This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled ARM: 8429/1: disable GCC SRA optimization to the 4.2-stable tree which can be found at: http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/stable/stable-queue.git;a=summary The filename of the patch is: arm-8429-1-disable-gcc-sra-optimization.patch and it can be found in the queue-4.2 subdirectory. If you, or anyone else, feels it should not be added to the stable tree, please let <stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> know about it. >From a077224fd35b2f7fbc93f14cf67074fc792fbac2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx> Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2015 13:24:40 +0100 Subject: ARM: 8429/1: disable GCC SRA optimization From: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx> commit a077224fd35b2f7fbc93f14cf67074fc792fbac2 upstream. While working on the 32-bit ARM port of UEFI, I noticed a strange corruption in the kernel log. The following snprintf() statement (in drivers/firmware/efi/efi.c:efi_md_typeattr_format()) snprintf(pos, size, "|%3s|%2s|%2s|%2s|%3s|%2s|%2s|%2s|%2s]", was producing the following output in the log: | | | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC] | | | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC] | | | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC] |RUN| | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC]* |RUN| | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC]* | | | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC] |RUN| | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC]* | | | | | |WB|WT|WC|UC] |RUN| | | | | | | |UC] |RUN| | | | | | | |UC] As it turns out, this is caused by incorrect code being emitted for the string() function in lib/vsprintf.c. The following code if (!(spec.flags & LEFT)) { while (len < spec.field_width--) { if (buf < end) *buf = ' '; ++buf; } } for (i = 0; i < len; ++i) { if (buf < end) *buf = *s; ++buf; ++s; } while (len < spec.field_width--) { if (buf < end) *buf = ' '; ++buf; } when called with len == 0, triggers an issue in the GCC SRA optimization pass (Scalar Replacement of Aggregates), which handles promotion of signed struct members incorrectly. This is a known but as yet unresolved issue. (https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=65932). In this particular case, it is causing the second while loop to be executed erroneously a single time, causing the additional space characters to be printed. So disable the optimization by passing -fno-ipa-sra. Acked-by: Nicolas Pitre <nico@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Russell King <rmk+kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- arch/arm/Makefile | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) --- a/arch/arm/Makefile +++ b/arch/arm/Makefile @@ -54,6 +54,14 @@ AS += -EL LD += -EL endif +# +# The Scalar Replacement of Aggregates (SRA) optimization pass in GCC 4.9 and +# later may result in code being generated that handles signed short and signed +# char struct members incorrectly. So disable it. +# (https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=65932) +# +KBUILD_CFLAGS += $(call cc-option,-fno-ipa-sra) + # This selects which instruction set is used. # Note that GCC does not numerically define an architecture version # macro, but instead defines a whole series of macros which makes Patches currently in stable-queue which might be from ard.biesheuvel@xxxxxxxxxx are queue-4.2/arm-8429-1-disable-gcc-sra-optimization.patch -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe stable" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html