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Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2017 20:15:41 -0800
From: John Reiser <jreiser@...wagon.com>
To: musl@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Add comments to i386 assembly source
On 12/23/2017 09:45 UTC, Markus Wichmann wrote:
> But then there's i386. Without comments, and pulling off some very black
> magic, I thought it would be worth commenting the files at least in the
> threads directory.
> - mov $120,%al
> + mov $120,%al /* __NR_clone */
Using an actual symbol is clearer and easier to maintain or modify:
+__NR_clone = 120
+ mov $__NR_clone,%al
Constant arguments to system calls (including the system call number)
should be loaded last in order to provide the least constraints for computing
non-constant arguments. Also, it is not obvious that as values (%eax == %al).
The value in %eax was set by "xor %eax,%eax; ...; mov %gs,%ax; ...; shr $3,%eax";
what guarantees that (%gs <= (255 << 3)) ? %gs could be as high as (8191 << 3).
So _that_ deserves a comment; else for safety all of %eax should be set:
+ push $__NR_clone; pop %eax /* 3 bytes; __NR_clone < 128 */
+ int $128 /* clone(flags, stack, TID pointer, {.index = current gs index, .base = thread pointer, .limit=0xfffff, .seg32_bit, .limit_in_pages, .usable}, td pointer) */
Clarity can be improved by using a symbol:
NBPW = 4 /* Number of Bytes Per Word */
mov 3*NBPW(%ebp),%ecx /* ecx = stack */
mov 4*NBPW(%ebp),%ebx /* ebx = flags */
etc.
Incorrect comment:
> + sub $16,%ecx /* align stack */
Perhaps you meant "/* allocate space for returned segment descriptor */"?
The alignment is performed by:
and $-4*NBPW,%ecx /* align for stack */
If you are aiming for small space then
+ mov %eax,%ebx /* exit(rv from function) */
can be implemented one byte smaller as:
+ xchg %eax,%ebx /* syscall arg %ebx = rv from function; %eax = do not care */
--
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