Bug 164440

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Description of problem:
The padding and alignment of .text in linux-gate.so.1 is inconsistent.    __kernel_vsyscall is padded with bytes of 0 [which is "add %al,(%eax)"], __kernel_sigreturn is padded with 'nop' instructions, and __kernel_rt_sigreturn is followed very shortly by non-instructions.

For best performance, .text and non-.text should not be mixed in the same cache line, so __kernel_rt_sigreturn should be padded to 32 bytes instead of just 8.  Also for best performance, any bytes that might be seen by the instruction prefetch+decode/translate hardware should designate non-faulting addresses, so __kernel_vsyscall should not use a string of 0 bytes which decodes as "add %al,(%eax)".  Potential instructions also should not trigger register relabeling, so the safest pad is 'nop'.  Icache performance would tend to increase slightly if all three routines occupied the same 1 cache line, with  each routine starting on an 8-byte boundary.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
2.6.12-1.1398_FC4

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Disassemble linux-gate.so.1 as mapped into a process.
2.
3.
  

Actual Results:  0x705400 <__kernel_vsyscall>:   int    $0x80
0x705402 <__kernel_vsyscall+2>: ret
0x705403 <__kernel_vsyscall+3>: add    %al,(%eax)   ## possible costly hardware translation
0x705405 <__kernel_vsyscall+5>: add    %al,(%eax)
0x705407 <__kernel_vsyscall+7>: add    %al,(%eax)

0x705420 <__kernel_sigreturn>:  pop    %eax
0x705421 <__kernel_sigreturn+1>:        mov    $0x77,%eax
0x705426 <__kernel_sigreturn+6>:        int    $0x80
0x705428 <__kernel_sigreturn+8>:        nop   ## good safe padding
0x705429 <__kernel_sigreturn+9>:        nop


0x705440 <__kernel_rt_sigreturn>:       mov    $0xad,%eax
0x705445 <__kernel_rt_sigreturn+5>:     int    $0x80
0x705447 <__kernel_rt_sigreturn+7>:     nop
0x705448:       push   %es   ## non-.text
0x705449:       add    %al,(%eax)
0x70544b:       add    %al,(%eax,%eax,1)


Expected Results:  +0x400: <__kernel_vsyscall>:  int $0x80; ret; nop; nop; nop; nop; nop

+0x408: <__kernel_sigreturn>: pop %eax; mov $0x77,%eax; int $0x80

+0x410: <__kernel_rt_sigreturn>: mov $0xad,%eax; int $0x80; nop

+0x418: nop; nop; nop; nop; nop; nop; nop; nop

+0x420:

Additional info: