Re: [PATCH 3/4] x86/asm: delete dummy variables in movdir64b()

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Fri Mar 07 2025 - 06:49:36 EST



* Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Cast to pointer-to-array instead.
>
> Signed-off-by: Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h | 9 +++------
> 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h
> index d349aa0f0a83..b24c6c945c38 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h
> @@ -215,13 +215,10 @@ static __always_inline void serialize(void)
> /* The dst parameter must be 64-bytes aligned */
> static inline void movdir64b(void *dst, const void *src)
> {
> - const struct { char _[64]; } *__src = src;
> - struct { char _[64]; } *__dst = dst;
> -
> /*
> * MOVDIR64B %(rdx), rax.
> *
> - * Both __src and __dst must be memory constraints in order to tell the
> + * Both src and dst must be memory constraints in order to tell the
> * compiler that no other memory accesses should be reordered around
> * this one.
> *
> @@ -230,8 +227,8 @@ static inline void movdir64b(void *dst, const void *src)
> * I.e., not the pointers but what they point to, thus the deref'ing '*'.
> */
> asm volatile(".byte 0x66, 0x0f, 0x38, 0xf8, 0x02"
> - : "+m" (*__dst)
> - : "m" (*__src), "a" (__dst), "d" (__src));
> + : "+m" (*(char(*)[64])dst)
> + : "m" (*(const char(*)[64])src), "a" (dst), "d" (src));

In what world is putting type casts inside asm() statements an
improvement to the code?

Thanks,

Ingo