Re: Compile Assembly and C files together

From	David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Compile Assembly and C files together
Date	2018-03-07 11:37 +0100
Organization	A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID	<p7ofcq$gru$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References	(1 earlier) <p7ltie$8t5$3@toylet.eternal-september.org> <p7m6g4$93a$1@dont-email.me> <20180306145910.01512e6b@Mars> <p7mcge$oci$1@dont-email.me> <09640d63-f1b3-43c5-970d-4ac66db41cf3@googlegroups.com>

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On 06/03/18 16:57, supercat@casperkitty.com wrote:
> On Tuesday, March 6, 2018 at 9:35:52 AM UTC-6, David Brown wrote:
>> On 06/03/18 15:59, Rob Morley wrote:
>>> That's handy.  Although the last time I wrote any assembler was about
>>> 20 years ago, I still might ...
>>>
>>
>> It is not good advice.  At best it gives you a very limited idea of the
>> calling conventions and registers usage.  If you really want to write
>> pure assembly functions that interact with code in other languages, you
>> have to read up on the calling conventions and ABI for the target (and,
>> if it is Windows, for the compiler you are using - the ABI is not
>> standardised on Windows).
>>
>> If you are using gcc (or clang, or icc, or a few other compilers) and
>> you are writing short pieces of assembly, you would be better off
>> learning about gcc's inline assembly support.  Then the compiler takes
>> care of all the interface between the assembly and C.
> 
> If one needs to use a small assembly-language routine to accomplish some
> purpose, and won't be writing a lot of assembly language on the development
> system, letting a compiler generate a stub function for e.g.
> 
>     extern volatile void*pp1,*pp2;
>     extern volatile int nn;
> 
>     long multiply_accumulate(void *p1, void *p2, int n)
>     {
>       pp1 = p1;
>       pp2 = p2;
>       nn = n;
>       return nn;
>     }
> 
> and then editing in the actual machine instructions one needs, along with
> a human-readable prologue etc. is apt to be much faster than reading through
> all of the documentation to find out everything the development system will
> need.

Faster to learn, perhaps - but less accurate, less helpful, and far less
efficient (and it is often for efficiency that people look to assembly
in the first place).  It also means you need to write more assembly
yourself.

Let us take your "multiply-accumulate" example, and turn it into a
realistic case rather than your jumbled mixture.

The key operation is perhaps this function:

long int mac(long int a, int b, int c) {
	return a + (long int) b * c;
}

Maybe your real types will be different, but these will do for an example.

On x86-64, this will be done with code like this:

mac:
        movsx   rax, edx
        movsx   rsi, esi
        imul    rsi, rax
        lea     rax, [rsi+rdi]
        ret

The generated assembly for your example function gives (with gcc -O2,
64-bit Linux target using godbolt.org) :

multiply_accumulate:
        mov     DWORD PTR nn[rip], edx
        movsx   rax, DWORD PTR nn[rip]
        mov     QWORD PTR pp1[rip], rdi
        mov     QWORD PTR pp2[rip], rsi
        ret

How exactly does that give you /any/ sort of hint as to how to write the
assembly code for a "mac" function like the one I gave?  It gives you
some guesses as to which registers might be used for parameters and
returns, but you'd get that faster with a quick google search.

Writing this using gcc inline assembly, you have:

long int mac1(long int a, int b, int c) {
    long int m;
    long int bl = b;
    long int cl = c;
    asm (
        "imul %[b], %[c]\n\t"
        "lea %[m], [%[a] + %[b]]"
        : [m] "=r" (m)
        : [a] "r" (a), [b] "r" (bl), [c] "r" (cl)
        :
    );
    return m;
}

Note carefully that there are only /two/ assembly lines here.  The
/compiler/ takes care of extending the 32-bit parameters to 64-bit.

Note also that the registers used are not fixed - the /compiler/ picks
registers, and handles any pushing, popping, register movement that
might be needed.

The reason you would want to do inline assembly here is that the cpu has
an instruction that the compiler does not use - otherwise you just let
the C compiler generate the code.  So let us suppose that your x86 has a
"mac" instruction that multiplies two 32-bit registers and adds it to a
64-bit register, just like the "mac" function above.  How do you write
that in gcc inline assembly?

long int mac2(long int a, int b, int c) {
    asm (
        "mac %[a], %[b], %[c]"
        : [a] "+r" (a)
        : [b] "r" (b), [c] "r" (c)
        :
    );
    return a;
}

That is /one/ assembly instruction.

And once you actually /use/ the function in code, such as a realistic
loop, you get the advantage of the compiler picking the registers to
suit the rest of the code.

long int macs2(long int a, const int * pb, const int * pc, int n) {
    while (n--) {
        a = mac(a, *pb++, *pc++);
    }
    return a;
}

Learning gcc inline assembly means a bit of research, but there are
plenty of examples and tutorials around.  Assembly is never easy in any
case - you have to put in some effort in learning, understanding and
testing.  Using inline assembly features means much less assembly code
and usually far more efficient results.

Of course, usually the best answer is not to use assembly in the first
place.  The compiler is better than most assembly programmers in most
circumstances, and the compiler's builtin functions, extensions, and
additional headers with "intrinsic" functions are usually easier, safer
and faster (while still being non-portable, of course).

Thread

Compile Assembly and C files together Ilias Abrams <iliasabrams@gmail.com> - 2018-03-05 08:23 -0800
  Re: Compile Assembly and C files together "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2018-03-06 19:20 +0800
    Re: Compile Assembly and C files together druck <news@druck.org.uk> - 2018-03-06 13:53 +0000
      Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Rob Morley <nospam@ntlworld.com> - 2018-03-06 14:59 +0000
        Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-06 16:35 +0100
          Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-06 07:57 -0800
            Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-06 16:35 +0000
              Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2018-03-06 18:15 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-06 18:51 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2018-03-06 19:22 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-06 19:30 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-06 12:31 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-06 23:05 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 12:17 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2018-03-07 16:05 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-07 16:45 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 17:54 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2018-03-07 16:59 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-07 17:13 +0000
              Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 12:26 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-07 14:25 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 15:57 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-07 15:24 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 17:56 +0100
            Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 11:37 +0100
              Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-07 13:11 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-07 15:47 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Malcolm McLean <malcolm.arthur.mclean@gmail.com> - 2018-03-07 07:31 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-07 21:00 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-08 12:33 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-08 13:05 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-08 15:14 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-08 15:23 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-08 23:22 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-08 14:40 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2018-03-08 23:59 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-08 16:54 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-09 10:37 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Ben Bacarisse <ben.usenet@bsb.me.uk> - 2018-03-09 10:47 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-09 09:19 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-09 10:23 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-09 12:28 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-09 16:43 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-09 17:14 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-09 09:32 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-08 15:26 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Jorgen Grahn <grahn+nntp@snipabacken.se> - 2018-03-08 19:23 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-08 23:27 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-08 16:17 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-08 23:47 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-09 11:59 +0000
              Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-07 09:13 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-07 17:42 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-07 10:55 -0800
      Re: Compile Assembly and C files together "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2018-03-06 23:01 +0800
    Re: Compile Assembly and C files together ray carter <ray@zianet.com> - 2018-03-06 15:44 +0000
      Re: Compile Assembly and C files together "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2018-03-07 00:07 +0800
        Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-07 22:39 +0200
          Re: Compile Assembly and C files together "Mr. Man-wai Chang" <toylet.toylet@gmail.com> - 2018-03-08 18:18 +0800
            Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-03-08 12:37 +0000
              Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-03-08 13:13 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-08 13:34 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-03-08 15:27 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together mm0fmf <none@invalid.com> - 2018-03-08 17:33 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 09:06 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 09:17 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 09:30 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-09 15:56 +0200
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-09 14:13 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2018-03-09 11:14 -0500
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 17:44 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-09 17:16 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2018-03-09 11:19 -0600
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together bartc <bc@freeuk.com> - 2018-03-09 18:11 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2018-03-09 13:41 -0600
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-09 10:12 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-09 19:20 +0100
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together supercat@casperkitty.com - 2018-03-09 11:45 -0800
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Robert Wessel <robertwessel2@yahoo.com> - 2018-03-09 13:48 -0600
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Dennis Lee Bieber <wlfraed@ix.netcom.com> - 2018-03-09 13:16 -0500
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-09 18:29 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Jack Fearnley <jack@alcor.concordia.ca> - 2018-03-09 19:07 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-09 19:13 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2018-03-10 13:16 -0600
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-03-11 19:39 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2018-03-12 01:16 -0500
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Martin Gregorie <martin@mydomain.invalid> - 2018-03-12 20:49 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-12 16:11 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2018-03-12 14:58 -0500
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-12 20:38 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2018-03-12 16:06 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> - 2018-03-12 14:58 -0500
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-09 21:27 +0200
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 17:40 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-09 21:30 +0200
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Richard Damon <Richard@Damon-Family.org> - 2018-03-09 13:16 -0500
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-09 21:33 +0200
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together mm0fmf <none@invalid.com> - 2018-03-09 17:40 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 17:47 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together mm0fmf <none@invalid.com> - 2018-03-09 18:05 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-09 09:05 +0000
                Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-09 16:01 +0200
            Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@notused.fi.invalid> - 2018-03-08 17:25 +0200
    Re: Compile Assembly and C files together The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-07 07:36 +0000
  Re: Compile Assembly and C files together Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2018-03-06 15:29 +0000
    Re: Compile Assembly and C files together David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2018-03-06 16:38 +0100

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