linux-kernel - [PATCH v5 2/2] x86/mm: Improve TLB flush documentation

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Date:   Mon, 24 Jul 2017 21:41:39 -0700
From:   Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>
To:     x86@...nel.org
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Mel Gorman <mgorman@...e.de>,
        "linux-mm@...ck.org" <linux-mm@...ck.org>,
        Nadav Amit <nadav.amit@...il.com>,
        Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>,
        Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...ux.intel.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v5 2/2] x86/mm: Improve TLB flush documentation

Improve comments as requested by PeterZ and also add some
documentation at the top of the file.

Signed-off-by: Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>
---
 arch/x86/mm/tlb.c | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/arch/x86/mm/tlb.c b/arch/x86/mm/tlb.c
index ce104b962a17..d4ee781ca656 100644
--- a/arch/x86/mm/tlb.c
+++ b/arch/x86/mm/tlb.c
@@ -15,17 +15,24 @@
 #include <linux/debugfs.h>
 
 /*
- *	TLB flushing, formerly SMP-only
- *		c/o Linus Torvalds.
+ * The code in this file handles mm switches and TLB flushes.
  *
- *	These mean you can really definitely utterly forget about
- *	writing to user space from interrupts. (Its not allowed anyway).
+ * An mm's TLB state is logically represented by a totally ordered sequence
+ * of TLB flushes.  Each flush increments the mm's tlb_gen.
  *
- *	Optimizations Manfred Spraul <manfred@...orfullife.com>
+ * Each CPU that might have an mm in its TLB (and that might ever use
+ * those TLB entries) will have an entry for it in its cpu_tlbstate.ctxs
+ * array.  The kernel maintains the following invariant: for each CPU and
+ * for each mm in its cpu_tlbstate.ctxs array, the CPU has performed all
+ * flushes in that mms history up to the tlb_gen in cpu_tlbstate.ctxs
+ * or the CPU has performed an equivalent set of flushes.
  *
- *	More scalable flush, from Andi Kleen
- *
- *	Implement flush IPI by CALL_FUNCTION_VECTOR, Alex Shi
+ * For this purpose, an equivalent set is a set that is at least as strong.
+ * So, for example, if the flush history is a full flush at time 1,
+ * a full flush after time 1 is sufficient, but a full flush before time 1
+ * is not.  Similarly, any number of flushes can be replaced by a single
+ * full flush so long as that replacement flush is after all the flushes
+ * that it's replacing.
  */
 
 atomic64_t last_mm_ctx_id = ATOMIC64_INIT(1);
@@ -138,7 +145,16 @@ void switch_mm_irqs_off(struct mm_struct *prev, struct mm_struct *next,
 			return;
 		}
 
-		/* Resume remote flushes and then read tlb_gen. */
+		/*
+		 * Resume remote flushes and then read tlb_gen.  The
+		 * implied barrier in atomic64_read() synchronizes
+		 * with inc_mm_tlb_gen() like this:
+		 *
+		 * switch_mm_irqs_off():	flush request:
+		 *  cpumask_set_cpu(...);	 inc_mm_tlb_gen();
+		 *  MB				 MB
+		 *  atomic64_read(.tlb_gen);	 flush_tlb_others(mm_cpumask());
+		 */
 		cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, mm_cpumask(next));
 		next_tlb_gen = atomic64_read(&next->context.tlb_gen);
 
@@ -186,7 +202,14 @@ void switch_mm_irqs_off(struct mm_struct *prev, struct mm_struct *next,
 		VM_WARN_ON_ONCE(cpumask_test_cpu(cpu, mm_cpumask(next)));
 
 		/*
-		 * Start remote flushes and then read tlb_gen.
+		 * Start remote flushes and then read tlb_gen.  As
+		 * above, the implied barrier in atomic64_read()
+		 * synchronizes with inc_mm_tlb_gen() like this:
+		 *
+		 * switch_mm_irqs_off():	flush request:
+		 *  cpumask_set_cpu(...);	 inc_mm_tlb_gen();
+		 *  MB				 MB
+		 *  atomic64_read(.tlb_gen);	 flush_tlb_others(mm_cpumask());
 		 */
 		cpumask_set_cpu(cpu, mm_cpumask(next));
 		next_tlb_gen = atomic64_read(&next->context.tlb_gen);
-- 
2.9.4