Re: [PATCH v1 3/3] Documentation: riscv: add a section about ISA string ordering in /proc/cpuinfo

[Andrew Jones]

On Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 11:41:26PM +0000, Conor Dooley wrote:
> From: Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> The RISC-V specs are permissive in what they allow as the ISA string,
> but how we output this to userspace in /proc/cpuinfo is quasi uAPI.

uABI

> 
> Formalise this as part of the uAPI, by documenting the list of rules

uABI

> we use at this point in time.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Conor Dooley <conor.dooley@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> I've not "tested" these docs. The NIPA-esque pwbot should go and
> test it AFAICT. If it doesn't, I'll go add that.
> ---
>  Documentation/riscv/uabi.rst | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  1 file changed, 42 insertions(+)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/riscv/uabi.rst b/Documentation/riscv/uabi.rst
> index 21a82cfb6c4d..bc3c8ced644b 100644
> --- a/Documentation/riscv/uabi.rst
> +++ b/Documentation/riscv/uabi.rst
> @@ -3,4 +3,46 @@
>  RISC-V Linux User ABI
>  =====================
>  
> +Misaligned accesses
> +-------------------
> +
>  Misaligned accesses are supported in userspace, but they may perform poorly.
> +
> +ISA string ordering in /proc/cpuinfo
> +------------------------------------
> +
> +The canonical order of ISA extension names in the ISA string is defined in
> +chapter 27 of the unprivileged specification.
> +The specification uses vague wording, such as should, when it comes to
> +ordering, so for our purposes the following rules apply:
> +
> +#. Single-letter extensions come first, in "canonical order", so
> +   "IMAFDQLCBKJTPVH".
> +
> +#. All multi-letter extensions will be separated from other multi-letter
> +   extensions by an underscore.
> +
> +#. Additional standard extensions (starting with 'Z') will be sorted after
> +   single-letter extensions and before any higher-privileged extensions.
> +
> +#. The first letter following the 'Z' conventionally indicates the most
> +   closely related alphabetical extension category, IMAFDQLCBKJTPVH.
> +   If multiple 'Z' extensions are named, they should be ordered first by
> +   category, then alphabetically within a category.
> +
> +#. Standard supervisor-level extensions (starting with 'S') will be listed
> +   after standard unprivileged extensions.  If multiple

nit: Seems like a short line, at what character are we required to wrap at
in this file?

> +   supervisor-level extensions are listed, they will be ordered
> +   alphabetically.
> +
> +#. Standard machine-level extensions (starting with 'Zxm') will be listed
> +   after any lower-privileged, standard extensions.  If multiple
> +   machine-level extensions are listed, they will be ordered
> +   alphabetically.
> +
> +#. Non-standard extensions (starts with 'X') will be listed after all
> +   standard extensions.
> +
> +An example string following the order is:
> +   rv64imadc_zifoo_zigoo_zafoo_sbar_scar_zxmbaz_xqux_xrux
> +
> -- 
> 2.38.1
>

If this uABI hasn't "shipped" yet, giving us the freedom to discuss it
more, then I'd prefer we don't publish this (which looks like "shipping"
it) until we're 100% sure that this is the uABI we want.

(I feel like if we can still change the order in proc, as the previous
patch did, then we haven't yet shipped it.)

Thanks,
drew