From 194ec34184869f0de1cf255c924fc5299e1b3d27 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Steven Rostedt Date: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:33:50 -0400 Subject: function-graph/x86: Replace unbalanced ret with jmp The function graph tracer replaces the return address with a hook to trace the exit of the function call. This hook will finish by returning to the real location the function should return to. But the current implementation uses a ret to jump to the real return location. This causes a imbalance between calls and ret. That is the original function does a call, the ret goes to the handler and then the handler does a ret without a matching call. Although the function graph tracer itself still breaks the branch predictor by replacing the original ret, by using a second ret and causing an imbalance, it breaks the predictor even more. This patch replaces the ret with a jmp to keep the calls and ret balanced. I tested this on one box and it showed a 1.7% increase in performance. Another box only showed a small 0.3% increase. But no box that I tested this on showed a decrease in performance by making this change. Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt Acked-by: Mathieu Desnoyers Cc: Frederic Weisbecker LKML-Reference: <20091013203425.042034383@goodmis.org> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar --- arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S | 7 ++----- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) (limited to 'arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S') diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S b/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S index c097e7d607c..7d52e9da5e0 100644 --- a/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/entry_32.S @@ -1185,17 +1185,14 @@ END(ftrace_graph_caller) .globl return_to_handler return_to_handler: - pushl $0 pushl %eax - pushl %ecx pushl %edx movl %ebp, %eax call ftrace_return_to_handler - movl %eax, 0xc(%esp) + movl %eax, %ecx popl %edx - popl %ecx popl %eax - ret + jmp *%ecx #endif .section .rodata,"a" -- cgit v1.2.3-18-g5258