Date:	Wed, 19 Jan 2011 22:29:28 -0500
From:	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
To:	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
Subject: Re: [patch 1/3] introduce __u64_packed_aligned, __u64_aligned and
	U64_ALIGN() for structure alignment in custom sections

* Mathieu Desnoyers (mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com) wrote:
> Problem description:
> 

Argh, Nack-for-myself for the whole patchset. A missing quilt refresh messed up
my patches. Sorry about that, will repost shortly.

Mathieu

> gcc happily align on 32-byte structures defined statically. Ftrace trace events
> and Tracepoints both statically define structures into custom sections (using
> the "section" attribute), to then assign these to symbols with the linker
> scripts to iterate the these sections as an array.
> 
> However, gcc uses different alignments for these structures when they are
> defined statically than when they are globally visible and/or in an array.
> Therefore iteration on these arrays sees "holes" of padding. gcc is within its
> rights to increase the alignment of the statically defined structures because,
> normally, there should be no other accesses to them than in the local object. We
> are actually iterating on the generated structures as if they were an array
> without letting gcc knowing anything about it.
> 
> This patch introduces __u64_packed_aligned and __u64_aligned to force gcc to use
> the u64 type alignment, up-aligning or down-aligning the target type if
> necessary. The memory accesses to the target structure are efficient (does not
> require bytewise memory accesses) and the atomic pointer update guarantees
> required by RCU are kept. u64 is considered as the largest type that can
> generate a trap for unaligned accesses (u64 on sparc32 needs to be aligned on
> 64-bit).
> 
> Specifying both "packed" and "aligned" generates decent code (without the
> bytewise memory accesses generated by simply using "packed"), and forces
> gcc to down-align the structure alignment to the alignment of a u64 type. This
> down-alignment provided by "packed" guarantees that the structure alignment
> for the type declaration will match the alignment of the custom structure, and
> won't be larger than the alignment of the start of the custom section in the
> linker script.
> 
> This alignment should be used for both structure definitions and declarations
> (as *both* the type and variable attribute) when using the "section"
> attribute to generate arrays of structures.  Declarations should use the
> __u64_packed_aligned macro.  Definitions should use the __u64_aligned macro. We
> cannot have one single macro for both, because the use of __u64_packed_aligned
> with variable definitions causes "warning: ‘__packed__’ attribute ignored"
> messages. This is understandable because the "aligned" variable attribute
> enforces a strict alignment (compared to the "aligned" type attribute which only
> specifies a minimum alignment, hence requiring the "packed" attribute too). This
> is explained by the gcc Variable Attributes documentation: "When used as part of
> a typedef, the aligned attribute can both increase and decrease alignment, and
> specifying the packed attribute will generate a warning." The type attribute
> takes care of appropriately iterating on the extern array, therefore, no
> variable attribute needs to be applied to the extern array definition.
> 
> Also introduce the linker script U64_ALIGN() macro for specification of custom
> section alignment that matches that of __u64_packed_aligned and __u64_aligned.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
> CC: David Miller <davem@...emloft.net>
> CC: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
> CC: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>
> CC: Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
> ---
>  include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h |    6 +++
>  include/linux/align-section.h     |   62 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  include/linux/compiler.h          |   14 ++++++++
>  3 files changed, 82 insertions(+)
> 
> Index: linux-2.6-lttng/include/linux/compiler.h
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6-lttng.orig/include/linux/compiler.h
> +++ linux-2.6-lttng/include/linux/compiler.h
> @@ -57,6 +57,20 @@ extern void __chk_io_ptr(const volatile
>  # include <linux/compiler-intel.h>
>  #endif
>  
> +#include <linux/align-section.h>
> +
> +/*
> + * Use as variable attribute for custom section structure definition.
> + * It should also be applied to any static or extern definition of the
> + * structure that would override the definition to which the "section"
> + * attribute is applied, e.g.
> + *
> + * extern struct __u64_aligned custom;
> + * struct custom  __u64_aligned __attribute__((section("__custom")) identifier;
> + */
> +#define __u64_aligned \
> +	__attribute__((__aligned__(__alignof__(long long))))
> +
>  /*
>   * Generic compiler-dependent macros required for kernel
>   * build go below this comment. Actual compiler/compiler version
> Index: linux-2.6-lttng/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6-lttng.orig/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> +++ linux-2.6-lttng/include/asm-generic/vmlinux.lds.h
> @@ -69,6 +69,12 @@
>   */
>  #define STRUCT_ALIGN() . = ALIGN(32)
>  
> +/*
> + * Align to a 8 byte boundary. For use with custom section made from structures
> + * declared with __u64_packed_aligned and defined with __u64_aligned.
> + */
> +#define U64_ALIGN() . = ALIGN(8)
> +
>  /* The actual configuration determine if the init/exit sections
>   * are handled as text/data or they can be discarded (which
>   * often happens at runtime)
> Index: linux-2.6-lttng/include/linux/align-section.h
> ===================================================================
> --- /dev/null
> +++ linux-2.6-lttng/include/linux/align-section.h
> @@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
> +#ifndef _LINUX_ALIGN_SECTION_H
> +#define _LINUX_ALIGN_SECTION_H
> +
> +/*
> + * __u64_packed_aligned and __u64_aligned:
> + *
> + * __u64_aligned should be used as type attribute for structure definitions, and
> + * __u64_packed_aligned as type attribute for structure declaration when using
> + * the "section" attribute to generate arrays of structures. U64_ALIGN() must be
> + * used prior to these section definitions in the linker script.
> + *
> + * It forces the compiler to use the u64 type alignment, up-aligning or
> + * down-aligning the target type if necessary. The memory accesses to the target
> + * structure are efficient (does not require bytewise memory accesses) and the
> + * atomic pointer update guarantees required by RCU are kept. u64 is considered
> + * as the largest type that can generate a trap for unaligned accesses (u64 on
> + * sparc32 needs to be aligned on 64-bit).
> + *
> + * Specifying both "packed" and "aligned" generates decent code (without the
> + * bytewise memory accesses generated by simply using "packed"), and forces
> + * gcc to down-align the structure alignment to the alignment of a u64 type.
> + */
> +
> +/*
> + * Use __u64_packed_aligned as type attribute for custom section structure
> + * declaration, e.g.
> + *
> + * struct custom {
> + *         unsigned long field;
> + *         ...
> + * } __u64_packed_aligned;
> + *
> + * The array can then be defined with:
> + *
> + * extern struct custom __start___custom[];
> + * extern struct custom __stop___custom[];
> + *
> + * With linking performed by the linker script:
> + *
> + * U64_ALIGN();
> + * VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__start___custom) = .;
> + * *(__custom)
> + * VMLINUX_SYMBOL(__stop___custom) = .;
> + */
> +
> +#define __u64_packed_aligned \
> +	__attribute__((__packed__, __aligned__(__alignof__(long long))))
> +
> +/*
> + * Use __u64_aligned as variable attribute for custom section structure
> + * definition.  It should also be applied to any static or extern definition of
> + * the structure that would override the definition to which the "section"
> + * attribute is applied, e.g.
> + *
> + * extern struct __u64_aligned custom;
> + * struct custom  __u64_aligned __attribute__((section("__custom")) identifier;
> + */
> +
> +#define __u64_aligned \
> +	__attribute__((__aligned__(__alignof__(long long))))
> +
> +#endif /* _LINUX_ALIGN_SECTION_H */
> 

-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
Operating System Efficiency R&D Consultant
EfficiOS Inc.
http://www.efficios.com
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