linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 3/7] barrier: a scalable synchonisation barrier

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Date:	Sat, 3 Feb 2007 19:38:50 +0300
From:	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...sign.ru>
To:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc:	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/7] barrier: a scalable synchonisation barrier

On 01/31, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
>
> QRCU as currently written (http://lkml.org/lkml/2006/11/29/330) doesn't
> do what you want, as it acquires the lock unconditionally.  I am proposing
> that synchronize_qrcu() change to something like the following:
> 
> 	void synchronize_qrcu(struct qrcu_struct *qp)
> 	{
> 		int idx;
> 	
> 		smp_mb();
> 	
> 		if (atomic_read(qp->ctr[0]) + atomic_read(qp->ctr[1]) <= 1) {
> 			smp_rmb();
> 			if (atomic_read(qp->ctr[0]) +
> 			    atomic_read(qp->ctr[1]) <= 1)
> 				goto out;
> 		}
> 	
> 		mutex_lock(&qp->mutex);
> 		idx = qp->completed & 0x1;
> 		atomic_inc(qp->ctr + (idx ^ 0x1));
> 		/* Reduce the likelihood that qrcu_read_lock() will loop */
> 		smp_mb__after_atomic_inc();

I almost forgot. Currently this smp_mb__after_atomic_inc() is not strictly
needed, and the comment is correct. However, it becomes mandatory with your
optimization. Without this barrier, it is possible that both checks above
mutex_lock() will see the result of atomic_dec(), but not the atomic_inc().

So, may I ask you to also update this comment?

	/*
	 * Reduce the likelihood that qrcu_read_lock() will loop
	 *	AND
	 * make sure the second re-check above will see the result
	 * of atomic_inc() if it sees the result of atomic_dec()
	 */

Something like this, I hope you will make it better.

And another note: this all assumes that STORE-MB-LOAD works "correctly", yes?
We have other code which relies on that, should not be a problem.

(Alan Stern cc'ed).

Oleg.

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