Commit Graph

3 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Kristina Martsenko f0e421b1bf arm64: documentation: document tagged pointer stack constraints
Some kernel features don't currently work if a task puts a non-zero
address tag in its stack pointer, frame pointer, or frame record entries
(FP, LR).

For example, with a tagged stack pointer, the kernel can't deliver
signals to the process, and the task is killed instead. As another
example, with a tagged frame pointer or frame records, perf fails to
generate call graphs or resolve symbols.

For now, just document these limitations, instead of finding and fixing
everything that doesn't work, as it's not known if anyone needs to use
tags in these places anyway.

In addition, as requested by Dave Martin, generalize the limitations
into a general kernel address tag policy, and refactor
tagged-pointers.txt to include it.

Fixes: d50240a5f6 ("arm64: mm: permit use of tagged pointers at EL0")
Cc: <stable@vger.kernel.org> # 3.12.x-
Reviewed-by: Dave Martin <Dave.Martin@arm.com>
Acked-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Kristina Martsenko <kristina.martsenko@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
2017-05-09 17:43:18 +01:00
Will Deacon 374ed9d18e arm64: documentation: tighten up tagged pointer documentation
Commit d50240a5f6 ("arm64: mm: permit use of tagged pointers at EL0")
added support for tagged pointers in userspace, but the corresponding
update to Documentation/ contained some imprecise statements.

This patch fixes up some minor ambiguities in the text, hopefully making
it more clear about exactly what the kernel expects from user virtual
addresses.

Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
2013-09-20 09:56:06 +01:00
Will Deacon d50240a5f6 arm64: mm: permit use of tagged pointers at EL0
TCR.TBI0 can be used to cause hardware address translation to ignore the
top byte of userspace virtual addresses. Whilst not especially useful in
standard C programs, this can be used by JITs to `tag' pointers with
various pieces of metadata.

This patch enables this bit for AArch64 Linux, and adds a new file to
Documentation/arm64/ which describes some potential caveats when using
tagged virtual addresses.

Signed-off-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
2013-09-03 10:18:02 +01:00