Ask HN: Help with doing statistics over machine code

2•phafu•1y ago

I'd like to do some statistics over the machine code gcc generates, such as a histogram of used instructions, average volatile/preserved registers usage of functions etc. For now just x86_64 SysV-ABI would be enough.

However I'm not aware of any pre-existing tool that lets me easily do this. The options I currently see are either make gcc output assembly and write a parser for the GNU Assembler format (possibly by reusing the asm-parser of the compiler-explorer project), or write a tool that reads (disassembles) object files directly using elfutils.

Any hints, prior work, further ideas, links to useful resources, or any other kind of help would be much appreciated.

Comments

baobun•1y ago

"Static analysis" should be a relevant search term. Assuming you don't need to tie the instructions back to C code then the "gcc" part seems circumstancial for implementation? I guess you might want to parse the ASM into an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) represenation and work on that?

If you do want to tie it back to the source, this looks relevant: http://icps.u-strasbg.fr/~pop/gcc-ast.html

phafu•1y ago

For my purpose I don't need to get back to the original source, no.

The gcc part is only relevant with regards to what dialect of assembler I need to parse. If I go that route, I'd write a parser for the GNU assembler, and that would of course work with any code in that dialect, regardless from which compiler it came from (I haven't checked whether other compilers can produce GNU assembler though).

FK Sofa – Truck

Faststrap: Component-based FastHTML extension that provides reusable UI elements

Power of Raycast, Now on iOS

Punchy – a security Tamagotchi that boxes the internet

What if your ChatGPT conversations have a dashboard that can track things

Good writing is a business advantage (2020)

Non-autoregressive NC LLM spits tokens 21x faster than text diffusion

Junglia theme park in Okinawa posted ¥17.3B (US$109.84) loss in first year

Farewell – ETAOIN SHRDLU – 1978 [video]

Ask HN: Is the Microsoft buyout just a long overdue correction?

Push Ifs Up and Fors Down

From the Analytics Department to a Lone Operator with a Laptop

Digital Minimalism

Mexico urges respect for treaties after Texas seizes nine islands on Rio Grande

Ask HN: Is anyone else struggling with AI wealth FOMO?

Automated Subtle Emergent Misalignment Research

UTF-34 BASE-4: Codespace 4^34 = 2^68, Zero-Waste Theorem, and 1M Binary Codes

Cold showers benefit the environment and your health

Tier 1 ISPs react to unfair pricing

Google Adopts New AI Training Control

Spanish minister refuses to resign over second major train crash on his watch

Language Models Need Sleep: Learning to Self-Modify and Consolidate Memories

Tell HN: Claude is using my limits even though it's infra is failing

How hard is it to check for whitespace?

Alkaline batteries are obsolete – but not for the reason you'd think [video]

Show HN: Archwhere – work alongside AI coding agents on an architecture map

Cloudflare Build

Apple Is Entering Its Slop Era

Cursed cruise: how the dream of never-ending luxury at sea became a nightmare

Show HN: Ramekin – IoT development, deployment and update platform via Apptainer