Provided by: libunwind-dev_1.6.2-3_amd64 bug

NAME

       libunwind-ia64 -- IA-64-specific support in libunwind

INTRODUCTION

       The  IA-64  version  of  libunwind uses a platform-string of ia64 and, at least in theory,
       should be able to support all operating systems adhering  to  the  processor-specific  ABI
       defined  for  the  Itanium  Processor  Family.  This includes both little-endian Linux and
       big-endian HP-UX. Furthermore, to make it possible for a single library to unwind both 32-
       and  64-bit targets, the type unw_word_t is always defined to be 64 bits wide (independent
       of the natural word-size of the host). Having said that, the  current  implementation  has
       been tested only with IA-64 Linux.

       When targeting IA-64, the libunwind header file defines the macro UNW_TARGET_IA64 as 1 and
       the macro UNW_TARGET as ``ia64'' (without  the  quotation  marks).  The  former  makes  it
       possible  for  platform-dependent  unwind code to use conditional-compilation to select an
       appropriate implementation. The latter is  useful  for  stringification  purposes  and  to
       construct target-platform-specific symbols.

       One  special  feature  of  IA-64  is the use of NaT bits to support speculative execution.
       Often, NaT bits are thought of as the ``65-th bit'' of a  general  register.  However,  to
       make everything fit into 64-bit wide unw_word_t values, libunwind treats the NaT-bits like
       separate boolean registers, whose 64-bit value is either TRUE (non-zero) or FALSE (zero).

MACHINE-STATE

       The machine-state (set of registers) that is accessible through libunwind depends  on  the
       type  of  stack  frame  that  a  cursor  points  to.  For normal frames, all ``preserved''
       (callee-saved) registers are  accessible.  For  signal-trampoline  frames,  all  registers
       (including  ``scratch'' (caller-saved) registers) are accessible. Most applications do not
       have to worry a-priori about which registers are accessible when. In case of doubt, it  is
       always  safe to try to access a register (via unw_get_reg() or unw_get_fpreg()) and if the
       register isn't accessible, the call will fail with a return-value of -UNW_EBADREG.

       As a special exception to the above general rule, scratch  registers  r15-r18  are  always
       accessible,  even  in  normal  frames.  This makes it possible to pass arguments, e.g., to
       exception handlers.

       For a detailed description  of  the  IA-64  register  usage  convention,  please  see  the
       ``Itanium Software Conventions and Runtime Architecture Guide'', available at:
                        http://www.intel.com/design/itanium/downloads/245358.htm

REGISTER NAMES

       The IA-64-version of libunwind defines three kinds of register name macros: frame-register
       macros, normal register macros, and convenience macros. Below, we describe  each  kind  in
       turn:

   FRAME-REGISTER MACROS
       Frame-registers  are  special  (pseudo)  registers because they always have a valid value,
       even though sometimes they do not get saved explicitly (e.g., if a memory stack  frame  is
       16  bytes  in size, the previous stack-pointer value can be calculated simply as sp+16, so
       there is no need to save  the  stack-pointer  explicitly).  Moreover,  the  set  of  frame
       register  values  uniquely  identifies  a  stack frame. The IA-64 architecture defines two
       stacks (a memory and a register stack). Including the instruction-pointer (IP), this means
       there are three frame registers:

       UNW_IA64_IP:
               Contains the instruction pointer (IP, or ``program counter'') of the current stack
              frame.  Given  this  value,  the  remaining  machine-state   corresponds   to   the
              register-values  that were present in the CPU when it was just about to execute the
              instruction pointed to by UNW_IA64_IP.  Bits 0 and 1 of this frame-register  encode
              the  slot  number  of  the  instruction.  Note: Due to the way the call instruction
              works on IA-64, the slot number is usually zero, but can be non-zero, e.g., in  the
              stack-frame of a signal-handler trampoline.

       UNW_IA64_SP:
               Contains the (memory) stack-pointer value (SP).

       UNW_IA64_BSP:
               Contains  the  register  backing-store  pointer  (BSP).  Note:  the  value in this
              register is equal to the contents of register ar.bsp at the time the instruction at
              UNW_IA64_IP was about to begin execution.

   NORMAL REGISTER MACROS
       The following normal register name macros are available:

       UNW_IA64_GR:
               The  base-index  for  general  (integer) registers. Add an index in the range from
              0..127 to get a particular general register. For example, to access r4,  the  index
              UNW_IA64_GR+4  should  be  used.   Registers  r0 and r1 (gp) are read-only, and any
              attempt to write them will result in an error (-UNW_EREADONLYREG).  Even though  r1
              is   read-only,   libunwind   will   automatically   adjust   its   value   if  the
              instruction-pointer (UNW_IA64_IP) is modified. For example, if UNW_IA64_IP  is  set
              to  a  value  inside  a function func(), then reading UNW_IA64_GR+1 will return the
              global-pointer value for this function.

       UNW_IA64_NAT:
               The base-index for the NaT bits of the general  (integer)  registers.  A  non-zero
              value  in  these  registers corresponds to a set NaT-bit. Add an index in the range
              from 0..127 to get a particular NaT-bit register. For example, to  access  the  NaT
              bit of r4, the index UNW_IA64_NAT+4 should be used.

       UNW_IA64_FR:
               The base-index for floating-point registers. Add an index in the range from 0..127
              to get a particular floating-point register. For example, to access f2,  the  index
              UNW_IA64_FR+2 should be used. Registers f0 and f1 are read-only, and any attempt to
              write  to  indices  UNW_IA64_FR+0  or  UNW_IA64_FR+1  will  result  in   an   error
              (-UNW_EREADONLYREG).

       UNW_IA64_AR:
               The base-index for application registers. Add an index in the range from 0..127 to
              get a particular application register. For  example,  to  access  ar40,  the  index
              UNW_IA64_AR+40  should  be used. The IA-64 architecture defines several application
              registers as ``reserved for future  use''.  Attempting  to  access  such  registers
              results in an error (-UNW_EBADREG).

       UNW_IA64_BR:
               The base-index for branch registers.  Add an index in the range from 0..7 to get a
              particular branch register. For example, to  access  b6,  the  index  UNW_IA64_BR+6
              should be used.

       UNW_IA64_PR:
               Contains  the  set  of  predicate  registers.   This 64-bit wide register contains
              registers p0 through p63 in the ``broad-side'' format. Just like  with  the  ``move
              predicates''  instruction, the registers are mapped as if CFM.rrb.pr were set to 0.
              Thus, in general the value of predicate register pN with N>=16 can be found in  bit
              16 + ((N-16)+CFM.rrb.pr) % 48.

       UNW_IA64_CFM:
               Contains the current-frame-mask register.

   CONVENIENCE MACROS
       Convenience macros are simply aliases for certain frequently used registers:

       UNW_IA64_GP:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+1, the global-pointer register.

       UNW_IA64_TP:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+13, the thread-pointer register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_RSC:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+16, the register-stack configuration register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_BSP:
               Alias  for  UNW_IA64_GR+17.   This  register  index accesses the value of register
              ar.bsp as of the time it was last saved explicitly. This is rarely what  you  want.
              Normally, you'll want to use UNW_IA64_BSP instead.

       UNW_IA64_AR_BSPSTORE:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+18, the register-backing store write pointer.

       UNW_IA64_AR_RNAT:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+19, the register-backing store NaT-collection register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_CCV:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+32, the compare-and-swap value register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_CSD:
               Alias  for  UNW_IA64_GR+25,  the  compare-and-swap-data  register (used by 16-byte
              atomic operations).

       UNW_IA64_AR_UNAT:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+36, the user NaT-collection register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_FPSR:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+40, the floating-point status (and control) register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_PFS:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+64, the previous frame-state register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_LC:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+65 the loop-count register.

       UNW_IA64_AR_EC:
               Alias for UNW_IA64_GR+66, the epilogue-count register.

THE UNWIND-CONTEXT TYPE

       On IA-64, unw_context_t is simply an alias for ucontext_t (as defined by the  Single  UNIX
       Spec).  This  implies that it is possible to initialize a value of this type not just with
       unw_getcontext(), but also with getcontext(), for  example.  However,  since  this  is  an
       IA-64-specific extension to libunwind, portable code should not rely on this equivalence.

SEE ALSO

       libunwind(3)

AUTHOR

       David Mosberger-Tang
       Email: dmosberger@gmail.com
       WWW: http://www.nongnu.org/libunwind/.