[Python-Dev] Python 2.7, long double vs allocator alignment, GCC 8 on x86-64

[Victor Stinner]

See https://bugs.python.org/issue31912 and https://bugs.python.org/issue27987

Victor

2018-01-30 19:56 GMT+01:00 Florian Weimer <fw at deneb.enyo.de>:
> I hope this is the right list for this kind of question.  We recently
> tried to build Python 2.6 with GCC 8, and ran into this issue:
>
>   <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1540316>
>
> Also quoting for context:
>
> | PyInstance_NewRaw contains this code:
> |
> |     inst = PyObject_GC_New(PyInstanceObject, &PyInstance_Type);
> |     if (inst == NULL) {
> |         Py_DECREF(dict);
> |         return NULL;
> |     }
> |     inst->in_weakreflist = NULL;
> |     Py_INCREF(klass);
> |     inst->in_class = (PyClassObject *)klass;
> |     inst->in_dict = dict;
> |     _PyObject_GC_TRACK(inst);
> |
> | _PyObject_GC_TRACK expands to:
> |
> | #define _PyObject_GC_TRACK(o) do { \
> |     PyGC_Head *g = _Py_AS_GC(o); \
> |     if (g->gc.gc_refs != _PyGC_REFS_UNTRACKED) \
> |         Py_FatalError("GC object already tracked"); \
> | …
> |
> | Via:
> |
> | #define _Py_AS_GC(o) ((PyGC_Head *)(o)-1)
> |
> | We get to this:
> |
> | /* GC information is stored BEFORE the object structure. */
> | typedef union _gc_head {
> |     struct {
> |         union _gc_head *gc_next;
> |         union _gc_head *gc_prev;
> |         Py_ssize_t gc_refs;
> |     } gc;
> |     long double dummy;  /* force worst-case alignment */
> | } PyGC_Head;
> |
> | PyGC_Head has 16-byte alignment.  The net result is that
> |
> |     _PyObject_GC_TRACK(inst);
> |
> | promises to the compiler that inst is properly aligned for the
> | PyGC_Head type, but it is not: PyObject_GC_New returns a pointer which
> | is only 8-byte-aligned.
> |
> | Objects/obmalloc.c contains this:
> |
> | /*
> |  * Alignment of addresses returned to the user. 8-bytes alignment works
> |  * on most current architectures (with 32-bit or 64-bit address busses).
> |  * The alignment value is also used for grouping small requests in size
> |  * classes spaced ALIGNMENT bytes apart.
> |  *
> |  * You shouldn't change this unless you know what you are doing.
> |  */
> | #define ALIGNMENT               8               /* must be 2^N */
> | #define ALIGNMENT_SHIFT         3
> | #define ALIGNMENT_MASK          (ALIGNMENT - 1)
> |
> | So either the allocator alignment needs to be increased, or the
> | PyGC_Head alignment needs to be decreased.
>
> Is this a known issue?  As far as I can see, it has not been fixed on
> the 2.7 branch.
>
> (Store merging is a relatively new GCC feature.  Among other things,
> this means that on x86-64, for sufficiently aligned pointers, vector
> instructions are used to update multiple struct fields at once.  These
> vector instructions can trigger alignment traps, similar to what
> happens on some other architectures for scalars.)
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