This is Info file gcc.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.67 from the input file gcc.texi. This file documents the use and the internals of the GNU compiler. Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled "GNU General Public License," "Funding for Free Software," and "Protect Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel'" are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the sections entitled "GNU General Public License," "Funding for Free Software," and "Protect Your Freedom--Fight `Look And Feel'", and this permission notice, may be included in translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English.  File: gcc.info, Node: Leaf Functions, Next: Stack Registers, Prev: Values in Registers, Up: Registers Handling Leaf Functions ----------------------- On some machines, a leaf function (i.e., one which makes no calls) can run more efficiently if it does not make its own register window. Often this means it is required to receive its arguments in the registers where they are passed by the caller, instead of the registers where they would normally arrive. The special treatment for leaf functions generally applies only when other conditions are met; for example, often they may use only those registers for its own variables and temporaries. We use the term "leaf function" to mean a function that is suitable for this special handling, so that functions with no calls are not necessarily "leaf functions". GNU CC assigns register numbers before it knows whether the function is suitable for leaf function treatment. So it needs to renumber the registers in order to output a leaf function. The following macros accomplish this. `LEAF_REGISTERS' A C initializer for a vector, indexed by hard register number, which contains 1 for a register that is allowable in a candidate for leaf function treatment. If leaf function treatment involves renumbering the registers, then the registers marked here should be the ones before renumbering--those that GNU CC would ordinarily allocate. The registers which will actually be used in the assembler code, after renumbering, should not be marked with 1 in this vector. Define this macro only if the target machine offers a way to optimize the treatment of leaf functions. `LEAF_REG_REMAP (REGNO)' A C expression whose value is the register number to which REGNO should be renumbered, when a function is treated as a leaf function. If REGNO is a register number which should not appear in a leaf function before renumbering, then the expression should yield -1, which will cause the compiler to abort. Define this macro only if the target machine offers a way to optimize the treatment of leaf functions, and registers need to be renumbered to do this. Normally, `FUNCTION_PROLOGUE' and `FUNCTION_EPILOGUE' must treat leaf functions specially. It can test the C variable `leaf_function' which is nonzero for leaf functions. (The variable `leaf_function' is defined only if `LEAF_REGISTERS' is defined.)  File: gcc.info, Node: Stack Registers, Next: Obsolete Register Macros, Prev: Leaf Functions, Up: Registers Registers That Form a Stack --------------------------- There are special features to handle computers where some of the "registers" form a stack, as in the 80387 coprocessor for the 80386. Stack registers are normally written by pushing onto the stack, and are numbered relative to the top of the stack. Currently, GNU CC can only handle one group of stack-like registers, and they must be consecutively numbered. `STACK_REGS' Define this if the machine has any stack-like registers. `FIRST_STACK_REG' The number of the first stack-like register. This one is the top of the stack. `LAST_STACK_REG' The number of the last stack-like register. This one is the bottom of the stack.  File: gcc.info, Node: Obsolete Register Macros, Prev: Stack Registers, Up: Registers Obsolete Macros for Controlling Register Usage ---------------------------------------------- These features do not work very well. They exist because they used to be required to generate correct code for the 80387 coprocessor of the 80386. They are no longer used by that machine description and may be removed in a later version of the compiler. Don't use them! `OVERLAPPING_REGNO_P (REGNO)' If defined, this is a C expression whose value is nonzero if hard register number REGNO is an overlapping register. This means a hard register which overlaps a hard register with a different number. (Such overlap is undesirable, but occasionally it allows a machine to be supported which otherwise could not be.) This macro must return nonzero for *all* the registers which overlap each other. GNU CC can use an overlapping register only in certain limited ways. It can be used for allocation within a basic block, and may be spilled for reloading; that is all. If this macro is not defined, it means that none of the hard registers overlap each other. This is the usual situation. `INSN_CLOBBERS_REGNO_P (INSN, REGNO)' If defined, this is a C expression whose value should be nonzero if the insn INSN has the effect of mysteriously clobbering the contents of hard register number REGNO. By "mysterious" we mean that the insn's RTL expression doesn't describe such an effect. If this macro is not defined, it means that no insn clobbers registers mysteriously. This is the usual situation; all else being equal, it is best for the RTL expression to show all the activity. `PRESERVE_DEATH_INFO_REGNO_P (REGNO)' If defined, this is a C expression whose value is nonzero if accurate `REG_DEAD' notes are needed for hard register number REGNO at the time of outputting the assembler code. When this is so, a few optimizations that take place after register allocation and could invalidate the death notes are not done when this register is involved. You would arrange to preserve death info for a register when some of the code in the machine description which is executed to write the assembler code looks at the death notes. This is necessary only when the actual hardware feature which GNU CC thinks of as a register is not actually a register of the usual sort. (It might, for example, be a hardware stack.) If this macro is not defined, it means that no death notes need to be preserved. This is the usual situation.  File: gcc.info, Node: Register Classes, Next: Stack and Calling, Prev: Registers, Up: Target Macros Register Classes ================ On many machines, the numbered registers are not all equivalent. For example, certain registers may not be allowed for indexed addressing; certain registers may not be allowed in some instructions. These machine restrictions are described to the compiler using "register classes". You define a number of register classes, giving each one a name and saying which of the registers belong to it. Then you can specify register classes that are allowed as operands to particular instruction patterns. In general, each register will belong to several classes. In fact, one class must be named `ALL_REGS' and contain all the registers. Another class must be named `NO_REGS' and contain no registers. Often the union of two classes will be another class; however, this is not required. One of the classes must be named `GENERAL_REGS'. There is nothing terribly special about the name, but the operand constraint letters `r' and `g' specify this class. If `GENERAL_REGS' is the same as `ALL_REGS', just define it as a macro which expands to `ALL_REGS'. Order the classes so that if class X is contained in class Y then X has a lower class number than Y. The way classes other than `GENERAL_REGS' are specified in operand constraints is through machine-dependent operand constraint letters. You can define such letters to correspond to various classes, then use them in operand constraints. You should define a class for the union of two classes whenever some instruction allows both classes. For example, if an instruction allows either a floating point (coprocessor) register or a general register for a certain operand, you should define a class `FLOAT_OR_GENERAL_REGS' which includes both of them. Otherwise you will get suboptimal code. You must also specify certain redundant information about the register classes: for each class, which classes contain it and which ones are contained in it; for each pair of classes, the largest class contained in their union. When a value occupying several consecutive registers is expected in a certain class, all the registers used must belong to that class. Therefore, register classes cannot be used to enforce a requirement for a register pair to start with an even-numbered register. The way to specify this requirement is with `HARD_REGNO_MODE_OK'. Register classes used for input-operands of bitwise-and or shift instructions have a special requirement: each such class must have, for each fixed-point machine mode, a subclass whose registers can transfer that mode to or from memory. For example, on some machines, the operations for single-byte values (`QImode') are limited to certain registers. When this is so, each register class that is used in a bitwise-and or shift instruction must have a subclass consisting of registers from which single-byte values can be loaded or stored. This is so that `PREFERRED_RELOAD_CLASS' can always have a possible value to return. `enum reg_class' An enumeral type that must be defined with all the register class names as enumeral values. `NO_REGS' must be first. `ALL_REGS' must be the last register class, followed by one more enumeral value, `LIM_REG_CLASSES', which is not a register class but rather tells how many classes there are. Each register class has a number, which is the value of casting the class name to type `int'. The number serves as an index in many of the tables described below. `N_REG_CLASSES' The number of distinct register classes, defined as follows: #define N_REG_CLASSES (int) LIM_REG_CLASSES `REG_CLASS_NAMES' An initializer containing the names of the register classes as C string constants. These names are used in writing some of the debugging dumps. `REG_CLASS_CONTENTS' An initializer containing the contents of the register classes, as integers which are bit masks. The Nth integer specifies the contents of class N. The way the integer MASK is interpreted is that register R is in the class if `MASK & (1 << R)' is 1. When the machine has more than 32 registers, an integer does not suffice. Then the integers are replaced by sub-initializers, braced groupings containing several integers. Each sub-initializer must be suitable as an initializer for the type `HARD_REG_SET' which is defined in `hard-reg-set.h'. `REGNO_REG_CLASS (REGNO)' A C expression whose value is a register class containing hard register REGNO. In general there is more than one such class; choose a class which is "minimal", meaning that no smaller class also contains the register. `BASE_REG_CLASS' A macro whose definition is the name of the class to which a valid base register must belong. A base register is one used in an address which is the register value plus a displacement. `INDEX_REG_CLASS' A macro whose definition is the name of the class to which a valid index register must belong. An index register is one used in an address where its value is either multiplied by a scale factor or added to another register (as well as added to a displacement). `REG_CLASS_FROM_LETTER (CHAR)' A C expression which defines the machine-dependent operand constraint letters for register classes. If CHAR is such a letter, the value should be the register class corresponding to it. Otherwise, the value should be `NO_REGS'. The register letter `r', corresponding to class `GENERAL_REGS', will not be passed to this macro; you do not need to handle it. `REGNO_OK_FOR_BASE_P (NUM)' A C expression which is nonzero if register number NUM is suitable for use as a base register in operand addresses. It may be either a suitable hard register or a pseudo register that has been allocated such a hard register. `REGNO_OK_FOR_INDEX_P (NUM)' A C expression which is nonzero if register number NUM is suitable for use as an index register in operand addresses. It may be either a suitable hard register or a pseudo register that has been allocated such a hard register. The difference between an index register and a base register is that the index register may be scaled. If an address involves the sum of two registers, neither one of them scaled, then either one may be labeled the "base" and the other the "index"; but whichever labeling is used must fit the machine's constraints of which registers may serve in each capacity. The compiler will try both labelings, looking for one that is valid, and will reload one or both registers only if neither labeling works. `PREFERRED_RELOAD_CLASS (X, CLASS)' A C expression that places additional restrictions on the register class to use when it is necessary to copy value X into a register in class CLASS. The value is a register class; perhaps CLASS, or perhaps another, smaller class. On many machines, the following definition is safe: #define PREFERRED_RELOAD_CLASS(X,CLASS) CLASS Sometimes returning a more restrictive class makes better code. For example, on the 68000, when X is an integer constant that is in range for a `moveq' instruction, the value of this macro is always `DATA_REGS' as long as CLASS includes the data registers. Requiring a data register guarantees that a `moveq' will be used. If X is a `const_double', by returning `NO_REGS' you can force X into a memory constant. This is useful on certain machines where immediate floating values cannot be loaded into certain kinds of registers. `PREFERRED_OUTPUT_RELOAD_CLASS (X, CLASS)' Like `PREFERRED_RELOAD_CLASS', but for output reloads instead of input reloads. If you don't define this macro, the default is to use CLASS, unchanged. `LIMIT_RELOAD_CLASS (MODE, CLASS)' A C expression that places additional restrictions on the register class to use when it is necessary to be able to hold a value of mode MODE in a reload register for which class CLASS would ordinarily be used. Unlike `PREFERRED_RELOAD_CLASS', this macro should be used when there are certain modes that simply can't go in certain reload classes. The value is a register class; perhaps CLASS, or perhaps another, smaller class. Don't define this macro unless the target machine has limitations which require the macro to do something nontrivial. `SECONDARY_RELOAD_CLASS (CLASS, MODE, X)' `SECONDARY_INPUT_RELOAD_CLASS (CLASS, MODE, X)' `SECONDARY_OUTPUT_RELOAD_CLASS (CLASS, MODE, X)' Many machines have some registers that cannot be copied directly to or from memory or even from other types of registers. An example is the `MQ' register, which on most machines, can only be copied to or from general registers, but not memory. Some machines allow copying all registers to and from memory, but require a scratch register for stores to some memory locations (e.g., those with symbolic address on the RT, and those with certain symbolic address on the Sparc when compiling PIC). In some cases, both an intermediate and a scratch register are required. You should define these macros to indicate to the reload phase that it may need to allocate at least one register for a reload in addition to the register to contain the data. Specifically, if copying X to a register CLASS in MODE requires an intermediate register, you should define `SECONDARY_INPUT_RELOAD_CLASS' to return the largest register class all of whose registers can be used as intermediate registers or scratch registers. If copying a register CLASS in MODE to X requires an intermediate or scratch register, `SECONDARY_OUTPUT_RELOAD_CLASS' should be defined to return the largest register class required. If the requirements for input and output reloads are the same, the macro `SECONDARY_RELOAD_CLASS' should be used instead of defining both macros identically. The values returned by these macros are often `GENERAL_REGS'. Return `NO_REGS' if no spare register is needed; i.e., if X can be directly copied to or from a register of CLASS in MODE without requiring a scratch register. Do not define this macro if it would always return `NO_REGS'. If a scratch register is required (either with or without an intermediate register), you should define patterns for `reload_inM' or `reload_outM', as required (*note Standard Names::.. These patterns, which will normally be implemented with a `define_expand', should be similar to the `movM' patterns, except that operand 2 is the scratch register. Define constraints for the reload register and scratch register that contain a single register class. If the original reload register (whose class is CLASS) can meet the constraint given in the pattern, the value returned by these macros is used for the class of the scratch register. Otherwise, two additional reload registers are required. Their classes are obtained from the constraints in the insn pattern. X might be a pseudo-register or a `subreg' of a pseudo-register, which could either be in a hard register or in memory. Use `true_regnum' to find out; it will return -1 if the pseudo is in memory and the hard register number if it is in a register. These macros should not be used in the case where a particular class of registers can only be copied to memory and not to another class of registers. In that case, secondary reload registers are not needed and would not be helpful. Instead, a stack location must be used to perform the copy and the `movM' pattern should use memory as a intermediate storage. This case often occurs between floating-point and general registers. `SECONDARY_MEMORY_NEEDED (CLASS1, CLASS2, M)' Certain machines have the property that some registers cannot be copied to some other registers without using memory. Define this macro on those machines to be a C expression that is non-zero if objects of mode M in registers of CLASS1 can only be copied to registers of class CLASS2 by storing a register of CLASS1 into memory and loading that memory location into a register of CLASS2. Do not define this macro if its value would always be zero. `SECONDARY_MEMORY_NEEDED_RTX (MODE)' Normally when `SECONDARY_MEMORY_NEEDED' is defined, the compiler allocates a stack slot for a memory location needed for register copies. If this macro is defined, the compiler instead uses the memory location defined by this macro. Do not define this macro if you do not define `SECONDARY_MEMORY_NEEDED'. `SECONDARY_MEMORY_NEEDED_MODE (MODE)' When the compiler needs a secondary memory location to copy between two registers of mode MODE, it normally allocates sufficient memory to hold a quantity of `BITS_PER_WORD' bits and performs the store and load operations in a mode that many bits wide and whose class is the same as that of MODE. This is right thing to do on most machines because it ensures that all bits of the register are copied and prevents accesses to the registers in a narrower mode, which some machines prohibit for floating-point registers. However, this default behavior is not correct on some machines, such as the DEC Alpha, that store short integers in floating-point registers differently than in integer registers. On those machines, the default widening will not work correctly and you must define this macro to suppress that widening in some cases. See the file `alpha.h' for details. Do not define this macro if you do not define `SECONDARY_MEMORY_NEEDED' or if widening MODE to a mode that is `BITS_PER_WORD' bits wide is correct for your machine. `SMALL_REGISTER_CLASSES' Normally the compiler avoids choosing registers that have been explicitly mentioned in the rtl as spill registers (these registers are normally those used to pass parameters and return values). However, some machines have so few registers of certain classes that there would not be enough registers to use as spill registers if this were done. Define `SMALL_REGISTER_CLASSES' on these machines. When it is defined, the compiler allows registers explicitly used in the rtl to be used as spill registers but avoids extending the lifetime of these registers. It is always safe to define this macro, but if you unnecessarily define it, you will reduce the amount of optimizations that can be performed in some cases. If you do not define this macro when it is required, the compiler will run out of spill registers and print a fatal error message. For most machines, you should not define this macro. `CLASS_LIKELY_SPILLED_P (CLASS)' A C expression whose value is nonzero if pseudos that have been assigned to registers of class CLASS would likely be spilled because registers of CLASS are needed for spill registers. The default value of this macro returns 1 if CLASS has exactly one register and zero otherwise. On most machines, this default should be used. Only define this macro to some other expression if pseudo allocated by `local-alloc.c' end up in memory because their hard registers were needed for spill registers. If this macro returns nonzero for those classes, those pseudos will only be allocated by `global.c', which knows how to reallocate the pseudo to another register. If there would not be another register available for reallocation, you should not change the definition of this macro since the only effect of such a definition would be to slow down register allocation. `CLASS_MAX_NREGS (CLASS, MODE)' A C expression for the maximum number of consecutive registers of class CLASS needed to hold a value of mode MODE. This is closely related to the macro `HARD_REGNO_NREGS'. In fact, the value of the macro `CLASS_MAX_NREGS (CLASS, MODE)' should be the maximum value of `HARD_REGNO_NREGS (REGNO, MODE)' for all REGNO values in the class CLASS. This macro helps control the handling of multiple-word values in the reload pass. `CLASS_CANNOT_CHANGE_SIZE' If defined, a C expression for a class that contains registers which the compiler must always access in a mode that is the same size as the mode in which it loaded the register. For the example, loading 32-bit integer or floating-point objects into floating-point registers on the Alpha extends them to 64-bits. Therefore loading a 64-bit object and then storing it as a 32-bit object does not store the low-order 32-bits, as would be the case for a normal register. Therefore, `alpha.h' defines this macro as `FLOAT_REGS'. Three other special macros describe which operands fit which constraint letters. `CONST_OK_FOR_LETTER_P (VALUE, C)' A C expression that defines the machine-dependent operand constraint letters that specify particular ranges of integer values. If C is one of those letters, the expression should check that VALUE, an integer, is in the appropriate range and return 1 if so, 0 otherwise. If C is not one of those letters, the value should be 0 regardless of VALUE. `CONST_DOUBLE_OK_FOR_LETTER_P (VALUE, C)' A C expression that defines the machine-dependent operand constraint letters that specify particular ranges of `const_double' values. If C is one of those letters, the expression should check that VALUE, an RTX of code `const_double', is in the appropriate range and return 1 if so, 0 otherwise. If C is not one of those letters, the value should be 0 regardless of VALUE. `const_double' is used for all floating-point constants and for `DImode' fixed-point constants. A given letter can accept either or both kinds of values. It can use `GET_MODE' to distinguish between these kinds. `EXTRA_CONSTRAINT (VALUE, C)' A C expression that defines the optional machine-dependent constraint letters that can be used to segregate specific types of operands, usually memory references, for the target machine. Normally this macro will not be defined. If it is required for a particular target machine, it should return 1 if VALUE corresponds to the operand type represented by the constraint letter C. If C is not defined as an extra constraint, the value returned should be 0 regardless of VALUE. For example, on the ROMP, load instructions cannot have their output in r0 if the memory reference contains a symbolic address. Constraint letter `Q' is defined as representing a memory address that does *not* contain a symbolic address. An alternative is specified with a `Q' constraint on the input and `r' on the output. The next alternative specifies `m' on the input and a register class that does not include r0 on the output.  File: gcc.info, Node: Stack and Calling, Next: Varargs, Prev: Register Classes, Up: Target Macros Stack Layout and Calling Conventions ==================================== This describes the stack layout and calling conventions. * Menu: * Frame Layout:: * Frame Registers:: * Elimination:: * Stack Arguments:: * Register Arguments:: * Scalar Return:: * Aggregate Return:: * Caller Saves:: * Function Entry:: * Profiling::  File: gcc.info, Node: Frame Layout, Next: Frame Registers, Up: Stack and Calling Basic Stack Layout ------------------ Here is the basic stack layout. `STACK_GROWS_DOWNWARD' Define this macro if pushing a word onto the stack moves the stack pointer to a smaller address. When we say, "define this macro if ...," it means that the compiler checks this macro only with `#ifdef' so the precise definition used does not matter. `FRAME_GROWS_DOWNWARD' Define this macro if the addresses of local variable slots are at negative offsets from the frame pointer. `ARGS_GROW_DOWNWARD' Define this macro if successive arguments to a function occupy decreasing addresses on the stack. `STARTING_FRAME_OFFSET' Offset from the frame pointer to the first local variable slot to be allocated. If `FRAME_GROWS_DOWNWARD', find the next slot's offset by subtracting the first slot's length from `STARTING_FRAME_OFFSET'. Otherwise, it is found by adding the length of the first slot to the value `STARTING_FRAME_OFFSET'. `STACK_POINTER_OFFSET' Offset from the stack pointer register to the first location at which outgoing arguments are placed. If not specified, the default value of zero is used. This is the proper value for most machines. If `ARGS_GROW_DOWNWARD', this is the offset to the location above the first location at which outgoing arguments are placed. `FIRST_PARM_OFFSET (FUNDECL)' Offset from the argument pointer register to the first argument's address. On some machines it may depend on the data type of the function. If `ARGS_GROW_DOWNWARD', this is the offset to the location above the first argument's address. `STACK_DYNAMIC_OFFSET (FUNDECL)' Offset from the stack pointer register to an item dynamically allocated on the stack, e.g., by `alloca'. The default value for this macro is `STACK_POINTER_OFFSET' plus the length of the outgoing arguments. The default is correct for most machines. See `function.c' for details. `DYNAMIC_CHAIN_ADDRESS (FRAMEADDR)' A C expression whose value is RTL representing the address in a stack frame where the pointer to the caller's frame is stored. Assume that FRAMEADDR is an RTL expression for the address of the stack frame itself. If you don't define this macro, the default is to return the value of FRAMEADDR--that is, the stack frame address is also the address of the stack word that points to the previous frame. `SETUP_FRAME_ADDRESSES ()' If defined, a C expression that produces the machine-specific code to setup the stack so that arbitrary frames can be accessed. For example, on the Sparc, we must flush all of the register windows to the stack before we can access arbitrary stack frames. This macro will seldom need to be defined. `RETURN_ADDR_RTX (COUNT, FRAMEADDR)' A C expression whose value is RTL representing the value of the return address for the frame COUNT steps up from the current frame. FRAMEADDR is the frame pointer of the COUNT frame, or the frame pointer of the COUNT - 1 frame if `RETURN_ADDR_IN_PREVIOUS_FRAME' is defined. `RETURN_ADDR_IN_PREVIOUS_FRAME' Define this if the return address of a particular stack frame is accessed from the frame pointer of the previous stack frame.  File: gcc.info, Node: Frame Registers, Next: Elimination, Prev: Frame Layout, Up: Stack and Calling Registers That Address the Stack Frame -------------------------------------- This discusses registers that address the stack frame. `STACK_POINTER_REGNUM' The register number of the stack pointer register, which must also be a fixed register according to `FIXED_REGISTERS'. On most machines, the hardware determines which register this is. `FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM' The register number of the frame pointer register, which is used to access automatic variables in the stack frame. On some machines, the hardware determines which register this is. On other machines, you can choose any register you wish for this purpose. `HARD_FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM' On some machines the offset between the frame pointer and starting offset of the automatic variables is not known until after register allocation has been done (for example, because the saved registers are between these two locations). On those machines, define `FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM' the number of a special, fixed register to be used internally until the offset is known, and define `HARD_FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM' to be actual the hard register number used for the frame pointer. You should define this macro only in the very rare circumstances when it is not possible to calculate the offset between the frame pointer and the automatic variables until after register allocation has been completed. When this macro is defined, you must also indicate in your definition of `ELIMINABLE_REGS' how to eliminate `FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM' into either `HARD_FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM' or `STACK_POINTER_REGNUM'. Do not define this macro if it would be the same as `FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM'. `ARG_POINTER_REGNUM' The register number of the arg pointer register, which is used to access the function's argument list. On some machines, this is the same as the frame pointer register. On some machines, the hardware determines which register this is. On other machines, you can choose any register you wish for this purpose. If this is not the same register as the frame pointer register, then you must mark it as a fixed register according to `FIXED_REGISTERS', or arrange to be able to eliminate it (*note Elimination::.). `STATIC_CHAIN_REGNUM' `STATIC_CHAIN_INCOMING_REGNUM' Register numbers used for passing a function's static chain pointer. If register windows are used, the register number as seen by the called function is `STATIC_CHAIN_INCOMING_REGNUM', while the register number as seen by the calling function is `STATIC_CHAIN_REGNUM'. If these registers are the same, `STATIC_CHAIN_INCOMING_REGNUM' need not be defined. The static chain register need not be a fixed register. If the static chain is passed in memory, these macros should not be defined; instead, the next two macros should be defined. `STATIC_CHAIN' `STATIC_CHAIN_INCOMING' If the static chain is passed in memory, these macros provide rtx giving `mem' expressions that denote where they are stored. `STATIC_CHAIN' and `STATIC_CHAIN_INCOMING' give the locations as seen by the calling and called functions, respectively. Often the former will be at an offset from the stack pointer and the latter at an offset from the frame pointer. The variables `stack_pointer_rtx', `frame_pointer_rtx', and `arg_pointer_rtx' will have been initialized prior to the use of these macros and should be used to refer to those items. If the static chain is passed in a register, the two previous macros should be defined instead.  File: gcc.info, Node: Elimination, Next: Stack Arguments, Prev: Frame Registers, Up: Stack and Calling Eliminating Frame Pointer and Arg Pointer ----------------------------------------- This is about eliminating the frame pointer and arg pointer. `FRAME_POINTER_REQUIRED' A C expression which is nonzero if a function must have and use a frame pointer. This expression is evaluated in the reload pass. If its value is nonzero the function will have a frame pointer. The expression can in principle examine the current function and decide according to the facts, but on most machines the constant 0 or the constant 1 suffices. Use 0 when the machine allows code to be generated with no frame pointer, and doing so saves some time or space. Use 1 when there is no possible advantage to avoiding a frame pointer. In certain cases, the compiler does not know how to produce valid code without a frame pointer. The compiler recognizes those cases and automatically gives the function a frame pointer regardless of what `FRAME_POINTER_REQUIRED' says. You don't need to worry about them. In a function that does not require a frame pointer, the frame pointer register can be allocated for ordinary usage, unless you mark it as a fixed register. See `FIXED_REGISTERS' for more information. `INITIAL_FRAME_POINTER_OFFSET (DEPTH-VAR)' A C statement to store in the variable DEPTH-VAR the difference between the frame pointer and the stack pointer values immediately after the function prologue. The value would be computed from information such as the result of `get_frame_size ()' and the tables of registers `regs_ever_live' and `call_used_regs'. If `ELIMINABLE_REGS' is defined, this macro will be not be used and need not be defined. Otherwise, it must be defined even if `FRAME_POINTER_REQUIRED' is defined to always be true; in that case, you may set DEPTH-VAR to anything. `ELIMINABLE_REGS' If defined, this macro specifies a table of register pairs used to eliminate unneeded registers that point into the stack frame. If it is not defined, the only elimination attempted by the compiler is to replace references to the frame pointer with references to the stack pointer. The definition of this macro is a list of structure initializations, each of which specifies an original and replacement register. On some machines, the position of the argument pointer is not known until the compilation is completed. In such a case, a separate hard register must be used for the argument pointer. This register can be eliminated by replacing it with either the frame pointer or the argument pointer, depending on whether or not the frame pointer has been eliminated. In this case, you might specify: #define ELIMINABLE_REGS \ {{ARG_POINTER_REGNUM, STACK_POINTER_REGNUM}, \ {ARG_POINTER_REGNUM, FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM}, \ {FRAME_POINTER_REGNUM, STACK_POINTER_REGNUM}} Note that the elimination of the argument pointer with the stack pointer is specified first since that is the preferred elimination. `CAN_ELIMINATE (FROM-REG, TO-REG)' A C expression that returns non-zero if the compiler is allowed to try to replace register number FROM-REG with register number TO-REG. This macro need only be defined if `ELIMINABLE_REGS' is defined, and will usually be the constant 1, since most of the cases preventing register elimination are things that the compiler already knows about. `INITIAL_ELIMINATION_OFFSET (FROM-REG, TO-REG, OFFSET-VAR)' This macro is similar to `INITIAL_FRAME_POINTER_OFFSET'. It specifies the initial difference between the specified pair of registers. This macro must be defined if `ELIMINABLE_REGS' is defined. `LONGJMP_RESTORE_FROM_STACK' Define this macro if the `longjmp' function restores registers from the stack frames, rather than from those saved specifically by `setjmp'. Certain quantities must not be kept in registers across a call to `setjmp' on such machines.  File: gcc.info, Node: Stack Arguments, Next: Register Arguments, Prev: Elimination, Up: Stack and Calling Passing Function Arguments on the Stack --------------------------------------- The macros in this section control how arguments are passed on the stack. See the following section for other macros that control passing certain arguments in registers. `PROMOTE_PROTOTYPES' Define this macro if an argument declared in a prototype as an integral type smaller than `int' should actually be passed as an `int'. In addition to avoiding errors in certain cases of mismatch, it also makes for better code on certain machines. `PUSH_ROUNDING (NPUSHED)' A C expression that is the number of bytes actually pushed onto the stack when an instruction attempts to push NPUSHED bytes. If the target machine does not have a push instruction, do not define this macro. That directs GNU CC to use an alternate strategy: to allocate the entire argument block and then store the arguments into it. On some machines, the definition #define PUSH_ROUNDING(BYTES) (BYTES) will suffice. But on other machines, instructions that appear to push one byte actually push two bytes in an attempt to maintain alignment. Then the definition should be #define PUSH_ROUNDING(BYTES) (((BYTES) + 1) & ~1) `ACCUMULATE_OUTGOING_ARGS' If defined, the maximum amount of space required for outgoing arguments will be computed and placed into the variable `current_function_outgoing_args_size'. No space will be pushed onto the stack for each call; instead, the function prologue should increase the stack frame size by this amount. Defining both `PUSH_ROUNDING' and `ACCUMULATE_OUTGOING_ARGS' is not proper. `REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE (FNDECL)' Define this macro if functions should assume that stack space has been allocated for arguments even when their values are passed in registers. The value of this macro is the size, in bytes, of the area reserved for arguments passed in registers for the function represented by FNDECL. This space can be allocated by the caller, or be a part of the machine-dependent stack frame: `OUTGOING_REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE' says which. `MAYBE_REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE' `FINAL_REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE (CONST_SIZE, VAR_SIZE)' Define these macros in addition to the one above if functions might allocate stack space for arguments even when their values are passed in registers. These should be used when the stack space allocated for arguments in registers is not a simple constant independent of the function declaration. The value of the first macro is the size, in bytes, of the area that we should initially assume would be reserved for arguments passed in registers. The value of the second macro is the actual size, in bytes, of the area that will be reserved for arguments passed in registers. This takes two arguments: an integer representing the number of bytes of fixed sized arguments on the stack, and a tree representing the number of bytes of variable sized arguments on the stack. When these macros are defined, `REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE' will only be called for libcall functions, the current function, or for a function being called when it is known that such stack space must be allocated. In each case this value can be easily computed. When deciding whether a called function needs such stack space, and how much space to reserve, GNU CC uses these two macros instead of `REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE'. `OUTGOING_REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE' Define this if it is the responsibility of the caller to allocate the area reserved for arguments passed in registers. If `ACCUMULATE_OUTGOING_ARGS' is defined, this macro controls whether the space for these arguments counts in the value of `current_function_outgoing_args_size'. `STACK_PARMS_IN_REG_PARM_AREA' Define this macro if `REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE' is defined, but the stack parameters don't skip the area specified by it. Normally, when a parameter is not passed in registers, it is placed on the stack beyond the `REG_PARM_STACK_SPACE' area. Defining this macro suppresses this behavior and causes the parameter to be passed on the stack in its natural location. `RETURN_POPS_ARGS (FUNDECL, FUNTYPE, STACK-SIZE)' A C expression that should indicate the number of bytes of its own arguments that a function pops on returning, or 0 if the function pops no arguments and the caller must therefore pop them all after the function returns. FUNDECL is a C variable whose value is a tree node that describes the function in question. Normally it is a node of type `FUNCTION_DECL' that describes the declaration of the function. From this it is possible to obtain the DECL_MACHINE_ATTRIBUTES of the function. FUNTYPE is a C variable whose value is a tree node that describes the function in question. Normally it is a node of type `FUNCTION_TYPE' that describes the data type of the function. From this it is possible to obtain the data types of the value and arguments (if known). When a call to a library function is being considered, FUNTYPE will contain an identifier node for the library function. Thus, if you need to distinguish among various library functions, you can do so by their names. Note that "library function" in this context means a function used to perform arithmetic, whose name is known specially in the compiler and was not mentioned in the C code being compiled. STACK-SIZE is the number of bytes of arguments passed on the stack. If a variable number of bytes is passed, it is zero, and argument popping will always be the responsibility of the calling function. On the Vax, all functions always pop their arguments, so the definition of this macro is STACK-SIZE. On the 68000, using the standard calling convention, no functions pop their arguments, so the value of the macro is always 0 in this case. But an alternative calling convention is available in which functions that take a fixed number of arguments pop them but other functions (such as `printf') pop nothing (the caller pops all). When this convention is in use, FUNTYPE is examined to determine whether a function takes a fixed number of arguments.