include/qemu/compiler: add QEMU_UNINITIALIZED attribute macro

The QEMU_UNINITIALIZED macro is to be used to skip the default compiler
variable initialization done by -ftrivial-auto-var-init=zero.

Use this in cases where there a method in the device I/O path (or other
important hot paths), that has large variables on the stack. A rule of
thumb is that "large" means a method with 4kb data in the local stack
frame. Any variables which are KB in size, should be annotated with this
attribute, to pre-emptively eliminate any potential overhead from the
compiler zero'ing memory.

Given that this turns off a security hardening feature, when using this
to flag variables, it is important that the code is double-checked to
ensure there is no possible use of uninitialized data in the method.

Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
Message-id: 20250610123709.835102-2-berrange@redhat.com
[DB: split off patch & rewrite guidance on when to use the annotation]
Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>

diff --git a/include/qemu/compiler.h b/include/qemu/compiler.h
index 496dac5ac111309319c0289f9645c91d694ef374..65b89958d36fed4fd19f94e1164f90049a79ae60 100644 (file)
--- a/include/qemu/compiler.h
+++ b/include/qemu/compiler.h
@@ -207,6 +207,26 @@
 # define QEMU_USED
 #endif
 
+/*
+ * Disable -ftrivial-auto-var-init on a local variable.
+ *
+ * Use this in cases where there a method in the device I/O path (or other
+ * important hot paths), that has large variables on the stack. A rule of
+ * thumb is that "large" means a method with 4kb data in the local stack
+ * frame. Any variables which are KB in size, should be annotated with this
+ * attribute, to pre-emptively eliminate any potential overhead from the
+ * compiler's implicit zero'ing of memory.
+ *
+ * Given that this turns off a security hardening feature, when using this
+ * to flag variables, it is important that the code is double-checked to
+ * ensure there is no possible use of uninitialized data in the method.
+ */
+#if __has_attribute(uninitialized)
+# define QEMU_UNINITIALIZED __attribute__((uninitialized))
+#else
+# define QEMU_UNINITIALIZED
+#endif
+
 /*
  * http://clang.llvm.org/docs/ThreadSafetyAnalysis.html
  *