netdev - RE: [PATCH v2] netlink: align attributes on 64-bits

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Message-ID: <AE90C24D6B3A694183C094C60CF0A2F6026B70FA@saturn3.aculab.com>
Date:	Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:37:54 -0000
From:	"David Laight" <David.Laight@...LAB.COM>
To:	"Thomas Graf" <tgraf@...g.ch>
Cc:	<nicolas.dichtel@...nd.com>, <bhutchings@...arflare.com>,
	<netdev@...r.kernel.org>, <davem@...emloft.net>
Subject: RE: [PATCH v2] netlink: align attributes on 64-bits

> On 12/19/12 at 09:17am, David Laight wrote:
> > You can't use memcpy() to copy a pointer to a misaligned
> > structure into an aligned buffer. The compiler assumes
> > the pointer is aligned and will use instructions that
> > depend on the alignment.
> 
> I am not sure I understand this correctly. Are you saying
> that the following does not work on i386?
> 
> struct foo {
>   uint32_t a;
>   uint64_t b;
> };
> 
> struct foo buf;
> 
> memcpy(&buf, nla_data(attr), nla_len(attr));
> printf([...], buf.b);

That will be fine on all systems.
But if, instead, you have:
	struct foo buf, *bufp;
	bufp = nla_data(attr);
	memcpy(&buf, bufp, sizeof buf);
The compiler is allowed to assume that 'bufp' is aligned,
so the copy will be done using 64bit accesses.

(Basically because all you are allowed to do with 'void *'
is cast a point to 'void *', then back to its original type.
So when you cast back from 'void *' the pointer can be assumed
to be aligned.)

This will fault on systems that require strict alignment
of 64bit items.

	David



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