linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH v13] sys_membarrier(): system/process-wide memory barrier (x86)

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Message-ID: <20150317175750.GB4141@cloud>
Date:	Tue, 17 Mar 2015 10:57:50 -0700
From:	josh@...htriplett.org
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@...fujitsu.com>,
	Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
	Nicholas Miell <nmiell@...cast.net>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	Alan Cox <gnomes@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	Lai Jiangshan <laijs@...fujitsu.com>,
	Stephen Hemminger <stephen@...workplumber.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v13] sys_membarrier(): system/process-wide memory
 barrier (x86)

On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 06:30:35PM +0100, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 17, 2015 at 01:22:02PM -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> > Here is an implementation of a new system call, sys_membarrier(), which
> > executes a memory barrier on either all running threads of the current
> > process (MEMBARRIER_PRIVATE) issues a memory barrier on all threads
> > running on the system (~MEMBARRIER_PRIVATE). Both are currently
> > implemented by calling synchronize_sched().
> 
> Then why bother with the flag?

Semantically, MEMBARRIER_PRIVATE is allowed to avoid issuing a barrier
on CPUs not running the current process if it can, while
~MEMBARRIER_PRIVATE may not.  (The latter would be useful for
applications such as system-wide tracing.)  That they're currently both
implemented the same way doesn't mean they're semantically equivalent.

- Josh Triplett
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