netdev - Re: [PATCH 0/24] make atomic_read() behave consistently across all architectures

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Date:	Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:23:28 +0200
From:	Segher Boessenkool <segher@...nel.crashing.org>
To:	paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com
Cc:	horms@...ge.net.au, Stefan Richter <stefanr@...6.in-berlin.de>,
	Satyam Sharma <satyam@...radead.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	rpjday@...dspring.com, netdev@...r.kernel.org, ak@...e.de,
	cfriesen@...tel.com, Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@...ibm.com>,
	jesper.juhl@...il.com, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>, zlynx@....org,
	clameter@....com, schwidefsky@...ibm.com,
	Chris Snook <csnook@...hat.com>,
	Herbert Xu <herbert@...dor.apana.org.au>, davem@...emloft.net,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	wensong@...ux-vs.org, wjiang@...ilience.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/24] make atomic_read() behave consistently across all architectures

>>>> No; compilation units have nothing to do with it, GCC can optimise
>>>> across compilation unit boundaries just fine, if you tell it to
>>>> compile more than one compilation unit at once.
>>>
>>> Last I checked, the Linux kernel build system did compile each .c 
>>> file
>>> as a separate compilation unit.
>>
>> I have some patches to use -combine -fwhole-program for Linux.
>> Highly experimental, you need a patched bleeding edge toolchain.
>> If there's interest I'll clean it up and put it online.
>>
>> David Woodhouse had some similar patches about a year ago.
>
> Sounds exciting...  ;-)

Yeah, the breakage is *quite* spectacular :-)

>>>>> In many cases, the compiler also has to assume that
>>>>> msleep_interruptible()
>>>>> might call back into a function in the current compilation unit, 
>>>>> thus
>>>>> possibly modifying global static variables.
>>>>
>>>> It most often is smart enough to see what compilation-unit-local
>>>> variables might be modified that way, though :-)
>>>
>>> Yep.  For example, if it knows the current value of a given such 
>>> local
>>> variable, and if all code paths that would change some other variable
>>> cannot be reached given that current value of the first variable.
>>
>> Or the most common thing: if neither the address of the translation-
>> unit local variable nor the address of any function writing to that
>> variable can "escape" from that translation unit, nothing outside
>> the translation unit can write to the variable.
>
> But there is usually at least one externally callable function in
> a .c file.

Of course, but often none of those will (indirectly) write a certain
static variable.


Segher

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