linux-kernel - Re: [RFC] LKMM: Add volatile

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Date:   Sat, 5 Jun 2021 00:05:16 +0200
From:   Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:     "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org>,
        Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>,
        Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
        Andrea Parri <parri.andrea@...il.com>,
        Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
        Nick Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>,
        Jade Alglave <j.alglave@....ac.uk>,
        Luc Maranget <luc.maranget@...ia.fr>,
        Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@...il.com>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-toolchains@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-arch <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC] LKMM: Add volatile_if()

On Fri, Jun 04, 2021 at 02:27:49PM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 4, 2021 at 1:56 PM Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...nel.org> wrote:
> >
> > The usual way to prevent it is to use WRITE_ONCE().
> 
> The very *documentation example* for "volatile_if()" uses that WRITE_ONCE().
> 
> IOW, the patch that started this discussion has this comment in it:
> 
> +/**
> + * volatile_if() - Provide a control-dependency
> + *
> + * volatile_if(READ_ONCE(A))
> + *     WRITE_ONCE(B, 1);
> + *
> + * will ensure that the STORE to B happens after the LOAD of A.

We do actually have uses what use a 'regular' store, and not a
WRITE_ONCE(). And I think for those the added barrier() might make a
difference.

At the very least the perf ring-buffer case uses memcpy().

On my part I'm deeply distrusting some of the C language committee
proposals I've seen regarding this stuff, and I'm maybe worrying too
much, but I'd rather not have to debug anything like this when they do
manage to make it go bad.

On top of that, I think having the construct is good for documenting
intent and possibly some of the concurrency analyzers can make use of
it.