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

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20100107175637.GI6764@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Date:	Thu, 7 Jan 2010 09:56:37 -0800
From:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
Cc:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>,
	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...ymtl.ca>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.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

On Thu, Jan 07, 2010 at 12:44:37PM -0500, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-01-07 at 09:31 -0800, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> 
> > Something like the following for sys_membarrier(), then?
> > 
> >   smp_mb();
> >   for_each_cpu(cpu, current->mm->cpu_vm_mask) {
> >      if (cpu_curr(cpu)->mm == current->mm)
> >         smp_call_function_single(cpu, func, NULL, 1);
> >   }
> > 
> > Then the code changing ->mm on the other CPU also needs to have a
> > full smp_mb() somewhere after the change to ->mm, but before starting
> > user-space execution.  Which it might well just due to overhead, but
> > we need to make sure that someone doesn't optimize us out of existence.
> 
> To change the mm requires things like flushing the TLB. I'd be surprised
> if the change of the mm does not already do a smp_mb() somewhere.

Agreed, but "somewhere" does not fill me with warm fuzzies.  ;-)

							Thanx, Paul
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/