The QEMU_UNINITIALIZED macro is to be used to skip the default compiler
variable initialization done by -ftrivial-auto-var-init=zero.
Use this in cases where there a method in the device I/O path (or other
important hot paths), that has large variables on the stack. A rule of
thumb is that "large" means a method with 4kb data in the local stack
frame. Any variables which are KB in size, should be annotated with this
attribute, to pre-emptively eliminate any potential overhead from the
compiler zero'ing memory.
Given that this turns off a security hardening feature, when using this
to flag variables, it is important that the code is double-checked to
ensure there is no possible use of uninitialized data in the method.
Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
Message-id: 20250610123709.835102-2-berrange@redhat.com
[DB: split off patch & rewrite guidance on when to use the annotation]
Signed-off-by: Daniel P. Berrangé <berrange@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@redhat.com>
Stefan Hajnoczi
c653b67d18