For x86_64, the current ffs() implementation does not produce optimized
code when called with a constant expression. On the contrary, the
__builtin_ffs() functions of both GCC and clang are able to fold the
expression into a single instruction.
** Example **
Consider two dummy functions foo() and bar() as below:
#include <linux/bitops.h>
#define CONST 0x01000000
unsigned int foo(void)
{
return ffs(CONST);
}
unsigned int bar(void)
{
return __builtin_ffs(CONST);
}
GCC would produce below assembly code:
0000000000000000 <foo>:
0: ba 00 00 00 01 mov $0x1000000,%edx
5: b8 ff ff ff ff mov $0xffffffff,%eax
a: 0f bc c2 bsf %edx,%eax
d: 83 c0 01 add $0x1,%eax
10: c3 ret
<Instructions after ret and before next function were redacted>
0000000000000020 <bar>:
20: b8 19 00 00 00 mov $0x19,%eax
25: c3 ret
And clang would produce:
0000000000000000 <foo>:
0: b8 ff ff ff ff mov $0xffffffff,%eax
5: 0f bc 05 00 00 00 00 bsf 0x0(%rip),%eax # c <foo+0xc>
c: 83 c0 01 add $0x1,%eax
f: c3 ret
0000000000000010 <bar>:
10: b8 19 00 00 00 mov $0x19,%eax
15: c3 ret
Both examples clearly demonstrate the benefit of using __builtin_ffs()
instead of the kernel's asm implementation for constant expressions.
However, for non constant expressions, the kernel's ffs() asm version
remains better for x86_64 because, contrary to GCC, it doesn't emit the
CMOV assembly instruction, c.f. [1] (noticeably, clang is able optimize
out the CMOV call).
Use __builtin_constant_p() to select between the kernel's ffs() and
the __builtin_ffs() depending on whether the argument is constant or
not.
As a side benefit, replacing the ffs() function declaration by a macro
also removes below -Wshadow warning:
./arch/x86/include/asm/bitops.h:283:28: warning: declaration of 'ffs' shadows a built-in function [-Wshadow]
283 | static __always_inline int ffs(int x)
** Statistics **
On a allyesconfig, before...:
$ objdump -d vmlinux.o | grep bsf | wc -l
1081
...and after:
$ objdump -d vmlinux.o | grep bsf | wc -l
792
So, roughly 26.7% of the calls to ffs() were using constant
expressions and could be optimized out.
(tests done on linux v5.18-rc5 x86_64 using GCC 11.2.1)
[1] commit
ca3d30cc02f7 ("x86_64, asm: Optimise fls(), ffs() and fls64()")
[ bp: Massage commit message. ]
Signed-off-by: Vincent Mailhol <mailhol.vincent@wanadoo.fr>
Signed-off-by: Borislav Petkov <bp@suse.de>
Reviewed-by: Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@google.com>
Reviewed-by: Yury Norov <yury.norov@gmail.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20220511160319.1045812-1-mailhol.vincent@wanadoo.fr
#undef ADDR
#ifdef __KERNEL__
-/**
- * ffs - find first set bit in word
- * @x: the word to search
- *
- * This is defined the same way as the libc and compiler builtin ffs
- * routines, therefore differs in spirit from the other bitops.
- *
- * ffs(value) returns 0 if value is 0 or the position of the first
- * set bit if value is nonzero. The first (least significant) bit
- * is at position 1.
- */
-static __always_inline int ffs(int x)
+static __always_inline int variable_ffs(int x)
{
int r;
return r + 1;
}
+/**
+ * ffs - find first set bit in word
+ * @x: the word to search
+ *
+ * This is defined the same way as the libc and compiler builtin ffs
+ * routines, therefore differs in spirit from the other bitops.
+ *
+ * ffs(value) returns 0 if value is 0 or the position of the first
+ * set bit if value is nonzero. The first (least significant) bit
+ * is at position 1.
+ */
+#define ffs(x) (__builtin_constant_p(x) ? __builtin_ffs(x) : variable_ffs(x))
+
/**
* fls - find last set bit in word
* @x: the word to search