PowerPC ftrace function trace optimisation

[Steven Rostedt]

On Thu, 2010-04-29 at 10:51 +1000, Anton Blanchard wrote:
> Hi,

> # gcc -pg -mprofile-kernel
> 
> 0000000000000000 <.foo>:
>    0:   7c 08 02 a6     mflr    r0
>    4:   f8 01 00 10     std     r0,16(r1)
>    8:   48 00 00 01     bl      8 <.foo+0x8>	<--- call to mcount
> 
>    c:   7c 08 02 a6     mflr    r0

Why the extra mflr? Can't we just make it a requirement that mcount
returns with r0 back to what it was?

-- Steve

>   10:   f8 01 00 10     std     r0,16(r1)
>   14:   f8 21 ff d1     stdu    r1,-48(r1)
>   18:   e9 22 00 00     ld      r9,0(r2)
>   1c:   e8 69 00 02     lwa     r3,0(r9)
>   20:   38 21 00 30     addi    r1,r1,48
>   24:   e8 01 00 10     ld      r0,16(r1)
>   28:   7c 08 03 a6     mtlr    r0
>   2c:   4e 80 00 20     blr
> 
> 
> This mean we could support ftrace function trace with very little overhead.
> 
> In fact if we are careful when switching to the new mcount ABI and don't
> rely on the store of r0, we could probably optimise this even further in a
> future gcc and remove the store completely. mcount would be 2 instructions:
> 
>    mflr    r0              
>    bl      8 <.foo+0x8>
> 
> Anton