bpf: diagnose instructions above the selected ISA spec
Project / Subsystem
binutils / bpf
Date
2026-09-08
Proposer
Vineet Gupta <vineet.gupta@linux.dev>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
—/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Provides much clearer error messages for ISA version mismatches.
- • Increases the complexity of the `md_assemble` function.
- • Ensures that valid instructions within the selected ISA are still correctly assembled.
All attributes
- project
- binutils
- subsystem
- bpf
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- 20260908062940.2734221-5-vineet.gupta@linux.dev
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- bpf: diagnose instructions above the selected ISA spec
- headline
- BPF gas: Diagnose instructions above selected ISA spec
- tldr
- BPF gas now provides clearer diagnostics for instructions requiring a higher ISA spec than selected.
- proposer
- Vineet Gupta <vineet.gupta@linux.dev>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- —
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Provides much clearer error messages for ISA version mismatches.
- • Increases the complexity of the `md_assemble` function.
- • Ensures that valid instructions within the selected ISA are still correctly assembled.
- series_id
- binutils:bpf: diagnose instructions above the selected isa spec
- series_role
- reply
- series_parts
-
- • {"title":"bpf: diagnose instructions above the selected ISA spec","url":"https://inbox.sourceware.org/binutils/20260907091102.2595057-6-vineet.gupta@linux.dev"}
- tags
-
- • BPF
- • gas
- • assembler
- • diagnostics
- • ISA
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-09-08T00:00:00.000Z
bpf: diagnose instructions above the selected ISA spec
This patch enhances the BPF assembler’s error reporting. Previously, using an instruction not available in the selected ISA spec resulted in misleading errors, such as ‘unrecognized instruction’ or ‘expected white space’. The updated md_assemble function now attempts to match templates above the current ISA spec for diagnostic purposes. If a match is found, it reports the specific ISA spec required (e.g., ‘requires ISA spec v4 or later’), providing much clearer feedback to the user.