Date:	Wed, 7 Oct 2015 09:48:58 -0700
From:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, mingo@...nel.org,
	jiangshanlai@...il.com, dipankar@...ibm.com,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com,
	josh@...htriplett.org, tglx@...utronix.de, rostedt@...dmis.org,
	dhowells@...hat.com, edumazet@...gle.com, dvhart@...ux.intel.com,
	fweisbec@...il.com, oleg@...hat.com, bobby.prani@...il.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 02/18] rcu: Move rcu_report_exp_rnp() to
 allow consolidation

On Wed, Oct 07, 2015 at 04:40:24PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 07, 2015 at 07:33:25AM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > > I'm sure you know what that means, but I've no clue ;-) That is, I
> > > wouldn't know where to start looking in the RCU implementation to verify
> > > the barrier is either needed or sufficient. Unless you mean _everywhere_
> > > :-)
> > 
> > Pretty much everywhere.
> > 
> > Let's take the usual RCU removal pattern as an example:
> > 
> > 	void f1(struct foo *p)
> > 	{
> > 		list_del_rcu(p);
> > 		synchronize_rcu_expedited();
> > 		kfree(p);
> > 	}
> > 
> > 	void f2(void)
> > 	{
> > 		struct foo *p;
> > 
> > 		list_for_each_entry_rcu(p, &my_head, next)
> > 			do_something_with(p);
> > 	}
> > 
> > So the synchronize_rcu_expedited() acts as an extremely heavyweight
> > memory barrier that pairs with the rcu_dereference() inside of
> > list_for_each_entry_rcu().  Easy enough, right?
> > 
> > But what exactly within synchronize_rcu_expedited() provides the
> > ordering?  The answer is a web of lock-based critical sections and
> > explicit memory barriers, with the one you called out as needing
> > a comment being one of them.
> 
> Right, but seeing there's possible implementations of sync_rcu(_exp)*()
> that do not have the whole rcu_node tree like thing, there's more to
> this particular barrier than the semantics of sync_rcu().
> 
> Some implementation choice requires this barrier upgrade -- and in
> another email I suggest its the whole tree thing, we need to firmly
> establish the state of one level before propagating the state up etc.
> 
> Now I'm not entirely sure this is fully correct, but its the best I
> could come up.

It is pretty close.  Ignoring dyntick idle for the moment, things
go (very) roughly like this:

o	The RCU grace-period kthread notices that a new grace period
	is needed.  It initializes the tree, which includes acquiring
	every rcu_node structure's ->lock.

o	CPU A notices that there is a new grace period.  It acquires
	the ->lock of its leaf rcu_node structure, which forces full
	ordering against the grace-period kthread.

o	Some time later, that CPU A realizes that it has passed
	through a quiescent state, and again acquires its leaf rcu_node
	structure's ->lock, again enforcing full ordering, but this
	time against all CPUs corresponding to this same leaf rcu_node
	structure that previously noticed quiescent states for this
	same grace period.  Also against all prior readers on this
	same CPU.

o	Some time later, CPU B (corresponding to that same leaf
	rcu_node structure) is the last of that leaf's group of CPUs
	to notice a quiescent state.  It has also acquired that leaf's
	->lock, again forcing ordering against its prior RCU read-side
	critical sections, but also against all the prior RCU
	read-side critical sections of all other CPUs corresponding
	to this same leaf.

o	CPU B therefore moves up the tree, acquiring the parent
	rcu_node structures' ->lock.  In so doing, it forces full
	ordering against all prior RCU read-side critical sections
	of all CPUs corresponding to all leaf rcu_node structures
	subordinate to the current (non-leaf) rcu_node structure.

o	And so on, up the tree.

o	When CPU C reaches the root of the tree, and realizes that
	it is the last CPU to report a quiescent state for the
	current grace period, its acquisition of the root rcu_node
	structure's ->lock has forced full ordering against all
	RCU read-side critical sections that started before this
	grace period -- on all CPUs.

	CPU C therefore awakens the grace-period kthread.

o	When the grace-period kthread wakes up, it does cleanup,
	which (you guessed it!) requires acquiring the ->lock of
	each rcu_node structure.  This not only forces full ordering
	against each pre-existing RCU read-side critical section,
	it also sets up things so that...

o	When CPU D notices that the grace period ended, it does so
	while holding its leaf rcu_node structure's ->lock.  This
	forces full ordering against all relevant RCU read-side
	critical sections.  This ordering prevails when CPU D later
	starts invoking RCU callbacks.

o	Just for fun, suppose that one of those callbacks does an
	"smp_store_release(&leak_gp, 1)".  Suppose further that some
	CPU E that is not yet aware that the grace period is finished
	does an "r1 = smp_load_acquire(&lead_gp)" and gets 1.  Even
	if CPU E was the very first CPU to report a quiescent state
	for the grace period, and even if CPU E has not executed any
	sort of ordering operations since, CPU E's subsequent code is
	-still- guaranteed to be fully ordered after each and every
	RCU read-side critical section that started before the grace
	period.

Hey, you asked!!!  ;-)

Again, this is a cartoon-like view of the ordering that leaves out a
lot of details, but it should get across the gist of the ordering.

							Thanx, Paul

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