[PATCH -tip v3 2/4] x86/segment: Remove unnecessary memory clobber from savesegment()
From: Uros Bizjak
Date: Thu Mar 12 2026 - 18:07:33 EST
The savesegment() macro uses inline assembly to copy a segment register
into a general-purpose register:
movl %seg, reg
This instruction does not access memory, yet the inline asm currently
declares a "memory" clobber, which unnecessarily acts as a compiler
barrier and may inhibit optimization.
Remove the "memory" clobber and mark the asm as `asm volatile` instead.
Segment register loads in the kernel are implemented using `asm volatile`,
so the compiler will not schedule segment register reads before those
loads. Using `asm volatile` preserves the intended ordering with other
segment register operations without imposing an unnecessary global memory
barrier.
No functional change intended.
Signed-off-by: Uros Bizjak <ubizjak@xxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: "Peter Zijlstra (Intel)" <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/x86/include/asm/segment.h | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/segment.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/segment.h
index 9f5be2bbd291..3fe3a310844c 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/segment.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/segment.h
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ static inline void __loadsegment_fs(unsigned short value)
* Save a segment register away:
*/
#define savesegment(seg, value) \
- asm("movl %%" #seg ",%k0" : "=r" (value) : : "memory")
+ asm volatile("movl %%" #seg ",%k0" : "=r" (value))
#endif /* !__ASSEMBLER__ */
#endif /* __KERNEL__ */
--
2.53.0