[v2] app/testpmd: fix IP checksum calculation

Message ID 20201205054238.12469-1-prekageo@amazon.com (mailing list archive)
State Superseded, archived
Delegated to: Ferruh Yigit
Headers
Series [v2] app/testpmd: fix IP checksum calculation |

Checks

Context Check Description
ci/checkpatch success coding style OK
ci/iol-broadcom-Functional success Functional Testing PASS
ci/iol-broadcom-Performance success Performance Testing PASS
ci/iol-testing success Testing PASS
ci/iol-intel-Functional success Functional Testing PASS
ci/iol-intel-Performance success Performance Testing PASS
ci/travis-robot success Travis build: passed
ci/Intel-compilation success Compilation OK

Commit Message

George Prekas Dec. 5, 2020, 5:42 a.m. UTC
  Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.

Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
---
v2:
* Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
---
 app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
  

Comments

George Prekas Jan. 5, 2021, 4:26 p.m. UTC | #1
On 12/4/2020 11:42 PM, George Prekas wrote:
> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>
> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
> ---
> v2:
> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
> ---
>   app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>
> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>   # override default name to drop the hyphen
>   name = 'testpmd'
>   cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>   sources = files('5tswap.c',
>   	'cmdline.c',
>   	'cmdline_flow.c',
Happy New Year!

Any updates on this?

Thanks,
George
  
Ferruh Yigit Jan. 6, 2021, 6:02 p.m. UTC | #2
On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
> 
> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
> ---
> v2:
> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
> ---
>   app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>   # override default name to drop the hyphen
>   name = 'testpmd'
>   cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>   sources = files('5tswap.c',
>   	'cmdline.c',
>   	'cmdline_flow.c',
> 

Hi George,

I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));

You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const 
unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using 
data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the 
data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.

1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose 
content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr' 
pointing is changed.

2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()' 
called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you 
able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?


And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is 
an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I 
guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and 
union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please 
give a try since you can reproduce it?
  
Stephen Hemminger Jan. 7, 2021, 5:25 a.m. UTC | #3
On Wed, 6 Jan 2021 18:02:49 +0000
Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit@intel.com> wrote:

> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
> > Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
> > and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
> > 
> > Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
> > ---
> > v2:
> > * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
> > ---
> >   app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
> >   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> > 
> > diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> > index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
> > --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> > +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> > @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
> >   # override default name to drop the hyphen
> >   name = 'testpmd'
> >   cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
> > +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
> >   sources = files('5tswap.c',
> >   	'cmdline.c',
> >   	'cmdline_flow.c',
> >   
> 
> Hi George,
> 
> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> 
> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const 
> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using 
> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the 
> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
> 
> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose 
> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr' 
> pointing is changed.
> 
> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()' 
> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you 
> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
> 
> 
> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is 
> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I 
> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and 
> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please 
> give a try since you can reproduce it?

If it is an aliasing problem, it should be fixed with a union instead of a compiler flag.
  
George Prekas Jan. 7, 2021, 5:39 a.m. UTC | #4
On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>> ---
>> v2:
>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>> ---
>>   app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>
>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>   # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>   name = 'testpmd'
>>   cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>   sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>       'cmdline.c',
>>       'cmdline_flow.c',
>>
> 
> Hi George,
> 
> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> 
> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
> 
> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
> pointing is changed.
> 
> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
> 
> 
> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
> give a try since you can reproduce it?

Hi Ferruh,

Thanks for looking into it.

I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.

My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).

--- cut here --- 

#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
	uint8_t  version_ihl;
	uint8_t  type_of_service;
	uint16_t total_length;
	uint16_t packet_id;
	uint16_t fragment_offset;
	uint8_t  time_to_live;
	uint8_t  next_proto_id;
	uint16_t hdr_checksum;
	uint32_t src_addr;
	uint32_t dst_addr;
};

static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
{
	uint32_t sum = 0;

	while (hdr_len > 1)
	{
		sum += *hdr++;
		if (sum & 0x80000000)
			sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
		hdr_len -= 2;
	}

	while (sum >> 16)
		sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);

	return ~sum;
}

static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
{
	struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
	memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
	ip_hdr->version_ihl	= 1;
	ip_hdr->type_of_service	= 2;
	ip_hdr->fragment_offset	= 3;
	ip_hdr->time_to_live	= 4;
	ip_hdr->next_proto_id	= 5;
	ip_hdr->packet_id	= 6;
	ip_hdr->src_addr	= 7;
	ip_hdr->dst_addr	= 8;
	ip_hdr->total_length	= 9;
	ip_hdr->hdr_checksum	= ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
	printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
}

int main(void)
{
	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
	return 0;
}
  
Ferruh Yigit Jan. 7, 2021, 11:32 a.m. UTC | #5
On 1/7/2021 5:39 AM, George Prekas wrote:
> 
> 
> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>>> ---
>>> v2:
>>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>>> ---
>>>    app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>>    1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>>    # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>>    name = 'testpmd'
>>>    cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>>    sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>>        'cmdline.c',
>>>        'cmdline_flow.c',
>>>
>>
>> Hi George,
>>
>> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
>> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>
>> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
>> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
>> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
>> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
>> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
>>
>> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
>> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
>> pointing is changed.
>>
>> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
>> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
>> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
>>
>>
>> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
>> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
>> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
>> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
>> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
>> give a try since you can reproduce it?
> 
> Hi Ferruh,
> 
> Thanks for looking into it.
> 
> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.
> 
> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
> 

Thanks for the sample code below, I copied to the godbolt:
https://godbolt.org/z/6fMK19

In gcc 10, the checksum calculation is done during compilation (when 
optimization is enabled) and the value is returned directly:
mov    $0xffed,%esi

Since a calculation is happening I assume the compiler knows about the aliasing 
and OK with it.

But that optimized calculation seems wrong, when it is disabled [1] the checksum 
is correct again.

[1] all following seems helping to disable compile time calculation
- disabling optimization
- putting a compiler barrier
- putting a 'printf' inside 'ip_sum()'
- fno-strict-aliasing

gcc 8 & 9 is not doing this compile time calculation, hence they are not affected.

This feels like an optimization issue in gcc10, but not sure exactly on the root 
cause, and how to disable it properly in our case.

> --- cut here ---
> 
> #include <stdint.h>
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> #include <string.h>
> 
> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
> 	uint8_t  version_ihl;
> 	uint8_t  type_of_service;
> 	uint16_t total_length;
> 	uint16_t packet_id;
> 	uint16_t fragment_offset;
> 	uint8_t  time_to_live;
> 	uint8_t  next_proto_id;
> 	uint16_t hdr_checksum;
> 	uint32_t src_addr;
> 	uint32_t dst_addr;
> };
> 
> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
> {
> 	uint32_t sum = 0;
> 
> 	while (hdr_len > 1)
> 	{
> 		sum += *hdr++;
> 		if (sum & 0x80000000)
> 			sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
> 		hdr_len -= 2;
> 	}
> 
> 	while (sum >> 16)
> 		sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
> 
> 	return ~sum;
> }
> 
> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
> {
> 	struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
> 	memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> 	ip_hdr->version_ihl	= 1;
> 	ip_hdr->type_of_service	= 2;
> 	ip_hdr->fragment_offset	= 3;
> 	ip_hdr->time_to_live	= 4;
> 	ip_hdr->next_proto_id	= 5;
> 	ip_hdr->packet_id	= 6;
> 	ip_hdr->src_addr	= 7;
> 	ip_hdr->dst_addr	= 8;
> 	ip_hdr->total_length	= 9;
> 	ip_hdr->hdr_checksum	= ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> 	printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
> }
> 
> int main(void)
> {
> 	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
> 	return 0;
> }
>
  
Ferruh Yigit Jan. 7, 2021, 1:06 p.m. UTC | #6
On 1/7/2021 11:32 AM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
> On 1/7/2021 5:39 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>>> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>>>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>>>> ---
>>>> v2:
>>>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>>>> ---
>>>>    app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>>>    1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>>>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>>>    # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>>>    name = 'testpmd'
>>>>    cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>>>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>>>    sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>>>        'cmdline.c',
>>>>        'cmdline_flow.c',
>>>>
>>>
>>> Hi George,
>>>
>>> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
>>> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>
>>> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
>>> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
>>> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
>>> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
>>> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
>>>
>>> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
>>> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
>>> pointing is changed.
>>>
>>> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
>>> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
>>> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
>>>
>>>
>>> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
>>> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
>>> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
>>> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
>>> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
>>> give a try since you can reproduce it?
>>
>> Hi Ferruh,
>>
>> Thanks for looking into it.
>>
>> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It 
>> calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile 
>> it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If 
>> you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will 
>> get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different 
>> versions behave.
>>
>> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard 
>> (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
>>
> 
> Thanks for the sample code below, I copied to the godbolt:
> https://godbolt.org/z/6fMK19
> 
> In gcc 10, the checksum calculation is done during compilation (when 
> optimization is enabled) and the value is returned directly:
> mov    $0xffed,%esi
> 
> Since a calculation is happening I assume the compiler knows about the aliasing 
> and OK with it.
> 
> But that optimized calculation seems wrong, when it is disabled [1] the checksum 
> is correct again.
> 
> [1] all following seems helping to disable compile time calculation
> - disabling optimization
> - putting a compiler barrier
> - putting a 'printf' inside 'ip_sum()'
> - fno-strict-aliasing
> 
> gcc 8 & 9 is not doing this compile time calculation, hence they are not affected.
> 
> This feels like an optimization issue in gcc10, but not sure exactly on the root 
> cause, and how to disable it properly in our case.
> 

As checked with the Harry, latest finding is gcc 10 left out any _non_ uint16_t 
type variable in sturct during its compile time calculation. Not sure if it is 
because of broken aliasing or gcc defect, I will report the issue.

Meanwhile for short time solution, can you please try force uninline the 
'ip_sum()' and try?


>> --- cut here ---
>>
>> #include <stdint.h>
>> #include <stdio.h>
>> #include <stdlib.h>
>> #include <string.h>
>>
>> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
>>     uint8_t  version_ihl;
>>     uint8_t  type_of_service;
>>     uint16_t total_length;
>>     uint16_t packet_id;
>>     uint16_t fragment_offset;
>>     uint8_t  time_to_live;
>>     uint8_t  next_proto_id;
>>     uint16_t hdr_checksum;
>>     uint32_t src_addr;
>>     uint32_t dst_addr;
>> };
>>
>> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
>> {
>>     uint32_t sum = 0;
>>
>>     while (hdr_len > 1)
>>     {
>>         sum += *hdr++;
>>         if (sum & 0x80000000)
>>             sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>         hdr_len -= 2;
>>     }
>>
>>     while (sum >> 16)
>>         sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>
>>     return ~sum;
>> }
>>
>> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
>> {
>>     struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
>>     memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>     ip_hdr->version_ihl    = 1;
>>     ip_hdr->type_of_service    = 2;
>>     ip_hdr->fragment_offset    = 3;
>>     ip_hdr->time_to_live    = 4;
>>     ip_hdr->next_proto_id    = 5;
>>     ip_hdr->packet_id    = 6;
>>     ip_hdr->src_addr    = 7;
>>     ip_hdr->dst_addr    = 8;
>>     ip_hdr->total_length    = 9;
>>     ip_hdr->hdr_checksum    = ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>     printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
>> }
>>
>> int main(void)
>> {
>>     pkt_burst_flow_gen();
>>     return 0;
>> }
>>
>
  
George Prekas Jan. 7, 2021, 2:20 p.m. UTC | #7
On 1/7/2021 5:32 AM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
> On 1/7/2021 5:39 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>>> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>>>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>>>> ---
>>>> v2:
>>>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>>>> ---
>>>>    app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>>>    1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>>>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>>>    # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>>>    name = 'testpmd'
>>>>    cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>>>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>>>    sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>>>        'cmdline.c',
>>>>        'cmdline_flow.c',
>>>>
>>>
>>> Hi George,
>>>
>>> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
>>> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>
>>> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
>>> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
>>> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
>>> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
>>> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
>>>
>>> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
>>> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
>>> pointing is changed.
>>>
>>> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
>>> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
>>> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
>>>
>>>
>>> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
>>> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
>>> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
>>> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
>>> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
>>> give a try since you can reproduce it?
>>
>> Hi Ferruh,
>>
>> Thanks for looking into it.
>>
>> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.
>>
>> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
>>
> 
> Thanks for the sample code below, I copied to the godbolt:
> https://godbolt.org/z/6fMK19
> 
> In gcc 10, the checksum calculation is done during compilation (when
> optimization is enabled) and the value is returned directly:
> mov    $0xffed,%esi
> 
> Since a calculation is happening I assume the compiler knows about the aliasing
> and OK with it.

According to https://gcc.gnu.org/bugs/: "if compiling with -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv
-fno-aggressive-loop-optimizations makes a difference ... then your code is probably not
correct"

> 
> But that optimized calculation seems wrong, when it is disabled [1] the checksum
> is correct again.
> 
> [1] all following seems helping to disable compile time calculation
> - disabling optimization
> - putting a compiler barrier
> - putting a 'printf' inside 'ip_sum()'
> - fno-strict-aliasing
> 
> gcc 8 & 9 is not doing this compile time calculation, hence they are not affected.

I just checked gcc 8.3 and gcc 9.3 on godbolt and I got f8e8 (which is wrong; the correct
is f8d9). 

> 
> This feels like an optimization issue in gcc10, but not sure exactly on the root
> cause, and how to disable it properly in our case.

I've tried with __attribute__ ((noinline)) and it fixes the problem. But keep in mind
that we are dealing with broken C code. This attribute just prevents the optimization that
reveals the problem. It does not guarantee that the problem will not reappear in a future
compiler version.

I've also tried to use a union as suggested by Stephen Hemminger and it works correctly but
it requires significant code changes: you have to copy paste the IP header structure inside
a union and access it only through the union.

As a side note, here is a piece of opinion from Linus Torvalds regarding strict aliasing:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/6/5/769

DPDK already uses -fno-strict-aliasing for librte_node and librte_vhost.

> 
>> --- cut here ---
>>
>> #include <stdint.h>
>> #include <stdio.h>
>> #include <stdlib.h>
>> #include <string.h>
>>
>> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
>>       uint8_t  version_ihl;
>>       uint8_t  type_of_service;
>>       uint16_t total_length;
>>       uint16_t packet_id;
>>       uint16_t fragment_offset;
>>       uint8_t  time_to_live;
>>       uint8_t  next_proto_id;
>>       uint16_t hdr_checksum;
>>       uint32_t src_addr;
>>       uint32_t dst_addr;
>> };
>>
>> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
>> {
>>       uint32_t sum = 0;
>>
>>       while (hdr_len > 1)
>>       {
>>               sum += *hdr++;
>>               if (sum & 0x80000000)
>>                       sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>               hdr_len -= 2;
>>       }
>>
>>       while (sum >> 16)
>>               sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>
>>       return ~sum;
>> }
>>
>> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
>> {
>>       struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
>>       memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>       ip_hdr->version_ihl     = 1;
>>       ip_hdr->type_of_service = 2;
>>       ip_hdr->fragment_offset = 3;
>>       ip_hdr->time_to_live    = 4;
>>       ip_hdr->next_proto_id   = 5;
>>       ip_hdr->packet_id       = 6;
>>       ip_hdr->src_addr        = 7;
>>       ip_hdr->dst_addr        = 8;
>>       ip_hdr->total_length    = 9;
>>       ip_hdr->hdr_checksum    = ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>       printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
>> }
>>
>> int main(void)
>> {
>>       pkt_burst_flow_gen();
>>       return 0;
>> }
>>
>
  
Ferruh Yigit Jan. 7, 2021, 3:22 p.m. UTC | #8
On 1/7/2021 2:20 PM, George Prekas wrote:
> On 1/7/2021 5:32 AM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>> On 1/7/2021 5:39 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>>>> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>>>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>>>>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>>>>
>>>>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>>>>> ---
>>>>> v2:
>>>>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>>>>> ---
>>>>>     app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>>>>     1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>>>
>>>>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>>>>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>>>>     # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>>>>     name = 'testpmd'
>>>>>     cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>>>>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>>>>     sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>>>>         'cmdline.c',
>>>>>         'cmdline_flow.c',
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi George,
>>>>
>>>> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
>>>> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>>
>>>> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
>>>> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
>>>> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
>>>> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
>>>> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
>>>>
>>>> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
>>>> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
>>>> pointing is changed.
>>>>
>>>> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
>>>> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
>>>> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
>>>> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
>>>> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
>>>> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
>>>> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
>>>> give a try since you can reproduce it?
>>>
>>> Hi Ferruh,
>>>
>>> Thanks for looking into it.
>>>
>>> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.
>>>
>>> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
>>>
>>
>> Thanks for the sample code below, I copied to the godbolt:
>> https://godbolt.org/z/6fMK19
>>
>> In gcc 10, the checksum calculation is done during compilation (when
>> optimization is enabled) and the value is returned directly:
>> mov    $0xffed,%esi
>>
>> Since a calculation is happening I assume the compiler knows about the aliasing
>> and OK with it.
> 
> According to https://gcc.gnu.org/bugs/: "if compiling with -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv
> -fno-aggressive-loop-optimizations makes a difference ... then your code is probably not
> correct"
> 

Yep, I saw it while submitting the gcc ticket, and it seems it was right:
https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=98582

>>
>> But that optimized calculation seems wrong, when it is disabled [1] the checksum
>> is correct again.
>>
>> [1] all following seems helping to disable compile time calculation
>> - disabling optimization
>> - putting a compiler barrier
>> - putting a 'printf' inside 'ip_sum()'
>> - fno-strict-aliasing
>>
>> gcc 8 & 9 is not doing this compile time calculation, hence they are not affected.
> 
> I just checked gcc 8.3 and gcc 9.3 on godbolt and I got f8e8 (which is wrong; the correct
> is f8d9).
> 

True, I missed that they generate wrong value.

>>
>> This feels like an optimization issue in gcc10, but not sure exactly on the root
>> cause, and how to disable it properly in our case.
> 
> I've tried with __attribute__ ((noinline)) and it fixes the problem. But keep in mind
> that we are dealing with broken C code. This attribute just prevents the optimization that
> reveals the problem. It does not guarantee that the problem will not reappear in a future
> compiler version.
> 
> I've also tried to use a union as suggested by Stephen Hemminger and it works correctly but
> it requires significant code changes: you have to copy paste the IP header structure inside
> a union and access it only through the union.
> 
> As a side note, here is a piece of opinion from Linus Torvalds regarding strict aliasing:
> https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/6/5/769
> 
> DPDK already uses -fno-strict-aliasing for librte_node and librte_vhost.

In the above ticket, 'may_alias' attribute is also suggested, which is working 
for the sample, can you please try with it too?
It may be better to allow non compatible aliasing only for single function, 
instead of whole binary.

typedef uint16_t alias_int16_t __attribute__((may_alias));

> 
>>
>>> --- cut here ---
>>>
>>> #include <stdint.h>
>>> #include <stdio.h>
>>> #include <stdlib.h>
>>> #include <string.h>
>>>
>>> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
>>>        uint8_t  version_ihl;
>>>        uint8_t  type_of_service;
>>>        uint16_t total_length;
>>>        uint16_t packet_id;
>>>        uint16_t fragment_offset;
>>>        uint8_t  time_to_live;
>>>        uint8_t  next_proto_id;
>>>        uint16_t hdr_checksum;
>>>        uint32_t src_addr;
>>>        uint32_t dst_addr;
>>> };
>>>
>>> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
>>> {
>>>        uint32_t sum = 0;
>>>
>>>        while (hdr_len > 1)
>>>        {
>>>                sum += *hdr++;
>>>                if (sum & 0x80000000)
>>>                        sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>>                hdr_len -= 2;
>>>        }
>>>
>>>        while (sum >> 16)
>>>                sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>>
>>>        return ~sum;
>>> }
>>>
>>> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
>>> {
>>>        struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
>>>        memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>        ip_hdr->version_ihl     = 1;
>>>        ip_hdr->type_of_service = 2;
>>>        ip_hdr->fragment_offset = 3;
>>>        ip_hdr->time_to_live    = 4;
>>>        ip_hdr->next_proto_id   = 5;
>>>        ip_hdr->packet_id       = 6;
>>>        ip_hdr->src_addr        = 7;
>>>        ip_hdr->dst_addr        = 8;
>>>        ip_hdr->total_length    = 9;
>>>        ip_hdr->hdr_checksum    = ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>        printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
>>> }
>>>
>>> int main(void)
>>> {
>>>        pkt_burst_flow_gen();
>>>        return 0;
>>> }
>>>
>>
  
Stephen Hemminger Jan. 7, 2021, 3:50 p.m. UTC | #9
On Wed, 6 Jan 2021 23:39:39 -0600
George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com> wrote:

> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
> > On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:  
> >> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
> >> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
> >> ---
> >> v2:
> >> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
> >> ---
> >>   app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
> >>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> >>
> >> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> >> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
> >> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> >> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
> >> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
> >>   # override default name to drop the hyphen
> >>   name = 'testpmd'
> >>   cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
> >> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
> >>   sources = files('5tswap.c',
> >>       'cmdline.c',
> >>       'cmdline_flow.c',
> >>  
> > 
> > Hi George,
> > 
> > I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
> > ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> > 
> > You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
> > The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
> > unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
> > data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
> > data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
> > 
> > 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
> > content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
> > pointing is changed.
> > 
> > 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
> > called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
> > able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
> > 
> > 
> > And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
> > an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
> > guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
> > union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
> > I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
> > give a try since you can reproduce it?  
> 
> Hi Ferruh,
> 
> Thanks for looking into it.
> 
> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.
> 
> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
> 
> --- cut here --- 
> 
> #include <stdint.h>
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> #include <string.h>
> 
> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
> 	uint8_t  version_ihl;
> 	uint8_t  type_of_service;
> 	uint16_t total_length;
> 	uint16_t packet_id;
> 	uint16_t fragment_offset;
> 	uint8_t  time_to_live;
> 	uint8_t  next_proto_id;
> 	uint16_t hdr_checksum;
> 	uint32_t src_addr;
> 	uint32_t dst_addr;
> };
> 
> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
> {
> 	uint32_t sum = 0;
> 
> 	while (hdr_len > 1)
> 	{
> 		sum += *hdr++;
> 		if (sum & 0x80000000)
> 			sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
> 		hdr_len -= 2;
> 	}
> 
> 	while (sum >> 16)
> 		sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
> 
> 	return ~sum;
> }
> 
> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
> {
> 	struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
> 	memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> 	ip_hdr->version_ihl	= 1;
> 	ip_hdr->type_of_service	= 2;
> 	ip_hdr->fragment_offset	= 3;
> 	ip_hdr->time_to_live	= 4;
> 	ip_hdr->next_proto_id	= 5;
> 	ip_hdr->packet_id	= 6;
> 	ip_hdr->src_addr	= 7;
> 	ip_hdr->dst_addr	= 8;
> 	ip_hdr->total_length	= 9;
> 	ip_hdr->hdr_checksum	= ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
> 	printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
> }
> 
> int main(void)
> {
> 	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
> 	return 0;
> }

If I change your code like this to use union, Gcc 10 is still broken.
It is a compiler bug.  It maybe because optimizer is not smart enough
to know that memset has cleared the header.


#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
	uint8_t  version_ihl;
	uint8_t  type_of_service;
	uint16_t total_length;
	uint16_t packet_id;
	uint16_t fragment_offset;
	uint8_t  time_to_live;
	uint8_t  next_proto_id;
	uint16_t hdr_checksum;
	uint32_t src_addr;
	uint32_t dst_addr;
};

static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
{
	uint32_t sum = 0;

	while (hdr_len > 1)
	{
		sum += *hdr++;
		if (sum & 0x80000000)
			sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
		hdr_len -= 2;
	}

	while (sum >> 16)
		sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);

	return ~sum;
}

static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
{
	union {
		struct rte_ipv4_hdr ip;
		uint16_t data[10];
	} *hdr;

	hdr = malloc(sizeof(*hdr));

	memset(hdr, 0, sizeof(*hdr));
	hdr->ip.version_ihl	= 1;
	hdr->ip.type_of_service	= 2;
	hdr->ip.fragment_offset	= 3;
	hdr->ip.time_to_live	= 4;
	hdr->ip.next_proto_id	= 5;
	hdr->ip.packet_id	= 6;
	hdr->ip.src_addr	= 7;
	hdr->ip.dst_addr	= 8;
	hdr->ip.total_length	= 9;
	hdr->ip.hdr_checksum	= ip_sum(hdr->data, sizeof(*hdr));
	printf("%x\n", hdr->ip.hdr_checksum);
}

int main(void)
{
	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
	return 0;
}
  
Ferruh Yigit Jan. 7, 2021, 3:59 p.m. UTC | #10
On 1/7/2021 3:50 PM, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Jan 2021 23:39:39 -0600
> George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com> wrote:
> 
>> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>>> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>>>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>>>> ---
>>>> v2:
>>>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>>>> ---
>>>>    app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>>>    1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>>>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>>>    # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>>>    name = 'testpmd'
>>>>    cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>>>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>>>    sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>>>        'cmdline.c',
>>>>        'cmdline_flow.c',
>>>>   
>>>
>>> Hi George,
>>>
>>> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
>>> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>
>>> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
>>> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
>>> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
>>> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
>>> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
>>>
>>> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
>>> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
>>> pointing is changed.
>>>
>>> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
>>> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
>>> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
>>>
>>>
>>> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
>>> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
>>> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
>>> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
>>> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
>>> give a try since you can reproduce it?
>>
>> Hi Ferruh,
>>
>> Thanks for looking into it.
>>
>> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.
>>
>> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
>>
>> --- cut here ---
>>
>> #include <stdint.h>
>> #include <stdio.h>
>> #include <stdlib.h>
>> #include <string.h>
>>
>> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
>> 	uint8_t  version_ihl;
>> 	uint8_t  type_of_service;
>> 	uint16_t total_length;
>> 	uint16_t packet_id;
>> 	uint16_t fragment_offset;
>> 	uint8_t  time_to_live;
>> 	uint8_t  next_proto_id;
>> 	uint16_t hdr_checksum;
>> 	uint32_t src_addr;
>> 	uint32_t dst_addr;
>> };
>>
>> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
>> {
>> 	uint32_t sum = 0;
>>
>> 	while (hdr_len > 1)
>> 	{
>> 		sum += *hdr++;
>> 		if (sum & 0x80000000)
>> 			sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>> 		hdr_len -= 2;
>> 	}
>>
>> 	while (sum >> 16)
>> 		sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>
>> 	return ~sum;
>> }
>>
>> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
>> {
>> 	struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
>> 	memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>> 	ip_hdr->version_ihl	= 1;
>> 	ip_hdr->type_of_service	= 2;
>> 	ip_hdr->fragment_offset	= 3;
>> 	ip_hdr->time_to_live	= 4;
>> 	ip_hdr->next_proto_id	= 5;
>> 	ip_hdr->packet_id	= 6;
>> 	ip_hdr->src_addr	= 7;
>> 	ip_hdr->dst_addr	= 8;
>> 	ip_hdr->total_length	= 9;
>> 	ip_hdr->hdr_checksum	= ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>> 	printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
>> }
>>
>> int main(void)
>> {
>> 	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
>> 	return 0;
>> }
> 
> If I change your code like this to use union, Gcc 10 is still broken.

This worked fine for me: https://godbolt.org/z/vdsxh9

> It is a compiler bug.  It maybe because optimizer is not smart enough
> to know that memset has cleared the header.
> 
> 
> #include <stdint.h>
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> #include <string.h>
> 
> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
> 	uint8_t  version_ihl;
> 	uint8_t  type_of_service;
> 	uint16_t total_length;
> 	uint16_t packet_id;
> 	uint16_t fragment_offset;
> 	uint8_t  time_to_live;
> 	uint8_t  next_proto_id;
> 	uint16_t hdr_checksum;
> 	uint32_t src_addr;
> 	uint32_t dst_addr;
> };
> 
> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
> {
> 	uint32_t sum = 0;
> 
> 	while (hdr_len > 1)
> 	{
> 		sum += *hdr++;
> 		if (sum & 0x80000000)
> 			sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
> 		hdr_len -= 2;
> 	}
> 
> 	while (sum >> 16)
> 		sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
> 
> 	return ~sum;
> }
> 
> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
> {
> 	union {
> 		struct rte_ipv4_hdr ip;
> 		uint16_t data[10];
> 	} *hdr;
> 
> 	hdr = malloc(sizeof(*hdr));
> 
> 	memset(hdr, 0, sizeof(*hdr));
> 	hdr->ip.version_ihl	= 1;
> 	hdr->ip.type_of_service	= 2;
> 	hdr->ip.fragment_offset	= 3;
> 	hdr->ip.time_to_live	= 4;
> 	hdr->ip.next_proto_id	= 5;
> 	hdr->ip.packet_id	= 6;
> 	hdr->ip.src_addr	= 7;
> 	hdr->ip.dst_addr	= 8;
> 	hdr->ip.total_length	= 9;
> 	hdr->ip.hdr_checksum	= ip_sum(hdr->data, sizeof(*hdr));
> 	printf("%x\n", hdr->ip.hdr_checksum);
> }
> 
> int main(void)
> {
> 	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
> 	return 0;
> }
>
  
Stephen Hemminger Jan. 7, 2021, 4:29 p.m. UTC | #11
On Thu, 7 Jan 2021 15:59:59 +0000
Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit@intel.com> wrote:

> >>
> >> int main(void)
> >> {
> >> 	pkt_burst_flow_gen();
> >> 	return 0;
> >> }  
> > 
> > If I change your code like this to use union, Gcc 10 is still broken.  
> 
> This worked fine for me: https://godbolt.org/z/vdsxh9

I was looking for wrong result.
The union version gives same answer with and without optimization.
  
George Prekas Jan. 7, 2021, 8:45 p.m. UTC | #12
On 1/7/2021 9:22 AM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
> On 1/7/2021 2:20 PM, George Prekas wrote:
>> On 1/7/2021 5:32 AM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>>> On 1/7/2021 5:39 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>>> On 1/6/2021 12:02 PM, Ferruh Yigit wrote:
>>>>> On 12/5/2020 5:42 AM, George Prekas wrote:
>>>>>> Strict-aliasing rules are violated by cast to uint16_t* in flowgen.c
>>>>>> and the calculated IP checksum is wrong on GCC 9 and GCC 10.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Signed-off-by: George Prekas <prekageo@amazon.com>
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>> v2:
>>>>>> * Instead of a compiler barrier, use a compiler flag.
>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>     app/test-pmd/meson.build | 1 +
>>>>>>     1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>>>> index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
>>>>>> --- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>>>> +++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
>>>>>> @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
>>>>>>     # override default name to drop the hyphen
>>>>>>     name = 'testpmd'
>>>>>>     cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
>>>>>> +cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
>>>>>>     sources = files('5tswap.c',
>>>>>>         'cmdline.c',
>>>>>>         'cmdline_flow.c',
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Hi George,
>>>>>
>>>>> I am trying to understand this, the relevant code is as below:
>>>>> ip_hdr->hdr_checksum = ip_sum((unaligned_uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>>>
>>>>> You are suspicious of strict aliasing rule violation, with more details:
>>>>> The concern is the "struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr;" aliased to "const
>>>>> unaligned_uint16_t *hdr", and compiler can optimize out the calculations using
>>>>> data pointed by 'hdr' pointer, since the 'hdr' pointer is not used to alter the
>>>>> data and compiler may think data is not changed at all.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) But the pointer "hdr" is assigned in the loop, from another pointer whose
>>>>> content is changing, why this is not helping to figure out that the data 'hdr'
>>>>> pointing is changed.
>>>>>
>>>>> 2) I tried to debug this, but I am not able to reproduce the issue, 'ip_sum()'
>>>>> called each time and checksum calculated correctly. Using gcc 10.2.1-9. Can you
>>>>> able to confirm the case with debug, or from the assembly/object file?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> And if the issue is strict aliasing rule violation as you said, compiler flag is
>>>>> an option but not sure how much it reduces the compiler optimization benefit, I
>>>>> guess other options also not so good, memcpy brings too much work on runtime and
>>>>> union requires bigger change and makes code complex.
>>>>> I wonder if making 'ip_sum()' a non inline function can help, can you please
>>>>> give a try since you can reproduce it?
>>>>
>>>> Hi Ferruh,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for looking into it.
>>>>
>>>> I am copy-pasting at the end of this email a minimal reproduction. It calculates a checksum and prints it. The correct value is f8d9. If you compile it with -O0 or -O3 -fno-strict-aliasing, you will get the correct value. If you compile it with gcc (Ubuntu 9.3.0-17ubuntu1~20.04) 9.3.0 and -O3, you will get f8e8. You can also try it on https://godbolt.org/ and see how different versions behave.
>>>>
>>>> My understanding is that the code violates the C standard (https://stackoverflow.com/a/99010).
>>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks for the sample code below, I copied to the godbolt:
>>> https://godbolt.org/z/6fMK19
>>>
>>> In gcc 10, the checksum calculation is done during compilation (when
>>> optimization is enabled) and the value is returned directly:
>>> mov    $0xffed,%esi
>>>
>>> Since a calculation is happening I assume the compiler knows about the aliasing
>>> and OK with it.
>>
>> According to https://gcc.gnu.org/bugs/: "if compiling with -fno-strict-aliasing -fwrapv
>> -fno-aggressive-loop-optimizations makes a difference ... then your code is probably not
>> correct"
>>
> 
> Yep, I saw it while submitting the gcc ticket, and it seems it was right:
> https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=98582
> 
>>>
>>> But that optimized calculation seems wrong, when it is disabled [1] the checksum
>>> is correct again.
>>>
>>> [1] all following seems helping to disable compile time calculation
>>> - disabling optimization
>>> - putting a compiler barrier
>>> - putting a 'printf' inside 'ip_sum()'
>>> - fno-strict-aliasing
>>>
>>> gcc 8 & 9 is not doing this compile time calculation, hence they are not affected.
>>
>> I just checked gcc 8.3 and gcc 9.3 on godbolt and I got f8e8 (which is wrong; the correct
>> is f8d9).
>>
> 
> True, I missed that they generate wrong value.
> 
>>>
>>> This feels like an optimization issue in gcc10, but not sure exactly on the root
>>> cause, and how to disable it properly in our case.
>>
>> I've tried with __attribute__ ((noinline)) and it fixes the problem. But keep in mind
>> that we are dealing with broken C code. This attribute just prevents the optimization that
>> reveals the problem. It does not guarantee that the problem will not reappear in a future
>> compiler version.
>>
>> I've also tried to use a union as suggested by Stephen Hemminger and it works correctly but
>> it requires significant code changes: you have to copy paste the IP header structure inside
>> a union and access it only through the union.
>>
>> As a side note, here is a piece of opinion from Linus Torvalds regarding strict aliasing:
>> https://lkml.org/lkml/2018/6/5/769
>>
>> DPDK already uses -fno-strict-aliasing for librte_node and librte_vhost.
> 
> In the above ticket, 'may_alias' attribute is also suggested, which is working
> for the sample, can you please try with it too?
> It may be better to allow non compatible aliasing only for single function,
> instead of whole binary.
> 
> typedef uint16_t alias_int16_t __attribute__((may_alias));

I've tested with may_alias and it works correctly between 2 AWS EC2 instances. may_alias is used in
other places in DPDK as well. I've posted a new version of the patch.

> 
>>
>>>
>>>> --- cut here ---
>>>>
>>>> #include <stdint.h>
>>>> #include <stdio.h>
>>>> #include <stdlib.h>
>>>> #include <string.h>
>>>>
>>>> struct rte_ipv4_hdr {
>>>>        uint8_t  version_ihl;
>>>>        uint8_t  type_of_service;
>>>>        uint16_t total_length;
>>>>        uint16_t packet_id;
>>>>        uint16_t fragment_offset;
>>>>        uint8_t  time_to_live;
>>>>        uint8_t  next_proto_id;
>>>>        uint16_t hdr_checksum;
>>>>        uint32_t src_addr;
>>>>        uint32_t dst_addr;
>>>> };
>>>>
>>>> static inline uint16_t ip_sum(const uint16_t *hdr, int hdr_len)
>>>> {
>>>>        uint32_t sum = 0;
>>>>
>>>>        while (hdr_len > 1)
>>>>        {
>>>>                sum += *hdr++;
>>>>                if (sum & 0x80000000)
>>>>                        sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>>>                hdr_len -= 2;
>>>>        }
>>>>
>>>>        while (sum >> 16)
>>>>                sum = (sum & 0xFFFF) + (sum >> 16);
>>>>
>>>>        return ~sum;
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> static void pkt_burst_flow_gen(void)
>>>> {
>>>>        struct rte_ipv4_hdr *ip_hdr = (struct rte_ipv4_hdr *) malloc(4096);
>>>>        memset(ip_hdr, 0, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>>        ip_hdr->version_ihl     = 1;
>>>>        ip_hdr->type_of_service = 2;
>>>>        ip_hdr->fragment_offset = 3;
>>>>        ip_hdr->time_to_live    = 4;
>>>>        ip_hdr->next_proto_id   = 5;
>>>>        ip_hdr->packet_id       = 6;
>>>>        ip_hdr->src_addr        = 7;
>>>>        ip_hdr->dst_addr        = 8;
>>>>        ip_hdr->total_length    = 9;
>>>>        ip_hdr->hdr_checksum    = ip_sum((uint16_t *)ip_hdr, sizeof(*ip_hdr));
>>>>        printf("%x\n", ip_hdr->hdr_checksum);
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>> int main(void)
>>>> {
>>>>        pkt_burst_flow_gen();
>>>>        return 0;
>>>> }
>>>>
>>>
>
  

Patch

diff --git a/app/test-pmd/meson.build b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
index 7e9c7bdd6..5d24e807f 100644
--- a/app/test-pmd/meson.build
+++ b/app/test-pmd/meson.build
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ 
 # override default name to drop the hyphen
 name = 'testpmd'
 cflags += '-Wno-deprecated-declarations'
+cflags += '-fno-strict-aliasing'
 sources = files('5tswap.c',
 	'cmdline.c',
 	'cmdline_flow.c',