If AVIAN_USE_FRAME_POINTER is not defined, the caller of vmInvoke will
calculate a frame size which assumes vmInvoke does not push rbp on the
stack before allocating the frame. However, vmInvoke pushes rbp
reguardless, so we need to adjust the frame size to ensure the stack
remains aligned.
This fixes the tails=true build (at least for x86_64) and eliminates
the need for a frame table in the tails=false build. In the
tails=true build, we still need a frame table on x86(_64) to help
determine whether we've caught a thread executing code to do a tail
call or pop arguments off the stack. However, I've not yet written
the code to actually use this table, and it is only needed to handle
asynchronous unwinds via Thread.getStackTrace.
Previously, we unwound the stack by following the chain of frame
pointers for normal returns, stack trace creation, and exception
unwinding. On x86, this required reserving EBP/RBP for frame pointer
duties, making it unavailable for general computation and requiring
that it be explicitly saved and restored on entry and exit,
respectively.
On PowerPC, we use an ABI that makes the stack pointer double as a
frame pointer, so it doesn't cost us anything. We've been using the
same convention on ARM, but it doesn't match the native calling
convention, which makes it unusable when we want to call native code
from Java and pass arguments on the stack.
So far, the ARM calling convention mismatch hasn't been an issue
because we've never passed more arguments from Java to native code
than would fit in registers. However, we must now pass an extra
argument (the thread pointer) to e.g. divideLong so it can throw an
exception on divide by zero, which means the last argument must be
passed on the stack. This will clobber the linkage area we've been
using to hold the frame pointer, so we need to stop using it.
One solution would be to use the same convention on ARM as we do on
x86, but this would introduce the same overhead of making a register
unavailable for general use and extra code at method entry and exit.
Instead, this commit removes the need for a frame pointer. Unwinding
involves consulting a map of instruction offsets to frame sizes which
is generated at compile time. This is necessary because stack trace
creation can happen at any time due to Thread.getStackTrace being
called by another thread, and the frame size varies during the
execution of a method.
So far, only x86(_64) is working, and continuations and tail call
optimization are probably broken. More to come.
This rather large commit modifies the VM to use non-local returns to
throw exceptions instead of simply setting Thread::exception and
returning frame-by-frame as it used to. This has several benefits:
* Functions no longer need to check Thread::exception after each call
which might throw an exception (which would be especially tedious
and error-prone now that any function which allocates objects
directly or indirectly might throw an OutOfMemoryError)
* There's no need to audit the code for calls to functions which
previously did not throw exceptions but later do
* Performance should be improved slightly due to both the reduced
need for conditionals and because undwinding now occurs in a single
jump instead of a series of returns
The main disadvantages are:
* Slightly higher overhead for entering and leaving the VM via the
JNI and JDK methods
* Non-local returns can make the code harder to read
* We must be careful to register destructors for stack-allocated
resources with the Thread so they can be called prior to a
non-local return
The non-local return implementation is similar to setjmp/longjmp,
except it uses continuation-passing style to avoid the need for
cooperation from the C/C++ compiler. Native C++ exceptions would have
also been an option, but that would introduce a dependence on
libstdc++, which we're trying to avoid for portability reasons.
Finally, this commit ensures that the VM throws an OutOfMemoryError
instead of aborting when it reaches its memory ceiling. Currently, we
treat the ceiling as a soft limit and temporarily exceed it as
necessary to allow garbage collection and certain internal allocations
to succeed, but refuse to allocate any Java objects until the heap
size drops back below the ceiling.
GCC 4.5.1 and later use a naming convention where functions are not
prefixed with an underscore, whereas previous versions added the
underscore. This change was made to ensure compatibility with
Microsoft's compiler. Since GCC 4.5.0 has a serious code generation
bug, we now only support later versions, so it makes sense to assume
the newer convention.
The biggest change in this commit is to split the system classloader
into two: one for boot classes (e.g. java.lang.*) and another for
application classes. This is necessary to make OpenJDK's security
checks happy.
The rest of the changes include bugfixes and additional JVM method
implementations in classpath-openjdk.cpp.
Whereas the GNU Classpath port used the strategy of patching Classpath
with core classes from Avian so as to minimize changes to the VM, this
port uses the opposite strategy: abstract and isolate
classpath-specific features in the VM similar to how we abstract away
platform-specific features in system.h. This allows us to use an
unmodified copy of OpenJDK's class library, including its core classes
and augmented by a few VM-specific classes in the "avian" package.
Implementing Thread.getStackTrace is tricky. A thread may interrupt
another thread at any time to grab a stack trace, including while the
latter is executing Java code, JNI code, helper thunks, VM code, or
while transitioning between any of these.
To create a stack trace we use several context fields associated with
the target thread, including snapshots of the instruction pointer,
stack pointer, and frame pointer. These fields must be current,
accurate, and consistent with each other in order to get a reliable
trace. Otherwise, we risk crashing the VM by trying to walk garbage
stack frames or by misinterpreting the size and/or content of
legitimate frames.
This commit addresses sensitive transition points such as entering the
helper thunks which bridge the transitions from Java to native code
(where we must save the stack and frame registers for use from native
code) and stack unwinding (where we must atomically update the thread
context fields to indicate which frame we are unwinding to). When
grabbing a trace for another thread, we determine what kind of code we
caught the thread executing in and use that information to choose the
thread context values with which to begin the trace. See
MyProcessor::getStackTrace::Visitor::visit for details.
In order to atomically update the thread context fields, we do the
following:
1. Create a temporary "transition" object to serve as a staging area
and populate it with the new field values.
2. Update a transition pointer in the thread object to point to the
object created above. As long as this pointer is non-null,
interrupting threads will use the context values in the staging
object instead of those in the thread object.
3. Update the fields in the thread object.
4. Clear the transition pointer in the thread object.
We use a memory barrier between each of these steps to ensure they are
made visible to other threads in program order. See
MyThread::doTransition for details.