C Language Inline assembly gcc Extended asm support
Example
Extended asm support in gcc has the following syntax:
asm [volatile] ( AssemblerTemplate
: OutputOperands
[ : InputOperands
[ : Clobbers ] ])
asm [volatile] goto ( AssemblerTemplate
:
: InputOperands
: Clobbers
: GotoLabels)
where AssemblerTemplate is the template for the assembler instruction, OutputOperands are any C variables that can be modified by the assembly code, InputOperands are any C variables used as input parameters, Clobbers are a list or registers that are modified by the assembly code, and GotoLabels are any goto statement labels that may be used in the assembly code.
The extended format is used within C functions and is the more typical usage of inline assembly. Below is an example from the Linux kernel for byte swapping 16-bit and 32-bit numbers for an ARM processor:
/* From arch/arm/include/asm/swab.h in Linux kernel version 4.6.4 */
#if __LINUX_ARM_ARCH__ >= 6
static inline __attribute_const__ __u32 __arch_swahb32(__u32 x)
{
__asm__ ("rev16 %0, %1" : "=r" (x) : "r" (x));
return x;
}
#define __arch_swahb32 __arch_swahb32
#define __arch_swab16(x) ((__u16)__arch_swahb32(x))
static inline __attribute_const__ __u32 __arch_swab32(__u32 x)
{
__asm__ ("rev %0, %1" : "=r" (x) : "r" (x));
return x;
}
#define __arch_swab32 __arch_swab32
#endif
Each asm section uses the variable x as its input and output parameter. The C function then returns the manipulated result.
With the extended asm format, gcc may optimize the assembly instructions in an asm block following the same rules it uses for optimizing C code. If you want your asm section to remain untouched, use the volatile keyword for the asm section.
