From: Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com>
To: Zack Weinberg <zackw@panix.com>
Cc: Rajalakshmi Srinivasaraghavan <raji@linux.vnet.ibm.com>,
GNU C Library <libc-alpha@sourceware.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] powerpc: Use aligned stores in memset
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2017 17:09:00 -0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <2d36f499-1602-18ab-9ea2-94e5bc8c7c50@redhat.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAKCAbMhj5TE4sy7nqKEYAR8yWfY7Dv5HyzTZHPQQH3RKDozeZg@mail.gmail.com>
On 09/12/2017 02:18 PM, Zack Weinberg wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 12, 2017 at 6:30 AM, Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>> I could not find the manual which has the requirement that the mem*
>> functions do not use unaligned accesses. Unless they are worded in a
>> very peculiar way, right now, the GCC/glibc combination does not comply
>> with a requirement that memset & Co. can be used for device memory access.
>
> mem* are required to behave as-if they access memory as an array of
> unsigned char. Therefore it is valid to give them arbitrarily
> (un)aligned pointers. The C abstract machine doesn't specifically
> contemplate the possibility of a CPU that can do unaligned word reads
> but maybe not to all memory addresses, but I would argue that if there
> is such a CPU, then mem* are obliged to cope with it.
I disagree. On most architectures, including x86-64, you can tell, with
certain hardware devices, that our mem* functions do not perform
byte-wise read or write access. On many architectures, just a hardware
watchpoint installed using ptrace (a supported API) is sufficient. But
this theoretical possibility does not mean that we cannot or should not
optimize the mem* functions.
If you need specific memory access patterns, you need to use inline
assembly. In many cases, volatile loads and stores are sufficient, too.
>> ...the current glibc
>> implementation accesses locations which are outside the specified object
>> boundaries.
>
> I think that's technically a defect. Nothing in the C standard
> licenses it to do that;
It's permitted under the as-if rule.
Florian
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2017-09-12 17:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 31+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2017-08-18 5:13 Rajalakshmi Srinivasaraghavan
2017-08-18 6:21 ` Florian Weimer
2017-08-18 6:51 ` Rajalakshmi Srinivasaraghavan
2017-08-18 9:10 ` Florian Weimer
2017-08-18 12:13 ` Adhemerval Zanella
2017-09-12 10:30 ` Florian Weimer
2017-09-12 12:18 ` Zack Weinberg
2017-09-12 13:57 ` Steven Munroe
2017-09-12 14:37 ` Joseph Myers
2017-09-12 15:06 ` Zack Weinberg
2017-09-12 17:09 ` Florian Weimer [this message]
2017-09-12 13:38 ` Steven Munroe
2017-09-12 14:08 ` Florian Weimer
2017-09-12 14:16 ` Steven Munroe
2017-09-12 17:04 ` Florian Weimer
2017-09-12 19:21 ` Steven Munroe
2017-09-12 19:45 ` Florian Weimer
2017-09-12 20:25 ` Steven Munroe
2017-09-13 13:12 ` Tulio Magno Quites Machado Filho
2017-09-18 13:54 ` Florian Weimer
2017-10-03 18:29 ` Adhemerval Zanella
2017-10-05 12:13 ` Rajalakshmi Srinivasaraghavan
2017-11-08 18:52 ` Tulio Magno Quites Machado Filho
2017-12-08 19:52 ` [PATCHv2] powerpc: POWER8 memcpy optimization for cached memory Tulio Magno Quites Machado Filho
2017-12-08 20:06 ` Florian Weimer
2017-12-11 12:44 ` Tulio Magno Quites Machado Filho
2017-12-11 20:09 ` Adhemerval Zanella
2017-12-10 7:11 ` Rajalakshmi Srinivasaraghavan
2017-12-11 19:48 ` Tulio Magno Quites Machado Filho
2017-08-18 6:25 ` [PATCH] powerpc: Use aligned stores in memset Andrew Pinski
2017-08-21 2:20 ` Tulio Magno Quites Machado Filho
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