assembler routines and stack frame generation

[Marladu]

Well, I had typed up this as a report but remembered being asked to write in forums before filing reports so here's what I was going to report.
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assembler routines won't respect {$OPTIMIZATION STACKFRAME} and {$STACKFRAMES OFF} but respects nostackframe function modifier
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 In the following code with {$OPTIMIZATION STACKFRAME} and {$STACKFRAMES OFF}, if I leave commented out the "nostackframe;" function modifer the following code is generated:

push   %ebp
mov    %esp,%ebp
lea    -0x4(%esp),%esp
add    %edx,%eax
leave 
ret   

 However, if I uncomment the "nostackframe;" function modifer the following code is generated:

add    %edx,%eax
ret   

 From the documentation of {$STACKFRAMES OFF} it says it won't turn off stackframes for assembler routines. Alright then so that's why it doesn't work in this case. But the documentation of {$OPTIMIZATION STACKFRAME} does not mention what rules it follows.

 In the end if {$OPTIMIZATION STACKFRAME} is completely identical to {$STACKFRAMES OFF} then it should be mentioned in the documentation, else if it's supposed to apply the "nostackframe;" to every function then it's not doing it to assembler routines.

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program Project1;

{$APPTYPE GUI}
{$STACKFRAMES OFF}
{$INLINE ON}
{$MODE FPC}
{$ASMMODE INTEL}
{$MMX-}
{$FPUTYPE SSE2}
{$OPTIMIZATION LEVEL3}
{$OPTIMIZATION REGVAR}
{$OPTIMIZATION STACKFRAME}
{$OPTIMIZATION PEEPHOLE}
{$OPTIMIZATION ASMCSE}
{$OPTIMIZATION LOOPUNROLL}
{$OPTIMIZATION TAILREC}
{$OPTIMIZATION CSE}
{$OPTIMIZATION DFA}
{$OPTIMIZATION USEEBP}
{$OPTIMIZATION ORDERFIELDS}
{$OPTIMIZATION FASTMATH}
{$OPTIMIZATION REMOVEEMPTYPROCS}
{$OPTIMIZATION CONSTPROP}

function test_it(a,b:longint):longint;assembler;//nostackframe;
asm
 add eax,edx
end;

procedure test;
begin
 if test_it(10,20)<>30 then
  halt(1);
end;

begin
 test;
end.

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 So, the question is, should the "nostackframe" function modifier be required after specifying {$OPTIMIZATION STACKFRAME} and {$STACKFRAMES OFF}?

[engkin]

From the documentation of {$STACKFRAMES OFF} it says it won't turn off stackframes for assembler routines.

Where did you read that?
According to this, your test_it function should have a stackframe because it has parameters.

[Marladu]

 Hi and thanks for your reply.

 In the very same page you linked it says: "If the procedure is not an assembler procedure, it must not have a asm …end; block.", i figured that meant that compiler directive doesn't apply to assembler routines.

 Interestingly enough, changing mode to {$MODE DELPHI} without changing anything else in the code in the first post (so without nostackframe function modifier) then no stack frame is generated. Also, by digging up the compiler source code I found an undocumented compiler directive {$OPTIMIZATION FORCENOSTACKFRAME} that did remove that stackframe. I'm guessing it adds the nostackframe function modifier to every function so should be used carefully.

[engkin]

In the very same page you linked it says: "If the procedure is not an assembler procedure, it must not have a asm …end; block.", i figured that meant that compiler directive doesn't apply to assembler routines.

My understanding is that it should *not* have an asm block *inside* a pascal procedure, it should be a pure pascal procedure or a pure assembly procedure. So mixing assembly and pascal is going to cause a stackframe, as in:

Code: [Select]

procedure SomeProc;
begin
..
//The following asm block is going to cause a stackframe:
  asm
    //some assembly
    ..
  end;
..
end;


[Marladu]

 Ah ok thanks for the clarification, that wasn't what I had understood.

 As for {$OPTIMIZATION FORCENOSTACKFRAME} I made a mistake, it doesn't seem to do anything at this time, it's probably a work in progress. No idea why the stack frame in the code presented disappears when using {$mode delphi} but it does, just like it does in {$mode fpc} with "nostackframe;" on function implementation.