>I found a reference in /usr/include/machine/asm.h to the LEAF() macro stating
>that it is not expecting functions to be called (so it doesn't set up a frame).
>I changed the code to ....

yup, that's the right observation to have made...


> NESTED(cerror, 0, 8, ra, 0, 0)
>     br      t0, 1f
> 1:  SETGP(t0)
>     lda sp, -8(sp)
>     stq ra, 0(sp)
>     mov     v0, a0
>     CALL(__error)
>     stl     a0, 0(v0)
>     ldiq    v0, -1
>     ldq ra, 0(sp)
>     lda sp, 8(sp)
>     RET
> 
> so that the return address wasn't trashed by the call to __error and it
> works!

That's not quite correct, for two reasons:

(1) the Digital "Calling Standard for AXP Systems" (AA-PY8AB-TE,
    really an OSF/1 book) indicates that the stack pointer should
    always be 16-byte-aligned (page 3-12), and

(2) Since a0 can be overwritten by the called function, what you
    really want to do is store s0 on the stack, move v0 to s0 (instead
    of a0), use it, then at the end of the function restore s0.



chris