Documentation/asm-annotations.rst b/Documentation/asm-annotations.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..76424e043 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/asm-annotations.rst @@ -0,0 +1,222 @@ +Assembler Annotations +===================== + +Copyright (c) 2017-2019 Jiri Slaby + +This document describes the new macros for annotation of data and code in +assembly. In particular, it contains information about ``SYM_FUNC_START``, +``SYM_FUNC_END``, ``SYM_CODE_START``, and similar. + +Rationale +--------- +Some code like entries, trampolines, or boot code needs to be written in +assembly. The same as in C, such code is grouped into functions and +accompanied with data. Standard assemblers do not force users into precisely +marking these pieces as code, data, or even specifying their length. +Nevertheless, assemblers provide developers with such annotations to aid +debuggers throughout assembly. On top of that, developers also want to mark +some functions as *global* in order to be visible outside of their translation +units. + +Over time, the Linux kernel has adopted macros from various projects (like +``binutils``) to facilitate such annotations. So for historic reasons, +developers have been using ``ENTRY``, ``END``, ``ENDPROC``, and other +annotations in assembly. Due to the lack of their documentation, the macros +are used in rather wrong contexts at some locations. Clearly, ``ENTRY`` was +intended to denote the beginning of global symbols (be it data or code). +``END`` used to mark the end of data or end of special functions with +*non-standard* calling convention. In contrast, ``ENDPROC`` should annotate +only ends of *standard* functions. + +When these macros are used correctly, they help assemblers generate a nice +object with both sizes and types set correctly. For example, the result of +``arch/x86/lib/putuser.S``:: + + Num: Value Size Type Bind Vis Ndx Name + 25: 0000000000000000 33 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_1 + 29: 0000000000000030 37 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_2 + 32: 0000000000000060 36 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_4 + 35: 0000000000000090 37 FUNC GLOBAL DEFAULT 1 __put_user_8 + +This is not only important for debugging purposes. When there are properly +annotated objects like this, tools can be run on them to generate more useful +information. In particular, on properly annotated objects, ``objtool`` can be +run to check and fix the object if needed. Currently, ``objtool`` can report +missing frame pointer setup/destruction in functions. It can also +automatically generate annotations for :doc:`ORC unwinder <x86/orc-unwinder>` +for most code. Both of these are especially important to support reliable +stack traces which are in turn necessary for :doc:`Kernel live patching +<livepatch/livepatch>`. + +Caveat and Discussion +--------------------- +As one might realize, there were only three macros previously. That is indeed +insufficient to cover all the combinations of cases: + +* standard/non-standard function +* code/data +* global/local symbol + +There was a discussion_ and instead of extending the current ``ENTRY/END*`` +macros, it was decided that brand new macros should be introduced instead:: + + So how about using macro names that actually show the purpose, instead + of importing all the crappy, historic, essentially randomly chosen + debug symbol macro names from the binutils and older kernels? + +.. _discussion: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20170217104757.28588-1-jslaby@suse.cz + +Macros Description +------------------ + +The new macros are prefixed with the ``SYM_`` prefix and can be divided into +three main groups: + +1. ``SYM_FUNC_*`` -- to annotate C-like functions. This means functions with + standard C calling conventions. For example, on x86, this means that the + stack contains a return address at the predefined place and a return from + the function can happen in a standard way. When frame pointers are enabled, + save/restore of frame pointer shall happen at the start/end of a function, + respectively, too. + + Checking tools like ``objtool`` should ensure such marked functions conform + to these rules. The tools can also easily annotate these functions with + debugging information (like *ORC data*) automatically. + +2. ``SYM_CODE_*`` -- special functions called with special stack. Be it + interrupt handlers with special stack content, trampolines, or startup + functions. + + Checking tools mostly ignore checking of these functions. But some debug + information still can be generated automatically. For correct debug data, + this code needs hints like ``UNWIND_HINT_REGS`` provided by developers. + +3. ``SYM_DATA*`` -- obviously data belonging to ``.data`` sections and not to + ``.text``. Data do not contain instructions, so they have to be treated + specially by the tools: they should not treat the bytes as instructions, + nor assign any debug information to them. + +Instruction Macros +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +This section covers ``SYM_FUNC_*`` and ``SYM_CODE_*`` enumerated above. + +``objtool`` requires that all code must be contained in an ELF symbol. Symbol +names that have a ``.L`` prefix do not emit symbol table entries. ``.L`` +prefixed symbols can be used within a code region, but should be avoided for +denoting a range of code via ``SYM_*_START/END`` annotations. + +* ``SYM_FUNC_START`` and ``SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL`` are supposed to be **the + most frequent markings**. They are used for functions with standard calling + conventions -- global and local. Like in C, they both align the functions to + architecture specific ``__ALIGN`` bytes. There are also ``_NOALIGN`` variants + for special cases where developers do not want this implicit alignment. + + ``SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK`` and ``SYM_FUNC_START_WEAK_NOALIGN`` markings are + also offered as an assembler counterpart to the *weak* attribute known from + C. + + All of these **shall** be coupled with ``SYM_FUNC_END``. First, it marks + the sequence of instructions as a function and computes its size to the + generated object file. Second, it also eases checking and processing such + object files as the tools can trivially find exact function boundaries. + + So in most cases, developers should write something like in the following + example, having some asm instructions in between the macros, of course:: + + SYM_FUNC_START(memset) + ... asm insns ... + SYM_FUNC_END(memset) + + In fact, this kind of annotation corresponds to the now deprecated ``ENTRY`` + and ``ENDPROC`` macros. + +* ``SYM_FUNC_START_ALIAS`` and ``SYM_FUNC_START_LOCAL_ALIAS`` serve for those + who decided to have two or more names for one function. The typical use is:: + + SYM_FUNC_START_ALIAS(__memset) + SYM_FUNC_START(memset) + ... asm insns ... + SYM_FUNC_END(memset) + SYM_FUNC_END_ALIAS(__memset) + + In this example, one can call ``__memset`` or ``memset`` with the same + result, except the debug information for the instructions is generated to + the object file only once -- for the non-``ALIAS`` case. + +* ``SYM_CODE_START`` and ``SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL`` should be used only in + special cases -- if you know what you are doing. This is used exclusively + for interrupt handlers and similar where the calling convention is not the C + one. ``_NOALIGN`` variants exist too. The use is the same as for the ``FUNC`` + category above:: + + SYM_CODE_START_LOCAL(bad_put_user) + ... asm insns ... + SYM_CODE_END(bad_put_user) + + Again, every ``SYM_CODE_START*`` **shall** be coupled by ``SYM_CODE_END``. + + To some extent, this category corresponds to deprecated ``ENTRY`` and + ``END``. Except ``END`` had several other meanings too. + +* ``SYM_INNER_LABEL*`` is used to denote a label inside some + ``SYM_{CODE,FUNC}_START`` and ``SYM_{CODE,FUNC}_END``. They are very similar + to C labels, except they can be made global. An example of use:: + + SYM_CODE_START(ftrace_caller) + /* save_mcount_regs fills in first two parameters */ + ... + + SYM_INNER_LABEL(ftrace_caller_op_ptr, SYM_L_GLOBAL) + /* Load the ftrace_ops into the 3rd parameter */ + ... + + SYM_INNER_LABEL(ftrace_call, SYM_L_GLOBAL) + call ftrace_stub + ... + retq + SYM_CODE_END(ftrace_caller) + +Data Macros +~~~~~~~~~~~ +Similar to instructions, there is a couple of macros to describe data in the +assembly. + +* ``SYM_DATA_START`` and ``SYM_DATA_START_LOCAL`` mark the start of some data + and shall be used in conjunction with either ``SYM_DATA_END``, or + ``SYM_DATA_END_LABEL``. The latter adds also a label to the end, so that + people can use ``lstack`` and (local) ``lstack_end`` in the following + example:: + + SYM_DATA_START_LOCAL(lstack) + .skip 4096 + SYM_DATA_END_LABEL(lstack, SYM_L_LOCAL, lstack_end) + +* ``SYM_DATA`` and ``SYM_DATA_LOCAL`` are variants for simple, mostly one-line + data:: + + SYM_DATA(HEAP, .long rm_heap) + SYM_DATA(heap_end, .long rm_stack) + + In the end, they expand to ``SYM_DATA_START`` with ``SYM_DATA_END`` + internally. + +Support Macros +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +All the above reduce themselves to some invocation of ``SYM_START``, +``SYM_END``, or ``SYM_ENTRY`` at last. Normally, developers should avoid using +these. + +Further, in the above examples, one could see ``SYM_L_LOCAL``. There are also +``SYM_L_GLOBAL`` and ``SYM_L_WEAK``. All are intended to denote linkage of a +symbol marked by them. They are used either in ``_LABEL`` variants of the +earlier macros, or in ``SYM_START``. + + +Overriding Macros +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ +Architecture can also override any of the macros in their own +``asm/linkage.h``, including macros specifying the type of a symbol +(``SYM_T_FUNC``, ``SYM_T_OBJECT``, and ``SYM_T_NONE``). As every macro +described in this file is surrounded by ``#ifdef`` + ``#endif``, it is enough +to define the macros differently in the aforementioned architecture-dependent +header. |