I'm now modifying the gcc's md file, for a mips(el) target. gcc src's version is 4.6.0.
I want to modify the sign-extend insn generation.
originally, mips use "lb"/"lh" instruction to sign-extend a byte/half.
but in my target CPU it doesn't has "lb" and "lh", it only support "lbu" and "lhu". so I have to generate such instructions to implement a sign-ext.
e.g.
lb %0,%1
become:
lbu %0,%1
srl %0,%0,24
sra %0,%0,24
similarly:
lh %0,%1
become:
lhu %0,%1
srl %0,%0,16
sra %0,%0,16
But, In original "md" file, two of these is a single pattern, it use macro to generate lb/lh instruction:
"l<SHORT:size>"
<SHORT:size> may be "b" or "h" --> "lb" or "lh"
but I want to get "24" from "b" ; get "16" form "h". How can I achieve this?
For the lb case what you want is to define three rules using a define_insn for lbu, srl and sra respectively. Once that is done you define an expansion rule using a define_expand for lb which expands into lbu, srl and sra.
At expansion time GCC will transform lb into lbu, srl and sra, meaning that during the RTL phase you won't have lb anymore but only things your backend will understand.
Similarly for lh.
The internal documents are not the best in the world unless you're already in-the-know, however they can be useful to you to look particular details when reading other peoples backends.
On define_insn: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gccint/Patterns.html#index-define_005finsn-3192
On define_expand: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gccint/Expander-Definitions.html#index-define_005fexpand-3613
Enjoy.