Re: [PATCH] arm64: kgdb: Match pstate size with gdbserver protocol

[Mark Rutland]

On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 02:41:54PM +0100, Daniel Thompson wrote:
> On 10/05/16 11:45, Mark Rutland wrote:
> >>When commit 44679a4f142b ("arm64: KGDB: Add step debugging support") was
> >>introduced it was paired with a gdb patch that made an incompatible
> >>change to the gdbserver protocol. This patch was eventually merged into
> >>the gdb sources:
> >>https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=binutils-gdb.git;a=commit;h=a4d9ba85ec5597a6a556afe26b712e878374b9dd
> >>
> >>The change to the protocol was mostly made to simplify big-endian support
> >>inside the kernel gdb stub.
> >
> >While that was how we discovered the inconsistency, a major concern is
> >that SPSR_EL* (i.e. PSTATE), as accessed by MRS/MSR is a 64-bit
> >quantity, even if the upper 32 bits are RES0 today.
> >
> >It is conceivable that the upper 32 bits could be used in future (as
> >happened with CLIDR_EL1), and for this reason we expose those upper 32
> >bits from the kernel, and treat system registers as 64-bit quantities
> >generally.
> 
> These cases are not exactly the same.
> 
> CLIDR_ELx is (or was) architecturally defined as a 64-bit register
> and explicitly marks the upper 32-bits as RES0.
> 
> That is not the case for SPSR_ELx; this register is architecturally
> defined to be 32-bit.

The below doesn't necessarily change your subsequent argument, but that
isn't quite true.

The two cases are in fact identical if you dig into the history a bit
further. Take a look in an earlier revision of the ARM ARM (e.g. ARM DDI
0487A.b), where it was explicitly stated:

	Attributes
		CLIDR_EL1 is a 32-bit register.

This was subsequently upgraded to 64-bit with the addition of ICB.

Based on this, my PoV is that any register that the ARM ARM describes as
"a 32-bit register" is a 64-bit register for which the upper 32 bits are
RES0.

> I know that doesn't *prevent* SPSR_ELx from being expanded in the
> future it is not unreasonable for gdb to design its wire protocol
> based on the description found in the architecture manual.
> 
> >So this was also about ensuring the interface was consistent and to some
> >extent future-proof.
> 
> gdb remote protocol is already future proof and has never at any
> point contradicted the architecture.
> 
> However the changes to the protocol in 7.7.x and 7.8.0 were
> analogous to an unexpected ABI change rather than a carefully
> controlled introduction of a new feature. Like the kernel, once
> detected, they were reversed ;-) .

To be clear, I don't disagree with this. The ARM ARM is at best
amigibious w.r.t. what it means by "a 32-bit register", and that's the
only point of contention.

However, we should make note of the above as a key point of rationale,
as it affects other decisions we make in this area.

Thanks,
Mark.