Re: Using __kuser_cmpxchg

[Brian Swetland <swetland at google dot com>]

[Andrew Haley <aph@redhat.com>]
> Nicolas Pitre writes:
>  > 
>  > So we cheat a bit by simply performing the load+compare+store with 
>  > plain standard instructions as follows:
>  > 
>  >         teq     ip, ip                  @ set Z flag
>  >         ldr     ip, [r2]                @ load current val
>  >         add     r3, r2, #1              @ prepare store ptr
>  >         teqeq   ip, r0                  @ compare with oldval if still allowed
>  >         streq   r1, [r3, #-1]!          @ store newval if still allowed
>  >         subs    r0, r2, r3              @ if r2 == r3 the str occured
>  > 
>  > But there is a twist such that if ever an exception occurs during that 
>  > sequence, the Z flag is cleared by the exception handler before that 
>  > sequence is resumed and the store won't occur.
> 
> Ok, please stop there.  I don't understand this at all: if an
> exception occurs surely we'll save and restore the flags.  How is it
> possible for an exception to corrupt the user space Z flag?

Check out arch/arm/kernel/entry-armv.S

The code in question is in __kuser_cmpxchg.  The usr_entry macro
(near the top of the file) clears the Z flag if userspace PC is
high enough.  __kuser_cmpxchg is way up high at 0xffff0fc0.

It's a really cute trick.  The Z flag becomes a side-effect of
an exception, ensuring that the cmpxchg "fails" in that case,
and then can be called again to retry by the wrapping function.

Brian