11.11 Working with Files

11.11.1 Finite State Machine

The problem is easily solved by the use of a technique called finite state machine, originally developed by the designers of digital electronic circuits. A finite state machine is a digital circuit whose output is dependent not only on its input but on its previous input, i.e., on its state. The microprocessor is an example of a finite state machine: Our assembly language code is assembled to machine language in which some assembly language code produces a single byte of machine language, while others produce several bytes. As the microprocessor fetches the bytes from the memory one by one, some of them simply change its state rather than produce some output. When all the bytes of the op code are fetched, the microprocessor produces some output, or changes the value of a register, etc.

Because of that, all software is essentially a sequence of state instructions for the microprocessor. Nevertheless, the concept of finite state machine is useful in software design as well.

Our text file converter can be designed as a finite state machine with three possible states. We could call them states 0-2, but it will make our life easier if we give them symbolic names:

• ordinary

• cr

• lf

Our program will start in the ordinary state. During this state, the program action depends on its input as follows:

• If the input is anything other than a carriage return or line feed, the input is simply passed on to the output. The state remains unchanged.

• If the input is a carriage return, the state is changed to cr. The input is then discarded, i.e., no output is made.

• If the input is a line feed, the state is changed to lf. The input is then discarded.

Whenever we are in the cr state, it is because the last input was a carriage return, which was unprocessed. What our software does in this state again depends on the current input:

• If the input is anything other than a carriage return or line feed, output a line feed, then output the input, then change the state to ordinary.

• If the input is a carriage return, we have received two (or more) carriage returns in a row. We discard the input, we output a line feed, and leave the state unchanged.

• If the input is a line feed, we output the line feed and change the state to ordinary. Note that this is not the same as the first case above - if we tried to combine them, we would be outputting two line feeds instead of one.

Finally, we are in the lf state after we have received a line feed that was not preceded by a carriage return. This will happen when our file already is in UNIX format, or whenever several lines in a row are expressed by a single carriage return followed by several line feeds, or when line ends with a line feed / carriage return sequence. Here is how we need to handle our input in this state:

• If the input is anything other than a carriage return or line feed, we output a line feed, then output the input, then change the state to ordinary. This is exactly the same action as in the cr state upon receiving the same kind of input.

• If the input is a carriage return, we discard the input, we output a line feed, then change the state to ordinary.

• If the input is a line feed, we output the line feed, and leave the state unchanged.

11.11.2 Implementing FSM in Software

The hardest part of working with a finite state machine is analyzing the problem and expressing it as a finite state machine. That accomplished, the software almost writes itself.

In a high-level language, such as C, there are several main approaches. One is to use a switch statement which chooses what function should be run. For example,

   switch (state) {
    default:
    case REGULAR:
        regular(inputchar);
        break;
    case CR:
        cr(inputchar);
        break;
    case LF:
        lf(inputchar);
        break;
    }

Another approach is by using an array of function pointers, something like this:

   (output[state])(inputchar);

Yet another is to have state be a function pointer, set to point at the appropriate function:

   (*state)(inputchar);

This is the approach we will use in our program because it is very easy to do in assembly language, and very fast, too. We will simply keep the address of the right procedure in EBX, and then just issue:

   call    ebx

This is possibly faster than hardcoding the address in the code because the microprocessor does not have to fetch the address from the memory——it is already stored in one of its registers. I said possibly because with the caching modern microprocessors do, either way may be equally fast.

11.11.3 Memory Mapped Files

Because our program works on a single file, we cannot use the approach that worked for us before, i.e., to read from an input file and to write to an output file.

UNIX allows us to map a file, or a section of a file, into memory. To do that, we first need to open the file with the appropriate read/write flags. Then we use the mmap system call to map it into the memory. One nice thing about mmap is that it automatically works with virtual memory: We can map more of the file into the memory than we have physical memory available, yet still access it through regular memory op codes, such as mov, lods, and stos. Whatever changes we make to the memory image of the file will be written to the file by the system. We do not even have to keep the file open: As long as it stays mapped, we can read from it and write to it.

The 32-bit Intel microprocessors can access up to four gigabytes of memory - physical or virtual. The FreeBSD system allows us to use up to a half of it for file mapping.

For simplicity sake, in this tutorial we will only convert files that can be mapped into the memory in their entirety. There are probably not too many text files that exceed two gigabytes in size. If our program encounters one, it will simply display a message suggesting we use the original tuc instead.

If you examine your copy of syscalls.master, you will find two separate syscalls named mmap. This is because of evolution of UNIX: There was the traditional BSD mmap, syscall 71. That one was superseded by the POSIX® mmap, syscall 197. The FreeBSD system supports both because older programs were written by using the original BSD version. But new software uses the POSIX version, which is what we will use.

The syscalls.master file lists the POSIX version like this:

197    STD BSD { caddr_t mmap(caddr_t addr, size_t len, int prot, \
                int flags, int fd, long pad, off_t pos); }

This differs slightly from what mmap(2) says. That is because mmap(2) describes the C version.

The difference is in the long pad argument, which is not present in the C version. However, the FreeBSD syscalls add a 32-bit pad after pushing a 64-bit argument. In this case, off_t is a 64-bit value.

When we are finished working with a memory-mapped file, we unmap it with the munmap syscall:

11.11.4 Determining File Size

Because we need to tell mmap how many bytes of the file to map into the memory, and because we want to map the entire file, we need to determine the size of the file.

We can use the fstat syscall to get all the information about an open file that the system can give us. That includes the file size.

Again, syscalls.master lists two versions of fstat, a traditional one (syscall 62), and a POSIX one (syscall 189). Naturally, we will use the POSIX version:

189    STD POSIX   { int fstat(int fd, struct stat *sb); }

This is a very straightforward call: We pass to it the address of a stat structure and the descriptor of an open file. It will fill out the contents of the stat structure.

I do, however, have to say that I tried to declare the stat structure in the .bss section, and fstat did not like it: It set the carry flag indicating an error. After I changed the code to allocate the structure on the stack, everything was working fine.

11.11.5 Changing the File Size

Because our program may combine carriage return / line feed sequences into straight line feeds, our output may be smaller than our input. However, since we are placing our output into the same file we read the input from, we may have to change the size of the file.

The ftruncate system call allows us to do just that. Despite its somewhat misleading name, the ftruncate system call can be used to both truncate the file (make it smaller) and to grow it.

And yes, we will find two versions of ftruncate in syscalls.master, an older one (130), and a newer one (201). We will use the newer one:

201    STD BSD { int ftruncate(int fd, int pad, off_t length); }

Please note that this one contains a int pad again.

11.11.6 ftuc

We now know everything we need to write ftuc. We start by adding some new lines in system.inc. First, we define some constants and structures, somewhere at or near the beginning of the file:

;;;;;;; open flags
%define O_RDONLY    0
%define O_WRONLY    1
%define O_RDWR  2

;;;;;;; mmap flags
%define PROT_NONE   0
%define PROT_READ   1
%define PROT_WRITE  2
%define PROT_EXEC   4
;;
%define MAP_SHARED  0001h
%define MAP_PRIVATE 0002h

;;;;;;; stat structure
struc   stat
st_dev      resd    1   ; = 0
st_ino      resd    1   ; = 4
st_mode     resw    1   ; = 8, size is 16 bits
st_nlink    resw    1   ; = 10, ditto
st_uid      resd    1   ; = 12
st_gid      resd    1   ; = 16
st_rdev     resd    1   ; = 20
st_atime    resd    1   ; = 24
st_atimensec    resd    1   ; = 28
st_mtime    resd    1   ; = 32
st_mtimensec    resd    1   ; = 36
st_ctime    resd    1   ; = 40
st_ctimensec    resd    1   ; = 44
st_size     resd    2   ; = 48, size is 64 bits
st_blocks   resd    2   ; = 56, ditto
st_blksize  resd    1   ; = 64
st_flags    resd    1   ; = 68
st_gen      resd    1   ; = 72
st_lspare   resd    1   ; = 76
st_qspare   resd    4   ; = 80
endstruc

We define the new syscalls:

%define    SYS_mmap    197
%define SYS_munmap  73
%define SYS_fstat   189
%define SYS_ftruncate   201

We add the macros for their use:

%macro sys.mmap    0
    system  SYS_mmap
%endmacro

%macro  sys.munmap  0
    system  SYS_munmap
%endmacro

%macro  sys.ftruncate   0
    system  SYS_ftruncate
%endmacro

%macro  sys.fstat   0
    system  SYS_fstat
%endmacro

And here is our code:

;;;;;;; Fast Text-to-Unix Conversion (ftuc.asm) ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;
;; Started: 21-Dec-2000
;; Updated: 22-Dec-2000
;;
;; Copyright 2000 G. Adam Stanislav.
;; All rights reserved.
;;
;;;;;;; v.1 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
%include    'system.inc'

section .data
    db  'Copyright 2000 G. Adam Stanislav.', 0Ah
    db  'All rights reserved.', 0Ah
usg db  'Usage: ftuc filename', 0Ah
usglen  equ $-usg
co  db  "ftuc: Can't open file.", 0Ah
colen   equ $-co
fae db  'ftuc: File access error.', 0Ah
faelen  equ $-fae
ftl db  'ftuc: File too long, use regular tuc instead.', 0Ah
ftllen  equ $-ftl
mae db  'ftuc: Memory allocation error.', 0Ah
maelen  equ $-mae

section .text

align 4
memerr:
    push    dword maelen
    push    dword mae
    jmp short error

align 4
toolong:
    push    dword ftllen
    push    dword ftl
    jmp short error

align 4
facerr:
    push    dword faelen
    push    dword fae
    jmp short error

align 4
cantopen:
    push    dword colen
    push    dword co
    jmp short error

align 4
usage:
    push    dword usglen
    push    dword usg

error:
    push    dword stderr
    sys.write

    push    dword 1
    sys.exit

align 4
global  _start
_start:
    pop eax     ; argc
    pop eax     ; program name
    pop ecx     ; file to convert
    jecxz   usage

    pop eax
    or  eax, eax    ; Too many arguments?
    jne usage

    ; Open the file
    push    dword O_RDWR
    push    ecx
    sys.open
    jc  cantopen

    mov ebp, eax    ; Save fd

    sub esp, byte stat_size
    mov ebx, esp

    ; Find file size
    push    ebx
    push    ebp     ; fd
    sys.fstat
    jc  facerr

    mov edx, [ebx + st_size + 4]

    ; File is too long if EDX != 0 ...
    or  edx, edx
    jne near toolong
    mov ecx, [ebx + st_size]
    ; ... or if it is above 2 GB
    or  ecx, ecx
    js  near toolong

    ; Do nothing if the file is 0 bytes in size
    jecxz   .quit

    ; Map the entire file in memory
    push    edx
    push    edx     ; starting at offset 0
    push    edx     ; pad
    push    ebp     ; fd
    push    dword MAP_SHARED
    push    dword PROT_READ | PROT_WRITE
    push    ecx     ; entire file size
    push    edx     ; let system decide on the address
    sys.mmap
    jc  near memerr

    mov edi, eax
    mov esi, eax
    push    ecx     ; for SYS_munmap
    push    edi

    ; Use EBX for state machine
    mov ebx, ordinary
    mov ah, 0Ah
    cld

.loop:
    lodsb
    call    ebx
    loop    .loop

    cmp ebx, ordinary
    je  .filesize

    ; Output final lf
    mov al, ah
    stosb
    inc edx

.filesize:
    ; truncate file to new size
    push    dword 0     ; high dword
    push    edx     ; low dword
    push    eax     ; pad
    push    ebp
    sys.ftruncate

    ; close it (ebp still pushed)
    sys.close

    add esp, byte 16
    sys.munmap

.quit:
    push    dword 0
    sys.exit

align 4
ordinary:
    cmp al, 0Dh
    je  .cr

    cmp al, ah
    je  .lf

    stosb
    inc edx
    ret

align 4
.cr:
    mov ebx, cr
    ret

align 4
.lf:
    mov ebx, lf
    ret

align 4
cr:
    cmp al, 0Dh
    je  .cr

    cmp al, ah
    je  .lf

    xchg    al, ah
    stosb
    inc edx

    xchg    al, ah
    ; fall through

.lf:
    stosb
    inc edx
    mov ebx, ordinary
    ret

align 4
.cr:
    mov al, ah
    stosb
    inc edx
    ret

align 4
lf:
    cmp al, ah
    je  .lf

    cmp al, 0Dh
    je  .cr

    xchg    al, ah
    stosb
    inc edx

    xchg    al, ah
    stosb
    inc edx
    mov ebx, ordinary
    ret

align 4
.cr:
    mov ebx, ordinary
    mov al, ah
    ; fall through

.lf:
    stosb
    inc edx
    ret