[PATCH v5 1/1] <sys/tagged-address.h>: An API for tagged address

[Sunil Pandey]

On Fri, Aug 20, 2021 at 4:27 PM H.J. Lu <hjl.tools@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 12, 2021 at 1:36 AM Florian Weimer <fweimer@redhat.com> wrote:
> >
> > * H. J. Lu:
> >
> > > diff --git a/manual/ctype.texi b/manual/ctype.texi
> > > index d0618c5c38..28af73ff0e 100644
> > > --- a/manual/ctype.texi
> > > +++ b/manual/ctype.texi
> > > @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
> > > -@node Character Handling, String and Array Utilities, Memory, Top
> > > +@node Character Handling, String and Array Utilities, Tagged Address,
> Top
> > >  @c %MENU% Character testing and conversion functions
> > >  @chapter Character Handling
> >
> > Allegedly, it should not be necessary to maintain the @node linkage
> > manually (if we remove it).
>
> Since @node isn't removed, I guess I have to keep this change.
>
> > > diff --git a/manual/tagged-address.texi b/manual/tagged-address.texi
> > > new file mode 100644
> > > index 0000000000..a3929a0eb7
> > > --- /dev/null
> > > +++ b/manual/tagged-address.texi
> > > @@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
> > > +@node Tagged Address, Character Handling, Memory, Top
> > > +@c %MENU% Tagged address functions and macros
> > > +@chapter Tagged Address
> > > +
> > > +By default, the number of the address bits used in address translation
> > > +is the number of address bits.  But it can be changed by ARM Top-byte
> > > +Ignore (TBI) or Intel Linear Address Masking (LAM).
> >
> > Current spelling is “Arm”, I think.
>
> There are
>
> contrib.texi:Philip Blundell for the ports to Linux/ARM
> contrib.texi:(@code{arm-@var{ANYTHING}-linuxaout}) and ARM standalone
> contrib.texi:Richard Earnshaw for continued support and fixes to the
> various ARM
> contrib.texi:his maintainership of the ARM and MIPS architectures and the
> math
> contrib.texi:encryption support for ARM and various fixes.
> creature.texi:architectures (i686, ARM), this is planned to change and
> applications
>
> and
>
> contrib.texi:Ulrich Weigand for various fixes to the PowerPC64 and Arm
> ports.
>
> I will keep ARM.
>
> > > +@Theglibc{} provides several functions and macros in the header file
> > > +@file{sys/tagged-address.h} to manipulate tagged address bits, which
> is
> > > +the number of the address bits used in address translation, with
> > > +restrictions:
> >
> > Aren't the tagged address bits *not* used in address translation?
> >
> > The Arm documentation
> >
> >   <https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/arm64/tagged-address-abi.html>
> >
> > implies that the tag bits are those that are ignored for address
> > translation purposes (e.g., “The syscall behaviour for a valid tagged
> > pointer is the same as for the corresponding untagged pointer.”).  This
> > manual change uses the reverse terminology: tagged address bits are
> > those that are used in address translation (including the untranslated
> > intra-page offset).
> >
> > I find it more intuitive to refer to the ignored bits as “tagged address
> > bits”.
>
> I will rename it to set_translated_address_mask.
>
Existing name set_tagged_address_mask may not be intuitive but it looks
more clear to me than the proposed new name(set_translated_address_mask).
For the proposed new name, it is not clear which particular portion of
address will be masked.
How about set_address_tagbit_mask?

>
> > > +@deftypefun int set_tagged_address_mask (uintptr_t @var{mask})
> > > +@standards{GNU, sys/tagged-address.h}
> > > +@safety{@prelim{}@mtsafe{}@assafe{}@acsafe{}}
> > > +Set the mask for address bits used in address translation to
> @var{mask}.
> > > +Only bits set in @var{mask} will be used in address translation.  The
> > > +return value is @code{0} on success and @code{-1} on failure.  This
> > > +function can be called only once before @code{main}.
> >
> > Again the restriction around @code{main} is unclear.  If it's “before
> > allocating memory” or “before starting threads”, than we should say
> > that.
>
> I will change it to
>
> This function can be called only once before @code{main} and thread
> creation.
>
> > I still don't see a way how we can split tag address bits used by the
> > implementation (glibc, sanitizers) and the application.
> >
> > For example, glibc could use a tag bit to indicate whether an allocation
> > is in a mmap-based allocation.  This way, we could use an out-of-line
> > object header (found via a hash table, for example), and utilize the
> > fact that mmap-based allocations are always page-aligned.  This would no
> > core malloc algorithm changes and should be an obvious improvement.
> > With more substantial changes, we could use another bit to encode that
> > an allocation is in a small objects region and does not have an
> > immediately preceding object header, either.  Introducing small object
> > regions is a much larger change, though.
> >
>
> Tag usage should be exclusive to glibc.  set_translated_address_mask
> tells glibc that tag will be used for another purpose.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> H.J.
>