linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 1/3] membarrier: Provide register expedited private command

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Date:   Thu, 5 Oct 2017 15:22:40 +0300
From:   Avi Kivity <avi@...lladb.com>
To:     Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
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, peterz@...radead.org,
        rostedt@...dmis.org, dhowells@...hat.com, edumazet@...gle.com,
        fweisbec@...il.com, oleg@...hat.com,
        Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
        Andrew Hunter <ahh@...gle.com>,
        Maged Michael <maged.michael@...il.com>, gromer@...gle.com,
        Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>,
        Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
        Dave Watson <davejwatson@...com>,
        Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>,
        Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
        Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 1/3] membarrier: Provide register expedited
 private command



On 10/05/2017 07:23 AM, Nicholas Piggin wrote:
> On Wed,  4 Oct 2017 14:37:53 -0700
> "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
>>
>> Provide a new command allowing processes to register their intent to use
>> the private expedited command.
>>
>> This allows PowerPC to skip the full memory barrier in switch_mm(), and
>> only issue the barrier when scheduling into a task belonging to a
>> process that has registered to use expedited private.
>>
>> Processes are now required to register before using
>> MEMBARRIER_CMD_PRIVATE_EXPEDITED, otherwise that command returns EPERM.
>>
>> Changes since v1:
>> - Use test_ti_thread_flag(next, ...) instead of test_thread_flag() in
>>    powerpc membarrier_arch_sched_in(), given that we want to specifically
>>    check the next thread state.
>> - Add missing ARCH_HAS_MEMBARRIER_HOOKS in Kconfig.
>> - Use task_thread_info() to pass thread_info from task to
>>    *_ti_thread_flag().
>>
>> Changes since v2:
>> - Move membarrier_arch_sched_in() call to finish_task_switch().
>> - Check for NULL t->mm in membarrier_arch_fork().
>> - Use membarrier_sched_in() in generic code, which invokes the
>>    arch-specific membarrier_arch_sched_in(). This fixes allnoconfig
>>    build on PowerPC.
>> - Move asm/membarrier.h include under CONFIG_MEMBARRIER, fixing
>>    allnoconfig build on PowerPC.
>> - Build and runtime tested on PowerPC.
>>
>> Changes since v3:
>> - Simply rely on copy_mm() to copy the membarrier_private_expedited mm
>>    field on fork.
>> - powerpc: test thread flag instead of reading
>>    membarrier_private_expedited in membarrier_arch_fork().
>> - powerpc: skip memory barrier in membarrier_arch_sched_in() if coming
>>    from kernel thread, since mmdrop() implies a full barrier.
>> - Set membarrier_private_expedited to 1 only after arch registration
>>    code, thus eliminating a race where concurrent commands could succeed
>>    when they should fail if issued concurrently with process
>>    registration.
>> - Use READ_ONCE() for membarrier_private_expedited field access in
>>    membarrier_private_expedited. Matches WRITE_ONCE() performed in
>>    process registration.
>>
>> Changes since v4:
>> - Move powerpc hook from sched_in() to switch_mm(), based on feedback
>>    from Nicholas Piggin.
> For now, the powerpc approach is okay by me. I plan to test
> others (e.g., taking runqueue locks) on larger systems, but that can
> be sent as an incremental patch at a later time.
>
> The main thing I would like is for people to review the userspace API.
>

As a future satisfied user of the expedited private membarrier syscall, 
I am happy with the change.