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Why first user process loads another program?
The first user process from
userinit() loads initcode.S program, which internally calls exec to run init program.userinit prepares the first process. It sets the program counter to instructions in initcode.S. When scheduler runs it, it will begin execution. initcode.S has a system call exec to run init, and starts from there.I think
userinit can definitely call init.c. We can get the hex dump of init.c binary, then make our array initcode[] to contain it. The reason MIT implementers did not do it because there are a lot of hex to copy! But, I might be wrong…The instruction of the loaded program must be fitted into one page.
// Load the user initcode into address 0 of pagetable,
// for the very first process.
// sz must be less than a page.
void
uvminit(pagetable_t pagetable, uchar *src, uint sz)
{
char *mem;
if(sz >= PGSIZE)
panic(“inituvm: more than a page”);
mem = kalloc();
memset(mem, 0, PGSIZE);
mappages(pagetable, 0, PGSIZE, (uint64)mem, PTE_W|PTE_R|PTE_X|PTE_U);
memmove(mem, src, sz);
}
initcode.S is built to a binary file.$U/initcode: $U/initcode.S
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -nostdinc -I. -Ikernel -c $U/initcode.S -o $U/initcode.o
$(LD) $(LDFLAGS) -N -e start -Ttext 0 -o $U/initcode.out $U/initcode.o
The obj dump of the binary shows the first instruction is
auipc a0,0x0:# exec(init, argv)
.globl start
start:
la a0, init
0: 00000517 auipc a0,0x0
4: 00050513 mv a0,a0
la a1, argv
8: 00000597 auipc a1,0x0
c: 00058593 mv a1,a1
li a7, SYS_exec
10: 489d li a7,7
ecall
12: 00000073 ecall
The program is mapped to the process at virtual address(VA) 0. The program counter is set to VA 0 as well, which is the 1st instruction.
// prepare for the very first "return" from kernel to user.
p->tf->epc = 0; // user program counter
p->tf->sp = PGSIZE; // user stack pointer
When CPU scheduler runs this process, the PC points to first instruction at VA 0. Then PC moves to the next instruction (PC + 4).
$U/initcode: $U/initcode.S
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) -nostdinc -I. -Ikernel -c $U/initcode.S -o $U/initcode.o
$(LD) $(LDFLAGS) -N -e start -Ttext 0 -o $U/initcode.out $U/initcode.o
$(OBJCOPY) -S -O binary $U/initcode.out $U/initcode
$(OBJDUMP) -S $U/initcode.o > $U/initcode.asm
In Makefile:
$(LD) $(LDFLAGS) -N -e start -Ttext 0 -o $U/initcode.out $U/initcode.old -o /lib/crt0.o hello.o -lc This tells ld to produce a file called output as the result of linking the file “/lib/crt0.o” with “hello.o” and the library “libc.a”, which will come from the standard search directories. (See the discussion of the -l option below.)The linker cmd generates
initcode.out from object file. The output file is:$ file initcode.out
initcode.out: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, UCB RISC-V, version 1 (SYSV), statically linked, with debug_info, not stripped
In Makefile:
$(OBJCOPY) -S -O binary $U/initcode.out $U/initcodeobjcopy (GNU Binary Utilities)
objcopy can be used to generate a raw binary file by using an output target of ‘binary’ (e.g., use -O binary).When
objcopy generates a raw binary file, it will essentially produce a memory dump of the contents of the input object file. All symbols and relocation information will be discarded. The memory dump will start at the load address of the lowest section copied into the output file.Use -S to remove sections containing debugging information.
The result data file (
initcode) is a stripped version of initcode.out (binary). It is a memory dump of the contents.Look at this assembly
la a0, init
0: 00000517 auipc a0,0x0
4: 00050513 mv a0,a0
la a1, argv
8: 00000597 auipc a1,0x0
c: 00058593 mv a1,a1
li a7, SYS_exec
10: 489d li a7,7
ecall
12: 00000073 ecall
Then look at the hex dump:
$ od -t xC initcode
0000000 17 05 00 00 13 05 05 02 97 05 00 00 93 85 05 02
0000020 9d 48 73 00 00 00 89 48 73 00 00 00 ef f0 bf ff
0000040 2f 69 6e 69 74 00 00 01 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0000060 00 00 00
0000063
Now tell me, what do you observe? The hex dump is the assembly instructions in little endian format! (
00000517 becomes 17 05 00 00 …)Now, we understand why there is a hex dump array loaded to xv6 first user process!!!
Ref
Makefile prints tool prefix.
what:
@echo “$(TOOLPREFIX)”
riscv64-unknown-elf-objcopy -S -O binary _echo\ 2 echo_little