From: Daniel Kiper <daniel.kiper@oracle.com>
To: grub-devel@gnu.org, xen-devel@lists.xenproject.org
Cc: jgross@suse.com, eric.snowberg@oracle.com, arvidjaar@gmail.com,
andrew.cooper3@citrix.com, seth.goldberg@oracle.com,
phcoder@gmail.com
Subject: [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 08/10] multiboot2: Add C structure alignment and padding consideration section
Date: Thu, 9 Jun 2016 22:30:42 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <1465504244-17175-9-git-send-email-daniel.kiper@oracle.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <1465504244-17175-1-git-send-email-daniel.kiper@oracle.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Kiper <daniel.kiper@oracle.com>
---
doc/multiboot.texi | 17 +++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 17 insertions(+)
diff --git a/doc/multiboot.texi b/doc/multiboot.texi
index c81b2ea..bf02a1b 100644
--- a/doc/multiboot.texi
+++ b/doc/multiboot.texi
@@ -1384,6 +1384,7 @@ document, but are included for prospective operating system and boot
loader writers.
@menu
+* C structure alignment and padding consideration::
* Notes on PC::
* BIOS device mapping techniques::
* Example OS code::
@@ -1391,6 +1392,22 @@ loader writers.
@end menu
+@node C structure alignment and padding consideration
+@section C structure alignment and padding consideration
+
+Many C compilers try to optimize memory accesses aligning structure
+members properly. Usually they reach the goal by adding some padding.
+This is very useful thing in general. However, if you try to mix assembler
+with C or use C to implement structure low level access this behavior
+may lead, at least, to quite surprising results. Hence, compiler should
+be instructed to not optimize such accesses. Usually it is done by special
+attribute added to structure definition, e.g. GCC compatible sources use
+@samp{__attribute__ ((__packed__))} for this purpose. However, this is not
+required if it is known that its members are properly aligned and compiler
+does not do any optimization. Very good example of this is shown below in
+@file{multiboot2.h} file.
+
+
@node Notes on PC
@section Notes on PC
--
1.7.10.4
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next prev parent reply other threads:[~2016-06-09 20:32 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 18+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
[not found] <1465504244-17175-1-git-send-email-daniel.kiper@oracle.com>
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 01/10] multiboot2: Remove redundant if Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 02/10] multiboot2: Clarify meaning of information request header tag Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 21:14 ` Andrew Cooper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 03/10] multiboot2: Fix description of EFI boot services tag Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 04/10] multiboot2: Add description of support for EFI boot services Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 05/10] multiboot2: Add description of EFI image handle tags Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 06/10] multiboot2: Add description of support for relocatable images Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 21:36 ` Andrew Cooper
2016-06-10 17:36 ` Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 07/10] multiboot2: Say that memory maps may not be available on EFI platforms Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 21:37 ` Andrew Cooper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` Daniel Kiper [this message]
2016-06-09 22:07 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 08/10] multiboot2: Add C structure alignment and padding consideration section Andrew Cooper
[not found] ` <1c1e54de-2f19-20b6-b8c8-229619b95038@citrix.com>
2016-06-10 17:58 ` Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 09/10] multiboot2: Add me to authors Daniel Kiper
2016-06-09 20:30 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 10/10] multiboot2: Bump version to 2.0 Daniel Kiper
[not found] ` <1465504244-17175-2-git-send-email-daniel.kiper@oracle.com>
2016-06-09 21:02 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 01/10] multiboot2: Remove redundant if Andrew Cooper
[not found] ` <1465504244-17175-5-git-send-email-daniel.kiper@oracle.com>
2016-06-09 21:31 ` [MULTIBOOT2 DOC PATCH 04/10] multiboot2: Add description of support for EFI boot services Andrew Cooper
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