The asm constraint does not reflect that the asm statement can modify the value of @loops. But the asm statement in delay_loop() does change the @loops. If by any chance the compiler inlines this function, it may clobber random stuff (e.g. local variable, important temporary value in reg, etc.). Fortunately, delay_loop() is only called indirectly (so it can't inline), and then the register it clobbers is %rax (which is by the nature of the calling convention, it's a caller saved register), so it didn't yield any bug. ^ That shouldn't be an excuse for using the wrong constraint anyway. This changes "a" (as an input) to "+a" (as an input and output). 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> Fixes: e01b70ef3eb3080fecc35e15f68cd274c0a48163 ("x86: fix bug in arch/i386/lib/delay.c file, delay_loop function") Signed-off-by: Ammar Faizi <ammarfaizi2@xxxxxxxxxxx> --- arch/x86/lib/delay.c | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/arch/x86/lib/delay.c b/arch/x86/lib/delay.c index 65d15df6212d..0e65d00e2339 100644 --- a/arch/x86/lib/delay.c +++ b/arch/x86/lib/delay.c @@ -54,8 +54,8 @@ static void delay_loop(u64 __loops) " jnz 2b \n" "3: dec %0 \n" - : /* we don't need output */ - :"a" (loops) + : "+a" (loops) + : ); } -- 2.32.0