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Date:      Wed, 10 Feb 2010 09:19:03 -0700 (MST)
From:      "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        marius@nuenneri.ch
Cc:        net@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: struct sockaddr * and alignment
Message-ID:  <20100210.091903.177810546894923209.imp@bsdimp.com>
In-Reply-To: <b649e5e1002100148r759f3aacr3d5fcdfb5efd9001@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <20100209.103411.506052712871889475.imp@bsdimp.com> <b649e5e1002100148r759f3aacr3d5fcdfb5efd9001@mail.gmail.com>

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In message: <b649e5e1002100148r759f3aacr3d5fcdfb5efd9001@mail.gmail.com=
>
            Marius N=FCnnerich <marius@nuenneri.ch> writes:
: On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 18:34, M. Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> wrote:
: > Greetings,
: >
: > I've found a few inconsistencies in the sockaddr stuff in the tree.=

: > I'm not sure where to go to get a definitive answer, so I thought I=
'd
: > start here.
: >
: > I got here looking at the recent wake breakage on mips. =A0It turns=
 out
: > that the warning was:
: >
: > src/usr.sbin/wake/wake.c: In function 'find_ether':
: > src/usr.sbin/wake/wake.c:123: warning: cast increases required alig=
nment of target type
: >
: > which comes from
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0sdl =3D (struct sockaddr_dl *)ifa->ifa_addr;
: >
: > The problem is that on MIPS struct sockaddr * is byte aligned and
: > sockaddr_dl * is word aligned, so the compiler is rightly telling u=
s
: > that there might be a problem here.
: >
: > However, further digging shows that there will never be a problem
: > here with alignment. =A0struct sockaddr_storage has a int64 in it t=
o
: > force it to be __aligned(8). =A0So I thought to myself "why don't I=
 just
: > add __aligned(8) to the struct sockaddr definition?" =A0After all, =
the
: > kernel goes to great lengths to return data so aligned, and user co=
de
: > also keeps things aligned.
: >
: > Sure enough, that fixes this warning. =A0Yea. =A0But, sadly, it cau=
ses
: > other problems. =A0If you look at sbin/atm/atmconfig/natm.c you'll =
see
: > code like:
: >
: > static void
: > store_route(struct rt_msghdr *rtm)
: > {
: > ...
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0char *cp
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0struct sockaddr *sa;
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0...
: >
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0cp =3D (char *)(rtm + 1);
: > ...
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0sa =3D (struct socka=
ddr *)cp;
: > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0cp +=3D roundup(sa->=
sa_len, sizeof(long));
: > ...
: >
: > which breaks because we're now casting from an __aligned(1) char * =
to
: > an __aligned(8) sockaddr *.
: >
: > And it is only rounding the size of the structure to long, rather t=
han
: > int64 like sockaddr_storage suggests is the proper alignment. =A0Bu=
t I
: > haven't looked in the kernel to see if there's an issue there with
: > routing sockets or not.
: >
: > The other extreme is to put __aligned(1) on all the sockaddr_foo
: > structures. =A0This would solve the compiler warning, but would hav=
e a
: > negative effect on performance in accessing these elements (because=

: > the compiler would have to generate calls to bcopy or equivalent to=

: > access the scalar members that are larger than a byte). =A0 This cu=
re
: > would be worse than the disease.
: >
: > So the question here is "What is the right solution here?" =A0It ha=
s me
: > stumped. =A0So I dropped WARNS level down from 6 to 3 for wake.c.
: =

: Hi Warner,
: =

: I got into the same kind of trouble when I tried to raise the WARNS
: level above 3 for inetd and others. I guess everything which uses som=
e
: sockaddr casting or (in the case of inetd) some of these macros:
: http://fxr.googlebit.com/source/sys/netinet6/in6.h?v=3D8-CURRENT#L233=

: =

: It's a pity that only this keeps some programs from going to a WARNS =
level of 6.

Well, if there were some way to tell the compiler "Yes, I know this is
right" then we'd be set.  But I've not found what that way might be.

Warner




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