> > - AFAIU, there is no point in using just the lower half of a register to
> > fill in a segment register, with a movl to boot.
>
> I seem to remember there was. This came up before if I remember rightly
> and Linus had a specific reason for it. Check with Linus.
Compatibility with old binutils.
For example, when transferring %eax to %ds:
`movl %eax,%ds' is the "correct" instruction, but this fails to assemble
on old binutils.
`movw %ax,%ds' is also correct, but will generate an operand size prefix
on older binutils. You don't want extra prefixes if you can help it.
`movl %ax,%ds' gets a warning on new binutils, but assembles correctly on
both old and new binutils. ie. without a prefix. This is the form that
should be used despite the warning.
Note: When transferring the other way, `movw %ds,%ax' and `movl %ds,%eax'
actually do different things. The first form leaves the upper 16 bits of
%eax unchanged (and costs you an operand size prefix), while the second
form sets the top 16 bits of %eax to "an implementation defined value"
according to Intel. If you don't care about the top 16 bits of %eax, use
`movl %ds,%ax'. Again, note the missing `e' for compatibility with old
binutils.
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