On 5 October 2018 at 15:57, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Fri, Oct 05, 2018 at 10:13:25AM +0200, Ard Biesheuvel wrote: >> Add a function pointer abstraction that can be implemented by the arch >> in a manner that avoids the downsides of function pointers, i.e., the >> fact that they are typically located in a writable data section, and >> their vulnerability to Spectre like defects. >> >> The FFP (or fast function pointer) is callable as a function, since >> the generic incarnation is simply that. However, due to the fact that >> C does not distinguish between functions and function pointers at the >> call site, the architecture can instead emit it as a patchable sequence >> of instructions consisting of ordinary branches. > > This is basically a static_key, except for indirection function calls? Yes, that is why I put you on cc :-) > So why not call the thing static_func or static_call or something like > that? Yep that sounds better.