linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 4/4] x86/static_call: Add inline static call implementation for x86-64

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Message-ID: <20181130162713.uoeyfau66buntyse@treble>
Date:   Fri, 30 Nov 2018 10:27:13 -0600
From:   Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...hat.com>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     Andrew Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        the arch/x86 maintainers <x86@...nel.org>,
        Linux List Kernel Mailing <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Ard Biesheuvel <ard.biesheuvel@...aro.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, mhiramat@...nel.org,
        jbaron@...mai.com, Jiri Kosina <jkosina@...e.cz>,
        David.Laight@...lab.com, bp@...en8.de, julia@...com,
        jeyu@...nel.org, Peter Anvin <hpa@...or.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 4/4] x86/static_call: Add inline static call
 implementation for x86-64

On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 03:04:20PM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 12:25 PM Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...hat.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 11:27:00AM -0800, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> > >
> > > I propose a different solution:
> > >
> > > As in this patch set, we have a direct and an indirect version.  The
> > > indirect version remains exactly the same as in this patch set.  The
> > > direct version just only does the patching when all seems well: the
> > > call instruction needs to be 0xe8, and we only do it when the thing
> > > doesn't cross a cache line.  Does that work?  In the rare case where
> > > the compiler generates something other than 0xe8 or crosses a cache
> > > line, then the thing just remains as a call to the out of line jmp
> > > trampoline.  Does that seem reasonable?  It's a very minor change to
> > > the patch set.
> >
> > Maybe that would be ok.  If my math is right, we would use the
> > out-of-line version almost 5% of the time due to cache misalignment of
> > the address.
> 
> Note that I don't think cache-line alignment is necessarily sufficient.
> 
> The I$ fetch from the cacheline can happen in smaller chunks, because
> the bus between the I$ and the instruction decode isn't a full
> cacheline (well, it is _now_ in modern big cores, but it hasn't always
> been).
> 
> So even if the cacheline is updated atomically, I could imagine seeing
> a partial fetch from the I$ (old values) and then a second partial
> fetch (new values).
> 
> It would be interesting to know what the exact fetch rules are.

I've been doing  some cross-modifying code experiments on Nehalem, with
one CPU writing call destinations while the other CPUs are executing
them.  Reliably, one of the readers goes off into the weeds within a few
seconds.

The writing was done with just text_poke(), no #BP.

I wasn't able to figure out the pattern in the addresses of the
corrupted call sites.  It wasn't cache line.

That was on Nehalem.  Skylake didn't crash at all.

-- 
Josh