linux-kernel - Re: [RFC please help] membarrier: Rewrite sync_core_before

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Date:   Mon, 28 Dec 2020 16:30:39 -0800
From:   Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>
To:     Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
Cc:     Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>, paulmck <paulmck@...nel.org>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        "Russell King, ARM Linux" <linux@...linux.org.uk>,
        x86 <x86@...nel.org>,
        linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
        Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
        Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>,
        Paul Mackerras <paulus@...ba.org>,
        linuxppc-dev <linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org>,
        Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@....com>,
        Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
        linux-arm-kernel <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>,
        stable <stable@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC please help] membarrier: Rewrite sync_core_before_usermode()

On Mon, Dec 28, 2020 at 1:09 PM Mathieu Desnoyers
<mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com> wrote:
>
> ----- On Dec 27, 2020, at 4:36 PM, Andy Lutomirski luto@...nel.org wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> >> You seem to have noticed odd cases on arm64 where this guarantee does not
> >> match reality. Where exactly can we find this in the code, and which part
> >> of the architecture manual can you point us to which supports your concern ?
> >>
> >> Based on the notes I have, use of `eret` on aarch64 guarantees a context
> >> synchronizing
> >> instruction when returning to user-space.
> >
> > Based on my reading of the manual, ERET on ARM doesn't synchronize
> > anything at all.  I can't find any evidence that it synchronizes data
> > or instructions, and I've seen reports that the CPU will happily
> > speculate right past it.
>
> Reading [1] there appears to be 3 kind of context synchronization events:
>
> - Taking an exception,
> - Returning from an exception,
> - ISB.

My reading of [1] is that all three of these are "context
synchronization event[s]", but that only ISB flushes the pipeline,
etc.  The little description of context synchronization seems to
suggest that it only implies that certain register changes become
effective.

>
> This other source [2] adds (search for Context synchronization operation):
>
> - Exit from Debug state
> - Executing a DCPS instruction
> - Executing a DRPS instruction
>
> "ERET" falls into the second kind of events, and AFAIU should be context
> synchronizing. That was confirmed to me by Will Deacon when membarrier
> sync-core was implemented for aarch64. If the architecture reference manuals
> are wrong, is there an errata ?
>
> As for the algorithm to use on ARMv8 to update instructions, see [2]
> B2.3.4  Implication of caches for the application programmer
> "Synchronization and coherency issues between data and instruction accesses"

This specifically discusses ISB.

Let's wait for an actual ARM64 expert to chime in, though.