What does _PAIR_ macro do with standard handles?

Question

I've seen this question which says __PAIR__ macro does some conditional computation. But I can not relate that with standard I/O handles. Here is the pseudocode in IDA:

if ( (char *)hConout - 1 <= (char *)0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDi64 ) {
ConfigureStdHandles((PHANDLE)handle);
v175 = __PAIR__(1, (unsigned int)handle[0]);
v176 = __PAIR__(2, (unsigned int)handle[1]);
v177 = __PAIR__(2, (unsigned int)handle[2]);

Here is the corresponding Assembly:

loc_1400088CA:                          ; CODE XREF: wmain+FBF↑j
mov     [rsp+418h+handle+18h], rsi
lea     rax, [rsi-1]
cmp     rax, 0FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFDh
setbe   al
mov     rcx, [rsp+418h]
test    al, al
jz      loc_140008BAD
lea     rcx, [rsp+418h+handle] ; hIn
call    _ConfigureStdHandles
mov     esi, 1
mov     dword ptr [rsp+418h+var_268+4], esi
mov     eax, dword ptr [rsp+418h+handle]
mov     dword ptr [rsp+418h+var_268], eax
mov     dword ptr [rsp+418h+var_260+4], 2
mov     eax, dword ptr [rsp+418h+handle+8]
mov     dword ptr [rsp+418h+var_260], eax
mov     dword ptr [rsp+418h+var_258+4], 2
mov     eax, dword ptr [rsp+418h+handle+10h]
mov     dword ptr [rsp+418h+var_258], eax
cmp     [rsp+418h+var_230], r15b
jz      short loc_140008958
mov     [rsp+418h+var_268], r15
loc_140008958:  

The handles are for standard input, output and error respectively. Can you explain what does the __PAIR__ macro do with those handles?

Answer 1

__PAIR__ represents a 64-bit value constructed from two 32-bit values. Because you have 64-bit variables (var_260 etc) being initialized by halves, decompiler detected a 64-bit move pattern and represented the right-hand side it as __PAIR__ helper. If you think it's wrong, you can fix it by:

1. fixing the stack variable to be two 32-bit ones instead of one 64-bit. You can do it by opening the stack frame view (e.g double-click on the stkvar) and editing the frame structure (e.g with D key). After refreshing (F5), the decompiler should show simple 32-bit assignments without __PAIR__.

2. splitting the 64-bit assignment into separate 32-bit ones. For that, use "Split Assignment" in the context menu.

---

EDIT I suspect that those stack variables are not 64-bit integers but actually small structs of two members, e.g.

struct handle_desc {
  int handle;
  int index;
}

maybe look at how they’re used later in the code.