[syslinux] [PATCH 0/2] Do not use the "red zone" on EFI

[Gene Cumm]

On Nov 28, 2015 2:51 AM, "Ady via Syslinux" <syslinux at zytor.com> wrote:

> > From: Sylvain Gault <sylvain.gault at gmail.com>
> >
> > The System V ABI for x86-64 specify that a "red zone" is an area of 128
bytes
> > above the current stack frame. This area can be used by a called
function in
> > order to avoid the overhead of modifying the stack pointer. The direct
effect
> > is that interrupt/event/signal handlers must not write to this area. In
the
> > UEFI calling convention, there is no such thing and the event handlers
do write
> > their data just above the current stack frame.
> >
> > However, gcc generate by default code that uses the red zone. This has
to be
> > disabled explicitely with the option -mno-red-zone. Not doing so lead
to some
> > functions behaving randomly once in a while.
> >
> > Fixing this revealed that some Makefiles out of the efi/ directory have
some
> > specific options when building for BIOS or for EFI. These Makefiles do
this by
> > testing the EFI_BUILD variable. However, this variable wasn't passed
down the
> > Makefiles making these specific options never used.

> The addition of the EFI_BUILD variable inside Makefiles could potentially
> affect scripts such as package builders, perhaps even the way the
> official (pre)release archives are built(?).

Feels like a merge/design oversight.

> For further details and explanation, see the commit "The make files have
> undergone changes to support both i386 and x86_64 platforms" (2012Jun):
>  repo.or.cz/syslinux.git/commit/38e58635d3868c23537fc5dce87b152a52df34ad

This looks superseded by the current design that can simultaneously build
all three architectures at once.

> Perhaps we should consider how to improve the Makefiles without
> potentially breaking backwards compatibility?
>
> Regards,
> Ady.
>
> PS: Shouldn't this type of things (as described in the aforementioned
> commit from 2012Jun) be included in "./doc/building.txt" and in the
> corresponding wiki page?

See above.

--Gene