From: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>
To: x86@kernel.org
Cc: luto@amacapital.net, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
Subject: [PATCH 5/9] x86: Add documentation for rd/wr fs/gs base
Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2016 09:16:05 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1458576969-13309-6-git-send-email-andi@firstfloor.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1458576969-13309-1-git-send-email-andi@firstfloor.org>
From: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
v2: Minor updates to documentation requested in review.
v3: Update for new gcc and various improvements.
Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen <ak@linux.intel.com>
---
Documentation/x86/fsgs.txt | 109 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 109 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/x86/fsgs.txt
diff --git a/Documentation/x86/fsgs.txt b/Documentation/x86/fsgs.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d4a51f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/x86/fsgs.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,109 @@
+
+Using FS and GS prefixes on 64bit x86 linux
+
+The x86 architecture supports segment prefixes per instruction to add an
+offset to an address. On 64bit x86, these are mostly nops, except for FS
+and GS.
+
+This offers an efficient way to reference a global pointer.
+
+The compiler has to generate special code to use these base registers,
+or they can be accessed with inline assembler.
+
+ mov %gs:offset,%reg
+ mov %fs:offset,%reg
+
+On 64bit code, FS is used to address the thread local segment (TLS), declared using
+__thread. The compiler then automatically generates the correct prefixes and
+relocations to access these values.
+
+FS is normally managed by the runtime code or the threading library
+Overwriting it can break a lot of things (including syscalls and gdb),
+but it can make sense to save/restore it for threading purposes.
+
+GS is freely available, but may need special (compiler or inline assembler)
+code to use.
+
+Traditionally 64bit FS and GS could be set by the arch_prctl system call
+
+ arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_GS, value)
+ arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, value)
+
+[There was also an older method using modify_ldt(), inherited from 32bit,
+but this is not discussed here.]
+
+However using a syscall is problematic for user space threading libraries
+that want to context switch in user space. The whole point of them
+is avoiding the overhead of a syscall. It's also cleaner for compilers
+wanting to use the extra register to use instructions to write
+it, or read it directly to compute addresses and offsets.
+
+Newer Intel CPUs (Ivy Bridge and later) added new instructions to directly
+access these registers quickly from user context
+
+ RDFSBASE %reg read the FS base (or _readfsbase_u64)
+ RDGSBASE %reg read the GS base (or _readgsbase_u64)
+
+ WRFSBASE %reg write the FS base (or _writefsbase_u64)
+ WRGSBASE %reg write the GS base (or _writegsbase_u64)
+
+If you use the intrinsics include <immintrin.h> and set the -mfsgsbase option.
+
+The instructions are supported by the CPU when the "fsgsbase" string is shown in
+/proc/cpuinfo (or directly retrieved through the CPUID instruction,
+7:0 (ebx), word 9, bit 0)
+
+The instructions are only available to 64bit binaries.
+
+In addition the kernel needs to explicitly enable these instructions, as it
+may otherwise not correctly context switch the state. Newer Linux
+kernels enable this. When the kernel did not enable the instruction
+they will fault with an #UD exception.
+
+An FSGSBASE enabled kernel can be detected by checking the AT_HWCAP2
+bitmask in the aux vector. When the HWCAP2_FSGSBASE bit is set the
+kernel supports RDFSGSBASE.
+
+ #include <sys/auxv.h>
+ #include <elf.h>
+
+ /* Will be eventually in asm/hwcap.h */
+ #define HWCAP2_FSGSBASE (1 << 0)
+
+ unsigned val = getauxval(AT_HWCAP2);
+ if (val & HWCAP2_FSGSBASE) {
+ asm("wrgsbase %0" :: "r" (ptr));
+ }
+
+No extra CPUID check needed as the kernel will not set this bit if the CPU
+does not support it.
+
+Another requirement is that the FS or GS selector has to be zero
+(is normally true unless changed explicitly). When it non-zero
+the context switch assumes the bases were loaded through the LDT/GDT,
+and will reload that.
+
+gcc 6 will have special support to directly access data relative
+to fs/gs using the __seg_fs and __seg_gs address space pointer
+modifiers.
+
+#ifndef __SEG_GS
+#error "Need gcc 6 or later"
+#endif
+
+struct gsdata {
+ int a;
+ int b;
+} gsdata = { 1, 2 };
+
+int __seg_gs *valp = 0; /* offset relative to GS */
+
+ /* Check if kernel supports FSGSBASE as above */
+
+ /* Set up new GS */
+ asm("wrgsbase %0" :: "r" (&gsdata));
+
+ /* Now the global pointer can be used normally */
+ printf("gsdata.a = %d\n", valp->a);
+
+Andi Kleen
--
2.5.5
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-03-21 16:16 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 39+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2016-03-21 16:16 Updated version of RD/WR FS/GS BASE patchkit Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 1/9] x86: Add intrinsics/macros for new rd/wr fs/gs base instructions Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 18:14 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 2/9] x86: Add support for rd/wr fs/gs base Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 18:13 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 19:05 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 19:22 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 22:05 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 22:08 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 22:15 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-22 8:36 ` Thomas Gleixner
2016-03-22 14:40 ` Brian Gerst
2016-04-15 0:06 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 3/9] x86: Make old K8 swapgs workaround conditional Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 4/9] x86: Enumerate kernel FSGS capability in AT_HWCAP2 Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 18:49 ` Brian Gerst
2016-03-21 18:54 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 19:32 ` Brian Gerst
2016-03-21 19:43 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 22:10 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 16:16 ` Andi Kleen [this message]
2016-03-23 19:14 ` [PATCH 5/9] x86: Add documentation for rd/wr fs/gs base Valdis.Kletnieks
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 6/9] x86: Use rd/wr fs/gs base in arch_prctl Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 18:17 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 7/9] x86: Add self test code for fsgsbase Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 8/9] x86: Support arbitrary fs/gs base in getregs Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 16:16 ` [PATCH 9/9] x86: Save FS/GS base in core dump Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 18:39 ` Updated version of RD/WR FS/GS BASE patchkit Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 19:03 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 19:23 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 19:40 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 22:05 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 22:11 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 22:27 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 22:41 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 22:47 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 22:52 ` Andi Kleen
2016-03-21 22:57 ` Andy Lutomirski
2016-03-21 23:02 ` Andi Kleen
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