[Mono-dev] Building Mono on Linux/Alpha

[Sergey Tikhonov]

Hello Zoltan,

>Either you should emit code to move from R0 to ins->dreg, or (better), modify
>your cpu-alpha.md file and the register allocator macros in
>mini-alpha.h to force
>the local register allocator to allways allocate the dreg of the call
>instruction to
>R0. This way the reg allocator will emit the move instruction if it is
>neccesary.
>
>Here is what a call instruction looks like in cpu-pentium.md:
>
>call: dest:a clob:c len:17
>
>And the corresponding macro (only an example):
>#define MONO_ARCH_INST_FIXED_REG(desc) ((desc == 'a') ? X86_EAX : -1)
>
>  
>
>>Using different options triggered some interesting code I had to
>>implement. My question is what is the difference between local and global
>>registers? As I undertood the local registers could be used temporary in
>>basic blocks, the global registers are used during optimizations.
>>Can I define all my local registers as global ones? It seems that they
>>couldn't mixed.
>>    
>>
>
>Global registers are used during global register allocation. They should be
>distinct from the set of local registers. mono_arch_get_global_int_regs ()
>returns the list of registers that should be used for global allocation. These
>registers are usually the 'callee-saved' registers defined by the platform ABI.
>The global register allocator will set cfg->used_int_regs if needed. I suggest
>returning an empty list from get_global_int_regs () until all tests are running,
>so you have a large set of regression tests which you can use to debug the
>inevitable problems which will arose when some variables are allocated to
>global registers.
>  
>
After some hacking I was able to run "Hello world" program. :) It still 
crashes somewhere at final stage of program rundown, but surely it did a 
lot before that. :)
Now I have to implement "hardest" part - handling of exceptions. I need 
some hints here. :)
- Of couse I am getting segfaults. For now I return -1 in 
mono_arch_find_jit_info. It seems to work in most cases - I am getting 
stack trace. But I guess there is not enough information to do correct 
unwinding and the VM segfaults again and goes to the loop of segfaults. 
If you could shed light here - it would be great.
- Do I have to implement LMF handling to do correct unwinding? I don't 
have any LMF frames right now (it seems that I would have to save a lot 
of information in stack).
- I don't have implemented any of throw, finally, call_handler - program 
exceptions. What are the requirements to implement it in general?

Thank you,

-- 
Sergey Tikhonov

Solvo Ltd.
Saint-Petersburg, Russia
tsv at solvo.ru