Hi Ralf, On 2/1/07, Ralf Baechle <ralf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The values of those registers need to be preserved so they can later be copied into the signal frame.
Let's take for example sys_sigreturn(). In my understanding this syscall is used automatically when the signal handler returns. At this time, I don't see the point to save the static registers since they have been already saved by setup_sigcontext(). Actually I don't see why they need to be saved/restored at all... Let's say that process P1 sends a signal X to process P2 which has a handler defined for signal X and assume that the static registers are not saved at all. Signal X is received by P2. The signal handler is now executed in user mode. At this point what are the values of the static registers ? I would say they have the same values (let's call this state S) when P2 got interrupted. Once the signal handler returns into the kernel mode by executing 'syscall __NR_sigreturn' instructions, static registers still have state S and this state is normally preserved during sys_sigreturn syscall execution. So when resuming the normal execution of P2, the static registers have the correct values. What am I missing ? Thanks -- Franck