Re: [PATCH] ARM: NWFPE: avoid compiler-generated __aeabi_uldivmod

[Arnd Bergmann]

On Tue, Oct 11, 2022, at 12:53 AM, Nick Desaulniers wrote:
> clang-15's ability to elide loops completely became more aggressive when
> it can deduce how a variable is being updated in a loop. Counting down
> one variable by an increment of another can be replaced by a modulo
> operation.
>
> For 64b variables on 32b ARM EABI targets, this can result in the
> compiler generating calls to __aeabi_uldivmod, which it does for a do
> while loop in float64_rem().
>
> For the kernel, we'd generally prefer that developers not open code 64b
> division via binary / operators and instead use the more explicit
> helpers from div64.h. On arm-linux-gnuabi targets, failure to do so can
> result in linkage failures due to undefined references to
> __aeabi_uldivmod().
>
> While developers can avoid open coding divisions on 64b variables, the
> compiler doesn't know that the Linux kernel has a partial implementation
> of a compiler runtime (--rtlib) to enforce this convention.
>
> It's also undecidable for the compiler whether the code in question
> would be faster to execute the loop vs elide it and do the 64b division.
>
> While I actively avoid using the internal -mllvm command line flags, I
> think we get better code than using barrier() here, which will force
> reloads+spills in the loop for all toolchains.
>
> Link: https://github.com/ClangBuiltLinux/linux/issues/1666
> Reported-by: Nathan Chancellor <nathan@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@xxxxxxxxxx>

Works for me,

Reviewed-by: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>

I would have been fine with disallowing NWFPE for clang, or with
adding a barrier in the loop as well, i.e. any approach that
doesn't cause invalid behavior or a maintenance burden, given that
there is probably nobody that actually needs nwfpe on a clang built
kernel.

    Arnd