linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] Lock and Pointer guards

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Date:   Mon, 29 May 2023 15:04:00 -0400
From:   Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:     Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Ian Lance Taylor <iant@...gle.com>
Cc:     Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>, keescook@...omium.org,
        gregkh@...uxfoundation.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        ojeda@...nel.org, ndesaulniers@...gle.com, mingo@...hat.com,
        will@...nel.org, longman@...hat.com, boqun.feng@...il.com,
        juri.lelli@...hat.com, vincent.guittot@...aro.org,
        dietmar.eggemann@....com, rostedt@...dmis.org, bsegall@...gle.com,
        mgorman@...e.de, bristot@...hat.com, vschneid@...hat.com,
        paulmck@...nel.org, frederic@...nel.org, quic_neeraju@...cinc.com,
        joel@...lfernandes.org, josh@...htriplett.org,
        mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com, jiangshanlai@...il.com,
        rcu@...r.kernel.org, tj@...nel.org, tglx@...utronix.de
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/2] Lock and Pointer guards

On Mon, May 29, 2023 at 8:09 AM Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, May 27, 2023 at 9:18 PM Linus Torvalds
> <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:
> > It's also an example of something people need to be aware of: the
> > auto-releasing is not ordered. That may or may not be a problem. It's
> > not a problem for two identical locks, but it very much *can* be a
> > problem if you mix different locks.
>
> It is guaranteed. It would be nice to have it documented, but if you
> look at the intermediate representation of this simple example:

Well, I can see that it might be doing that reverse ordering in
practice, but for the life of me, I can't actually find anything that
says it is guaranteed.

Google did find me one blog post by Ian Lance Taylor from 2008 that
said that yes, each __cleanup__ attribute basically creates its own
little scope, and that the cleanup in reverse declaration order is
thus guaranteed.

Let's add Ian to the cc, partly to confirm it wasn't just a random
implementation detail, but also partly to perhaps ask him to get
somebody to document it.

Because if it's not documented, how do we know that the clang
implementation of that attribute then ends up also guaranteeing the
reverse order cleanup, even if gcc might guarantee it?

I *suspect* - but cannot find any guarantees - that it's going to
match C++ destructors, and you probably end up pretty much always
having to deal with these cleanup functions in reverse order, so it
all sounds very likely to me.

And maybe it's even documented somewhere that neither of us could find.

Anyway, I do like the option to use cleanup functions, but I think
we'd better make sure, since we really may require nesting for locks
(even if in many cases it won't matter).

Ian? Any chance you can either point us at documentation, or maybe
just confirm it, and hopefully make said documentation happen?

            Linus