linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] Documentation: Remove misleading examples of the barriers in wake

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: <20150910175557.GA20640@redhat.com>
Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 2015 19:55:57 +0200
From:	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>
To:	Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>
Cc:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
	Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Documentation: Remove misleading examples of the
	barriers in wake_*()

On 09/10, Boqun Feng wrote:
>
> On Wed, Sep 09, 2015 at 12:28:22PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > My feeling is
> > that we should avoid saying too much about the internals of wait_event()
> > and wake_up().

I feel the same. I simply can't understand what we are trying to
document ;)

For example,

> A STORE-LOAD barrier is implied after setting task state by wait-related functions:
>
> 	prepare_to_wait();
> 	prepare_to_wait_exclusive();
> 	prepare_to_wait_event();

I won't argue, but to me this looks misleading too.

Yes, prepare_to_wait()->set_current_state() implies mb() and thus
a STORE-LOAD barrier.

But this has nothing to do with the explanation above. We do not
need this barrier to avoid the race with wake_up(). Again, again,
we can safely rely on wq->lock and acquire/release semantics.

This barrier is only needed if you do, say,

	CONDITION = 1;

	if (waitqueue_active(wq))
		wake_up(wq);

And note that the code above is wrong without another mb() after
CONDITION = 1.

Oleg.

--
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/