Re: [PATCH, RFC] MIPS: Implement the getcontext API

[Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org>]

On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 08:36:45AM -0800, David Daney wrote:

>> That won't quite retain the ABI: you need to make sure everyone
>> locates it by using the stack pointer instead of the return pc.
>> Fortunately, GCC uses the return PC only for instruction matching
>> today.  I have a vague memory it used to use the stack pointer but
>> this was more reliable.
>
> That is correct.  Due to various errata the trampoline cannot always be  
> at a fixed offset to the signal context bits.  So we had to use the  
> return PC as you indicate.

To maintaine compatibility with old debuggers and possibly other software
that knows about the stackframe layout I wrote the signal code to only
use the larger alignment of the stackframe if a particular processor
requires it.

However one possible improvment would be to change the way a struct sigframe
or rt_sigframe is allocated on the stack such that not the beginning of
the structure is aligned but the rs_code field is kept aligned.  Would
such a change cause problems for gdb?

  Ralf