Re: [PATCH] MIPS: Make BUG() __noreturn.

[David Daney <ddaney at caviumnetworks dot com>]

Andrew Morton wrote:
> Yup, this change will fix some compile warnings which will never be
> fixed in any other way for mips.
>
> > +static inline void __noreturn BUG(void)
> > +{
> > +	__asm__ __volatile__("break %0" : : "i" (BRK_BUG));
> > +	/* Fool GCC into thinking the function doesn't return. */
> > +	while (1)
> > +		;
> > +}
>
> This kind of sucks, doesn't it?  It adds instructions into the kernel
> text, very frequently on fast paths.  Those instructions are never
> executed, and we're blowing away i-cache just to quash compiler
> warnings.
>
> For example, this:
>
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/bug.h~a
> +++ a/arch/x86/include/asm/bug.h
> @@ -22,14 +22,12 @@ do {								\
>  		     ".popsection"				\
>  		     : : "i" (__FILE__), "i" (__LINE__),	\
>  		     "i" (sizeof(struct bug_entry)));		\
> -	for (;;) ;						\
>  } while (0)
>  
>  #else
>  #define BUG()							\
>  do {								\
>  	asm volatile("ud2");					\
> -	for (;;) ;						\
>  } while (0)
>  #endif
>  
> _
>
> reduces the size of i386 mm/vmalloc.o text by 56 bytes.
>
> I wonder if there is any clever way in which we can do this without
> introducing additional runtime cost.

As I said in the other part of the thread, We are working on a GCC patch 
that adds a new built-in function '__builtin_noreturn()', that you could 
substitute for 'for(;;);' that emits no instructions in this case.

David Daney