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Message-ID: <20200415100539.GA27339@C02TD0UTHF1T.local>
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2020 11:05:39 +0100
From: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com>
To: Andrei Vagin <avagin@...il.com>
Cc: Vincenzo Frascino <vincenzo.frascino@....com>,
linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org,
LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
Dmitry Safonov <dima@...sta.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 3/6] arm64/vdso: Add time napespace page
On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 07:34:41PM -0700, Andrei Vagin wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 14, 2020 at 10:20 AM Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@....com> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 24, 2020 at 11:37:28PM -0800, Andrei Vagin wrote:
> > > Allocate the time namespace page among VVAR pages. Provide
> > > __arch_get_timens_vdso_data() helper for VDSO code to get the
> > > code-relative position of VVARs on that special page.
> > >
> > > If a task belongs to a time namespace then the VVAR page which contains
> > > the system wide VDSO data is replaced with a namespace specific page
> > > which has the same layout as the VVAR page. That page has vdso_data->seq
> > > set to 1 to enforce the slow path and vdso_data->clock_mode set to
> > > VCLOCK_TIMENS to enforce the time namespace handling path.
> > >
> > > The extra check in the case that vdso_data->seq is odd, e.g. a concurrent
> > > update of the VDSO data is in progress, is not really affecting regular
> > > tasks which are not part of a time namespace as the task is spin waiting
> > > for the update to finish and vdso_data->seq to become even again.
> > >
> > > If a time namespace task hits that code path, it invokes the corresponding
> > > time getter function which retrieves the real VVAR page, reads host time
> > > and then adds the offset for the requested clock which is stored in the
> > > special VVAR page.
> > >
> > > Signed-off-by: Andrei Vagin <avagin@...il.com>
> > > ---
> > > arch/arm64/include/asm/vdso.h | 6 ++++++
> > > .../include/asm/vdso/compat_gettimeofday.h | 11 ++++++++++
> > > arch/arm64/include/asm/vdso/gettimeofday.h | 8 ++++++++
> > > arch/arm64/kernel/vdso.c | 20 ++++++++++++++++---
> > > arch/arm64/kernel/vdso/vdso.lds.S | 5 ++++-
> > > arch/arm64/kernel/vdso32/vdso.lds.S | 5 ++++-
> > > include/vdso/datapage.h | 1 +
> > > 7 files changed, 51 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> >
> > > +#ifdef CONFIG_TIME_NS
> > > +static __always_inline const struct vdso_data *__arch_get_timens_vdso_data(void)
> > > +{
> > > + const struct vdso_data *ret;
> > > +
> > > + asm volatile("mov %0, %1" : "=r"(ret) : "r"(_timens_data));
> > > +
> > > + return ret;
> > > +}
> > > +#endif
> >
> > What is this inline assembly for? The commit message doesn't mention it,
> > there's no explanation here, and the native version doesn't do likewise
> > so it seems rather surprising.
>
> __arch_get_vdso_data is right before this function and there is a
> comment which explains this:
> https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/arch/arm64/include/asm/vdso/compat_gettimeofday.h#L137
>
> """
> /*
> * This simply puts &_vdso_data into ret. The reason why we don't use
> * `ret = _vdso_data` is that the compiler tends to optimize this in a
> * very suboptimal way: instead of keeping &_vdso_data in a register,
> * it goes through a relocation almost every time _vdso_data must be
> * accessed (even in subfunctions). This is both time and space
> * consuming: each relocation uses a word in the code section, and it
> * has to be loaded at runtime.
> *
> * This trick hides the assignment from the compiler. Since it cannot
> * track where the pointer comes from, it will only use one relocation
> * where __arch_get_vdso_data() is called, and then keep the result in
> * a register.
> */
> """
>
> I decided to not duplicate the comment because these two functions are
> very similar and close to each other.
Ah, I was not aware of that context. Could we just add a trivial comment
to say "see __arch_get_vdso_data" or something like that?
It's a shame we're not using OPTIMIZER_HIDE_VAR() for that, as it can
generate slightly better code and is easier to read than bare asm.
Thanks,
Mark.
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