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Exploring x32 psABI for Erlang/OTP

· 4 min read
João Henrique Ferreira de Freitas
João Henrique Ferreira de Freitas
Maintainer of meta-erlang

Intro​

According to Wikipedia X32 ABI page:

The x32 ABI is an application binary interface (ABI) and one of the interfaces of the Linux kernel. The x32 ABI provides 32-bit integers, long and pointers (ILP32) on Intel and AMD 64-bit hardware. The ABI allows programs to take advantage of the benefits of x86-64 instruction set (larger number of CPU registers, better floating-point performance, faster position-independent code, shared libraries, function parameters passed via registers, faster syscall instruction) while using 32-bit pointers and thus avoiding the overhead of 64-bit pointers.

So, I'm wondering if it would be possible to enable x32 support in Erlang/OTP build. That way, I could make a Yocto image for x32 that runs on x86-64 machines.

Here is some references about the subject:

In fact, x32 seems to be around since 2011/2012 and has been integrated in many platforms. Like Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo.

Building Erlang/OTP using x32 toolchain​

note

A toolchain with x32 support is necessary. However, it's not easy to find one. Instead projects like crosstool-NG and Yocto Project have tools to make a toolchain with x32 support enabled.

In order to follow this experiment, you can download a specific toolchain with x32 enabled here: poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-minimal-x86_64_x32-qemux86-64-toolchain-4.2.sh.

It will be necessary to install it in a temporary folder like the steps below:

chmod +x poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-minimal-x86_64_x32-qemux86-64-toolchain-4.2.sh
poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-minimal-x86_64_x32-qemux86-64-toolchain-4.2.sh -y -d /tmp/poky/4.2

Following the Erlang/OTP INSTALL-CROSS.md document, we first need to build a Bootstrap System:

cd $ERL_TOP
./configure --enable-bootstrap-only
make

Next, we have to source the toolchain environment configurations:

. /tmp/poky/4.2/environment-setup-x86_64_x32-poky-linux-gnux32

After sourcering the environment variable, the shell gets configured with some extra variables using during the build:

x86_64-poky-linux-gnux32-gcc -mx32 \
 -fstack-protector-strong \
 -O2 -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -Wformat -Wformat-security -Werror=format-security \
 --sysroot=/tmp/poky/4.2/sysroots/x86_64_x32-poky-linux-gnux32

It's important to not the GCC flag -mx32:

The -mx32 option sets int, long, and pointer types to 32 bits, and generates code for the x86-64 architecture.

Finally, start the second part of Erlang/OTP build, which is the Cross Build:

./configure  $CONFIGURE_FLAGS  --disable-silent-rules --disable-dependency-tracking \
	--with-ssl-rpath=no --disable-static  --without-javac --without-dynamic-trace --without-observer --without-odbc

Installing the build output and inspecting the erlexec binary to see what it looks like:

make install DESTDIR=/tmp/e

file /tmp/e/usr/local/lib/erlang/erts-14.0.2/bin/erlexec
erlexec: ELF 32-bit LSB pie executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /libx32/ld-linux-x32.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=013e32ef8c57686a59a812ca452f09d677ff8e37, for GNU/Linux 5.15.0, with debug_info, not stripped

Well, the build is correct. But I couldn't test this build in my machine.

Enabling Erlang for Yocto​

In the previous section we just build Erlang/OTP using a toolchain with x32 support. Now, it's time to build Erlang/OTP inside the Yocto project and test the results using qemu instance.

Enabling it for Yocto is simple, just adding the follow snippet in your local.conf file:

MACHINE = "qemux86-64"
DEFAULTTUNE = "x86-64-x32"
baselib = "${@d.getVar('BASE_LIB:tune-' + (d.getVar('DEFAULTTUNE') or 'INVALID')) or 'lib'}"

Then, building erlang:

bitbake erlang
note

For those that want to check all configure and compiler flags, I'm including the links to those logs:

The build failed in one point related to ASM code in erts/lib_src/pthread/ethread.c. Looks like an ASM incompatibility issue. In order to address it here is a patch that just adds one more compiler check to pick up the correct ifdef branch.

Afer that, the build runs as expected. And testing it using QEMU shows exactly what I had in mind:

runqemu core-image-minimal-qemux86-64.ext4 slirp nographic serialstdio
  • check the current kernel
root@qemux86-64:~# uname -a
Linux qemux86-64 6.1.32-yocto-standard #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Jun  5 13:43:33 UTC 2023 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  • check /proc/cpuinfo to see the 'lm' (long mode)
root@qemux86-64:~# grep -o -w 'lm' /proc/cpuinfo
lm
  • check Erlang shell
Erlang/OTP 26 [erts-14.0.2] [source] [32-bit] [smp:4:4] [ds:4:4:10] [async-threads:1]

Eshell V14.0.2 (press Ctrl+G to abort, type help(). for help)
1> application:ensure_all_started(crypto).
{ok,[crypto]}

Well, looks like we are running Erlang/OTP 32-bits in a x86_64 machine. Also, it was able to correct load the crypto (with ssl libraries compiled for x32 too). By the way, there is a second patch need to proper compile the crypto application.

Some raised questions for further investigations:

  • What tests are necessary to prove that the x32 Erlang build is safe ?
  • Are there any other code change in order to fit the x32 build ?
  • Would BeamAsm be available for x32 ?