2023-04-13 06:25:49 +00:00
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---
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title: Writing portable ARM64 assembly
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date: '2023-04-13'
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---
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An unfortunate side effect of the rising popularity of Apple's ARM-based
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computers is an increase in unportable assembly code which targets the
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64-bit ARM ISA. This is because developers are writing these bits of
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assembly code to speed up their programs when run on Apple's ARM-based
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computers, without considering the other 64-bit ARM devices out there,
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such as SBCs and servers running Linux or BSD.
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The good news is that it is very easy to write assembly which targets
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Apple's computers as well as the other 64-bit ARM devices running
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operating systems other than Darwin. It just requires being aware of
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a few differences between the Mach-O and ELF ABIs, as well as knowing
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what Apple-specific syntax extensions to avoid. By following the
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guidance in this blog, you will be able to write assembly code which
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is portable between Apple's toolchain, the official ARM assembly
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toolchain, and the GNU toolchain.
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## Differences between the ELF and Mach-O ABIs
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Modern UNIX systems, including Linux-based systems largely use the
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[ELF binary format][elf]. Apple uses [Mach-O][mach-o] in Darwin
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instead for historical reasons. This is not a requirement for Apple
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imposed by their use of Mach, indeed, OSFMK, the kernel that Darwin,
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MkLinux and OSF/1 are all based on, supports ELF binaries just fine.
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Apple just decided to use the Mach-O format instead.
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[elf]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format
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[mach-o]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach-O
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When it comes to writing assembly (or, really, just linking code
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in general) targeting Darwin, the main difference to be aware of is
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that all symbols are prefixed with a single underscore. For example,
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if you have a function that would be declared in C like:
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```c
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extern void unmask(const char *payload, const char *mask, size_t len);
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```
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On Darwin, the function in your assembly code must be defined as `_unmask`.
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The other major difference is that ELF defines different classes of
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data, for example `STT_FUNC` and `STT_OBJECT`. There is no equivalence
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in Mach-O, and thus the `.type` directive that you would use when writing
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assembly for ELF targets is not supported.
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2023-04-23 20:01:20 +00:00
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### A brief note on Platform ABIs
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You will also need to be aware of minor differences between the Darwin
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ABI and other platform ABIs. A notable example is that the `x18`
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register is reserved by the Darwin ABI and is explicitly zeroed on
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context switches in some cases. This register is also reserved on
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Android, but not on GNU/Linux or Alpine.
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2023-04-13 06:25:49 +00:00
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## Apple-specific vector mnemonics
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The other main thing to watch out for is Apple's custom mnemonics for
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NEON. In order to make writing NEON code less cumbersome, Apple
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introduced a set of mnemonics that allow simplification of specifying
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NEON instructions. For example, if you are targeting Apple devices
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only, you might write an exclusive-or NEON instruction like so:
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```asm
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eor.16b v2, v2, v0
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```
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This is an Apple-specific extension to the ARM assembly syntax. The
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[official ARM assembly manual][armasm] specifies that the memory layout
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must be specified for each register:
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```asm
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eor v2.16b, v2.16b, v0.16b
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```
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[armasm]: https://developer.arm.com/documentation/dui0802/b/A64-SIMD-Vector-Instructions/EOR--vector-
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## Abstracting the ABI details with some macros
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The good news is that the ABI details can easily be abstracted with a
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few macros. As for using NEON functions, the answer is simple: stick to
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what the ARM manual says to do, rather than using Apple's mnemonics.
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There are two macros that you need. These can be placed in a header
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file somewhere if wanted.
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The first macro allows you to deal with the underscore requirement of the
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Darwin ABI:
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```c
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2023-04-23 20:01:20 +00:00
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#ifdef __APPLE__
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2023-04-13 06:25:49 +00:00
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# define PROC_NAME(__proc) _ ## __proc
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#else
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# define PROC_NAME(__proc) __proc
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#endif
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```
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The second macro is optional, but it allows you to define the correct
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ELF symbol types outside of Apple's toolchain:
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```c
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#ifdef __clang__
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# define TYPE(__proc, __typ)
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#else
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# define TYPE(__proc, __typ) .type __proc, __typ
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#endif
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```
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Then you just write your assembly as normal, but using these macros:
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```asm
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.global PROC_NAME(unmask)
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.align 2
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TYPE(unmask, @function)
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PROC_NAME(unmask):
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...
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```
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And that's all there is to it. As long as you follow these guidelines,
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you will have assembly which is portable to any UNIX-like environment on
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64-bit ARM.
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