binutils Newspaper
JUNE 15, 2026
risc-v Needs Revision

RISC-V: fold redundant code in riscv_ip()

Jan Beulich acknowledges and will correct an issue in the RISC-V instruction parsing code identified by Jiawei.

Jan Beulich responds to a review by Jiawei regarding a patch that folds redundant code in the riscv_ip() function. Jiawei pointed out that the patch inadvertently changed the accepted range of values for the ‘O2’ operand. Jan acknowledges the issue and indicates that they will correct it.

In the Thread 2 participants
  1. Jiawei reviewer

    Identifies that the patch changed the accepted range of values for the O2 operand, which may be unintentional.

    “Before this change, O2 rejected values >= 3, so the accepted range was 0...2. With the new common check based on 1U << regno, O2 now accepts 0...3. Is this intended?”
  2. Jan Beulich <jbeulich@suse.com> other

    Acknowledges the issue and states that they will correct it.

    “No, I will need to correct that. Thanks for spotting.”

Technical Tradeoffs

  • The original patch simplified the code but introduced a bug.
  • The corrected patch will maintain the original behavior while improving code readability.

In Details

This thread discusses a refactoring of the RISC-V instruction parsing in the GNU assembler. The specific issue is within the riscv_ip() function, which handles instruction pseudo-ops. The concern is an unintended change to the allowed range of an operand due to the refactoring.

For Context

This discussion revolves around improvements to the RISC-V assembler in the GNU binutils. The assembler translates human-readable assembly code into machine code that the processor can execute. The patch in question aimed to simplify the code that parses RISC-V instructions, but a reviewer noticed that it inadvertently changed the valid range of values for one part of an instruction, potentially leading to incorrect code generation.

Filed Under: binutilsrisc-vassemblerbugfixreview