Date: Wed, 1 Dec 1999 07:58:30 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy <jeremyp@gsmx07.alcatel.com.au> To: Zhihui Zhang <zzhang@cs.binghamton.edu> Cc: David Gilbert <dgilbert@velocet.ca>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: stack up or stack down. Message-ID: <99Dec1.075113est.40322@border.alcanet.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.96.991130132615.730A-100000@sol.cs.binghamton.edu> References: <14404.5187.497998.940864@trooper.velocet.net> <Pine.GSO.3.96.991130132615.730A-100000@sol.cs.binghamton.edu>
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On 1999-Dec-01 05:31:23 +1100, Zhihui Zhang wrote: >On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, David Gilbert wrote: >> To that end, does the kernel >> stack build up (from low to high addresses) or down (high to low >> addresses) in FreeBSD? > >This is a question determined by the Intel hardware, not by FreeBSD. So it >should grow downwards (to lower addresses). Wait, it may depend on how >an OS like FreeBSD sets the stack segment attributes... I'd like to know >the answer. On i386, it always goes high to low - this is hard-wired into the stack manipulating instructions. The segment attributes just select between `normal' and `stack' segments - the difference being how the base/limit is calculated (it's easy to extend a normal segment towards higher addresses and a stack segment towards lower addresses). On the Alpha, there is no hardware support for a stack, so the stack growth direction is determined by the OS and development tools. (Though I think all Alpha systems use high-to-low stacks). Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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