linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH] introduce sys_membarrier(): process-wide memory barrier (v5)

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Date:	Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:11:29 -0500
From:	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, josh@...htriplett.org,
	tglx@...utronix.de, Valdis.Kletnieks@...edu, dhowells@...hat.com,
	laijs@...fujitsu.com, dipankar@...ibm.com
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] introduce sys_membarrier(): process-wide memory
	barrier (v5)

* Peter Zijlstra (peterz@...radead.org) wrote:
[...]
> > It's this scenario that is causing problem. Let's consider this
> > execution:
> > 
> >        CPU 0 (membarrier)                  CPU 1 (another mm -> our mm)
> >        <kernel-space>                      <kernel-space>
> >                                            switch_mm()
> >                                              smp_mb()
> >                                              clear_mm_cpumask()
> >                                              set_mm_cpumask()
> >                                              smp_mb() (by load_cr3() on x86)
> >                                            switch_to()
> >        mm_cpumask includes CPU 1
> >        rcu_read_lock()
> >        if (CPU 1 mm != our mm)
> >          skip CPU 1.
> >        rcu_read_unlock()
> >                                              current = next (1)
> 
> OK, so on x86 current uses esp and will be flipped somewhere in the
> switch_to() magic, cpu_curr(cpu) as used by CPU 0 uses rq->curr, which
> will be set before context_switch() and that always implies a mb() for
> non matching ->mm's [*]

Hi Peter,

Please refer to the discussion with Steven further down this thread
(http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/1/14/319), which I update the scenario
when I figured out that "current" and rq->curr are indeed two different
things. It's rq->curr we are interested into here, not "current" as I
previously thought. (sorry about the mixup)

> 
> >                                            <switch back to user-space>
> >                                            read-lock()
> >                                              read gp, store local gp
> >                                              barrier()
> >                                              access critical section (2)
> > 
> > So if we don't have any memory barrier between (1) and (2), the memory
> > operations can be reordered in such a way that CPU 0 will not send IPI
> > to a CPU that would need to have it's barrier() promoted into a
> > smp_mb().
> 
> OK, so I'm utterly failing to make sense of the above, do you need more
> than the 2 cpus discussed to make it go boom?
> 
> > Replacing these kernel rcu_read_lock/unlock() by rq locks ensures that
> > when the scheduler runs concurrently on another CPU, _all_ the scheduling
> > code is executed atomically wrt the spin lock taken on cpu 0.
> 
> Sure, but taking the rq->lock is fairly heavy handed.
> 
> > When x86 uses iret to return to user-space, then we have a serializing
> > instruction. But if it uses sysexit, or if we are on a different
> > architecture, are we sure that a memory barrier is issued before
> > returning to user-space ?
> 
> [*] and possibly also for matching ->mm's, because:
> 
> OK, so I had a quick look at the switch_to() magic, and from what I can
> make of it it implies an mb, if only because poking at the segment
> registers implies LOCK semantics.

Can you have a look at the updated scenario and reply with questions
that might arise ?

Thanks!

Mathieu

> 
> 

-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F  BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68
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