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x86 mpx: give bndX registers actual names

RFC PATCH Superseded Dave Hansen 2 participants 2 messages Oct 31, 2014 x86

v1 of 2 Superseded Latest is v2 →

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RFC PATCH 1/1 x86 mpx: give bndX registers actual names

From: Dave Hansen <[email protected]>

Consider the bndX MPX registers. There 4 registers each containing a 64-bit lower and a 64-bit upper bound. That's 8*64 bits and we declare it thusly:

	struct bndregs_struct {
		u64 bndregs[8];
	}

Let's say you want to read the upper bound from the MPX register bnd2 out of the xsave buf. You do:

	bndregno = 2;
	upper_bound = xsave_buf->bndregs.bndregs[2*bndregno+1];

That kinda sucks. Every time you access it, you need to know:
1. Each bndX register is two entries wide in "bndregs"
2. The lower comes first followed by upper. We do the +1 to get upper vs. lower.

This replaces the old definition. You can now access them indexed by the register number directly, and with a meaningful name for the lower and upper bound:

	bndregno = 2;
	xsave_buf->bnd[bndregno].ub;

It's now *VERY* clear that there are 4 registers. The programmer now doesn't have to care what order the lower and upper bounds are in, and it's harder to get it wrong.

The naming "lb" and "ub" reflects the names found in the Intel SDM Extensions documentation of these registers. I'm not married to it.

Cc "H. Peter Anvin" <[email protected]>
Cc Qiaowei Ren <[email protected]>
Cc "Yu, Fenghua" <[email protected]>

---

 b/arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h |    7 ++++---
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h renamed from arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h~mpx-give-regsters-real-names +4 -3
diff -puN arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h~mpx-give-regsters-real-names arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h
@@ -374,8 +374,9 @@ struct lwp_struct {
 	u8 reserved[128];
 };
 
-struct bndregs_struct {
-	u64 bndregs[8];
+struct bndreg_struct {
+	u64 lb; /* lower bound */
+	u64 ub; /* upper bound */
 } __packed;
 
 struct bndcsr_struct {
@@ -394,7 +395,7 @@ struct xsave_struct {
 	struct xsave_hdr_struct xsave_hdr;
 	struct ymmh_struct ymmh;
 	struct lwp_struct lwp;
-	struct bndregs_struct bndregs;
+	struct bndreg_struct bnd[4];
 	struct bndcsr_struct bndcsr;
 	/* new processor state extensions will go here */
 } __attribute__ ((packed, aligned (64)));

_

#1 lore raw
Quoted 18 lines · Dave Hansen
arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h renamed from arch/x86/include/asm/processor.h~mpx-give-regsters-real-names +4 -3
-struct bndregs_struct {
-	u64 bndregs[8];
+struct bndreg_struct {
+	u64 lb; /* lower bound */
+	u64 ub; /* upper bound */
 } __packed;
 
 struct bndcsr_struct {
@@ -394,7 +395,7 @@ struct xsave_struct {
 	struct xsave_hdr_struct xsave_hdr;
 	struct ymmh_struct ymmh;
 	struct lwp_struct lwp;
-	struct bndregs_struct bndregs;
+	struct bndreg_struct bnd[4];
 	struct bndcsr_struct bndcsr;
 	/* new processor state extensions will go here */
 } __attribute__ ((packed, aligned (64)));
Quoted 2 lines

_

How about "struct bndreg"?

-hpa