linux-kernel - [PATCH] tile: clarify barrier semantics of atomic_add

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Date:	Tue, 26 Apr 2016 10:00:01 -0400
From:	Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@...lanox.com>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	<torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>, <mingo@...nel.org>,
	<tglx@...utronix.de>, <will.deacon@....com>,
	<paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>, <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
	<waiman.long@....com>, <fweisbec@...il.com>
CC:	Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@...lanox.com>,
	<linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH] tile: clarify barrier semantics of atomic_add_return

A recent discussion on LKML made it clear that the one-line
comment previously in atomic_add_return() was not clear enough:

https://lkml.kernel.org/r/571E87E2.3010306@mellanox.com

Signed-off-by: Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@...lanox.com>
---
 arch/tile/include/asm/atomic_64.h | 17 +++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/tile/include/asm/atomic_64.h b/arch/tile/include/asm/atomic_64.h
index 51cabc26e387..b0531a623653 100644
--- a/arch/tile/include/asm/atomic_64.h
+++ b/arch/tile/include/asm/atomic_64.h
@@ -37,12 +37,25 @@ static inline void atomic_add(int i, atomic_t *v)
 	__insn_fetchadd4((void *)&v->counter, i);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Note a subtlety of the locking here.  We are required to provide a
+ * full memory barrier before and after the operation.  However, we
+ * only provide an explicit mb before the operation.  After the
+ * operation, we use barrier() to get a full mb for free, because:
+ *
+ * (1) The barrier directive to the compiler prohibits any instructions
+ * being statically hoisted before the barrier;
+ * (2) the microarchitecture will not issue any further instructions
+ * until the fetchadd result is available for the "+ i" add instruction;
+ * (3) the smb_mb before the fetchadd ensures that no other memory
+ * operations are in flight at this point.
+ */
 static inline int atomic_add_return(int i, atomic_t *v)
 {
 	int val;
 	smp_mb();  /* barrier for proper semantics */
 	val = __insn_fetchadd4((void *)&v->counter, i) + i;
-	barrier();  /* the "+ i" above will wait on memory */
+	barrier();  /* equivalent to smp_mb(); see block comment above */
 	return val;
 }
 
@@ -95,7 +108,7 @@ static inline long atomic64_add_return(long i, atomic64_t *v)
 	int val;
 	smp_mb();  /* barrier for proper semantics */
 	val = __insn_fetchadd((void *)&v->counter, i) + i;
-	barrier();  /* the "+ i" above will wait on memory */
+	barrier();  /* equivalent to smp_mb; see atomic_add_return() */
 	return val;
 }
 
-- 
2.7.2