linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] KVM: Remove redundant smp_mb() in the kvm_mmu_commit_zap

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Date:	Thu, 10 Mar 2016 22:40:30 +0800
From:	Xiao Guangrong <guangrong.xiao@...ux.intel.com>
To:	Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
	Lan Tianyu <tianyu.lan@...el.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Cc:	gleb@...nel.org, mingo@...hat.com, hpa@...or.com, x86@...nel.org,
	kvm@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] KVM: Remove redundant smp_mb() in the
 kvm_mmu_commit_zap_page()



On 03/08/2016 11:27 PM, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
>
>
> On 08/03/2016 09:36, Lan Tianyu wrote:
>> Summary about smp_mb()s we met in this thread. If misunderstood, please
>> correct me. Thanks.
>>
>> The smp_mb() in the kvm_flush_remote_tlbs() was introduced by the commit
>> a4ee1ca4 and it seems to keep the order of reading and cmpxchg
>> kvm->tlbs_dirty.
>>
>>      Quote from Avi:
>>      | I don't think we need to flush immediately; set a "tlb dirty" bit
>> somewhere
>>      | that is cleareded when we flush the tlb.
>> kvm_mmu_notifier_invalidate_page()
>>      | can consult the bit and force a flush if set.
>>
>>      Signed-off-by: Xiao Guangrong <xiaoguangrong@...fujitsu.com>
>>      Signed-off-by: Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@...hat.com>
>
> Unfortunately that patch added a bad memory barrier: 1) it lacks a
> comment; 2) it lacks obvious pairing; 3) it is an smp_mb() after a read,
> so it's not even obvious that this memory barrier has to do with the
> immediately preceding read of kvm->tlbs_dirty.  It also is not
> documented in Documentation/virtual/kvm/mmu.txt (Guangrong documented
> there most of his other work, back in 2013, but not this one :)).
>
> The cmpxchg is ordered anyway against the read, because 1) x86 has
> implicit ordering between earlier loads and later stores; 2) even
> store-load barriers are unnecessary for accesses to the same variable
> (in this case kvm->tlbs_dirty).
>
> So offhand, I cannot say what it orders.  There are two possibilities:
>
> 1) it orders the read of tlbs_dirty with the read of mode.  In this
> case, a smp_rmb() would have been enough, and it's not clear where is
> the matching smp_wmb().
>
> 2) it orders the read of tlbs_dirty with the KVM_REQ_TLB_FLUSH request.
>   In this case a smp_load_acquire would be better.
>
> 3) it does the same as kvm_mmu_commit_zap_page's smp_mb() but for other
> callers of kvm_flush_remote_tlbs().  In this case, we know what's the
> matching memory barrier (walk_shadow_page_lockless_*).
>
> 4) it is completely unnecessary.

Sorry, memory barriers were missed in sync_page(), this diff should fix it:

diff --git a/arch/x86/kvm/paging_tmpl.h b/arch/x86/kvm/paging_tmpl.h
index 91e939b..4cad57f 100644
--- a/arch/x86/kvm/paging_tmpl.h
+++ b/arch/x86/kvm/paging_tmpl.h
@@ -948,6 +948,12 @@ static int FNAME(sync_page)(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_mmu_page *sp)
  			return -EINVAL;

  		if (FNAME(prefetch_invalid_gpte)(vcpu, sp, &sp->spt[i], gpte)) {
+			/*
+			 * update spte before increasing tlbs_dirty to make sure no tlb
+			 * flush in lost after spte is zapped, see the comments in
+			 * kvm_flush_remote_tlbs().
+			 */
+			smp_wmb();
  			vcpu->kvm->tlbs_dirty++;
  			continue;
  		}
@@ -963,6 +969,8 @@ static int FNAME(sync_page)(struct kvm_vcpu *vcpu, struct kvm_mmu_page *sp)

  		if (gfn != sp->gfns[i]) {
  			drop_spte(vcpu->kvm, &sp->spt[i]);
+			/* the same as above where we are doing prefetch_invalid_gpte(). */
+			smp_wmb();
  			vcpu->kvm->tlbs_dirty++;
  			continue;
  		}
diff --git a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
index 314c777..82c86ea 100644
--- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
+++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
@@ -193,7 +193,12 @@ void kvm_flush_remote_tlbs(struct kvm *kvm)
  {
  	long dirty_count = kvm->tlbs_dirty;

+        /*
+         * read tlbs_dirty before doing tlb flush to make sure not tlb request is
+         * lost.
+         */
  	smp_mb();
+
  	if (kvm_make_all_cpus_request(kvm, KVM_REQ_TLB_FLUSH))
  		++kvm->stat.remote_tlb_flush;
  	cmpxchg(&kvm->tlbs_dirty, dirty_count, 0);


Any comment?