Re: [PATCH 2/2] KVM: VMX: Use LEAVE in vmx_do_interrupt_irqoff()

From: Sean Christopherson
Date: Mon Apr 14 2025 - 21:06:15 EST


On Mon, Apr 14, 2025, Uros Bizjak wrote:
> Micro-optimize vmx_do_interrupt_irqoff() by substituting
> MOV %RBP,%RSP; POP %RBP instruction sequence with equivalent
> LEAVE instruction. GCC compiler does this by default for
> a generic tuning and for all modern processors:

Out of curisoity, is LEAVE actually a performance win, or is the benefit essentially
just the few code bytes saves?

> DEF_TUNE (X86_TUNE_USE_LEAVE, "use_leave",
> m_386 | m_CORE_ALL | m_K6_GEODE | m_AMD_MULTIPLE | m_ZHAOXIN
> | m_TREMONT | m_CORE_HYBRID | m_CORE_ATOM | m_GENERIC)
>
> The new code also saves a couple of bytes, from:
>
> 27: 48 89 ec mov %rbp,%rsp
> 2a: 5d pop %rbp
>
> to:
>
> 27: c9 leave
>
> No functional change intended.
>
> Signed-off-by: Uros Bizjak <ubizjak@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Sean Christopherson <seanjc@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Borislav Petkov <bp@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmenter.S | 3 +--
> 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmenter.S b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmenter.S
> index f6986dee6f8c..0a6cf5bff2aa 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmenter.S
> +++ b/arch/x86/kvm/vmx/vmenter.S
> @@ -59,8 +59,7 @@
> * without the explicit restore, thinks the stack is getting walloped.
> * Using an unwind hint is problematic due to x86-64's dynamic alignment.
> */
> - mov %_ASM_BP, %_ASM_SP
> - pop %_ASM_BP
> + leave
> RET
> .endm
>
> --
> 2.49.0
>