Re: [PATCH v2 07/36] x86/entry/64/compat: After SYSENTER, move STI after the NT fixup

From: Brian Gerst
Date: Mon Oct 12 2015 - 14:11:18 EST


On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 1:48 PM, Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 10/09/2015 09:48 PM, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
>> Anyway, it's still a win, but I'll keep playing. There may be even
>> better ways to do this.
>
> Such as this?
> Drop OR, check for cleared IF here:
>
> testl $X86_EFLAGS_NT, EFLAGS(%rsp)
> jnz sysenter_fix_flags
> testl $X86_EFLAGS_IF, EFLAGS(%rsp)
> jz sysenter_fix_flags
> sysenter_flags_fixed:
>
> and make sysenter_fix_flags code set IF in addition to TF clearing.
> This way, we don't even have an unconditional RMW op.

IF should normally be set in userspace, but since SYSENTER doesn't
save the old flags and always clears IF when entering the kernel, the
flags pushed on the stack will always have IF clear.

--
Brian Gerst
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