Tagged virtual addresses in AArch64 Linux¶
Author: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
Date : 12 June 2013
This document briefly describes the provision of tagged virtual addresses in the AArch64 translation system and their potential uses in AArch64 Linux.
The kernel configures the translation tables so that translations made via TTBR0 (i.e. userspace mappings) have the top byte (bits 63:56) of the virtual address ignored by the translation hardware. This frees up this byte for application use.
Passing tagged addresses to the kernel¶
All interpretation of userspace memory addresses by the kernel assumes an address tag of 0x00, unless the application enables the AArch64 Tagged Address ABI explicitly (AArch64 TAGGED ADDRESS ABI).
This includes, but is not limited to, addresses found in:
pointer arguments to system calls, including pointers in structures passed to system calls,
the stack pointer (sp), e.g. when interpreting it to deliver a signal,
the frame pointer (x29) and frame records, e.g. when interpreting them to generate a backtrace or call graph.
Using non-zero address tags in any of these locations when the userspace application did not enable the AArch64 Tagged Address ABI may result in an error code being returned, a (fatal) signal being raised, or other modes of failure.
For these reasons, when the AArch64 Tagged Address ABI is disabled, passing non-zero address tags to the kernel via system calls is forbidden, and using a non-zero address tag for sp is strongly discouraged.
Programs maintaining a frame pointer and frame records that use non-zero address tags may suffer impaired or inaccurate debug and profiling visibility.
Other considerations¶
Special care should be taken when using tagged pointers, since it is likely that C compilers will not hazard two virtual addresses differing only in the upper byte.