linux-kernel - [PATCH memory-model] docs: memory-barriers: Add note on compiler transformation and address deps

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Date:   Thu, 5 Oct 2023 09:53:12 -0700
From:   "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org>
To:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Alan Stern <stern@...land.harvard.edu>,
        Andrea Parri <parri.andrea@...il.com>,
        Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
        Nicholas 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>,
        Daniel Lustig <dlustig@...dia.com>,
        Joel Fernandes <joel@...lfernandes.org>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
Subject: [PATCH memory-model] docs: memory-barriers: Add note on compiler
 transformation and address deps

The compiler has the ability to cause misordering by destroying
address-dependency barriers if comparison operations are used. Add a
note about this to memory-barriers.txt in the beginning of both the
historical address-dependency sections and point to rcu-dereference.rst
for more information.

Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) <joel@...lfernandes.org>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...nel.org>

diff --git a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
index 06e14efd8662..d414e145f912 100644
--- a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
+++ b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
@@ -396,6 +396,10 @@ Memory barriers come in four basic varieties:
 
 
  (2) Address-dependency barriers (historical).
+     [!] This section is marked as HISTORICAL: For more up-to-date
+     information, including how compiler transformations related to pointer
+     comparisons can sometimes cause problems, see
+     Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst.
 
      An address-dependency barrier is a weaker form of read barrier.  In the
      case where two loads are performed such that the second depends on the
@@ -556,6 +560,9 @@ There are certain things that the Linux kernel memory barriers do not guarantee:
 
 ADDRESS-DEPENDENCY BARRIERS (HISTORICAL)
 ----------------------------------------
+[!] This section is marked as HISTORICAL: For more up-to-date information,
+including how compiler transformations related to pointer comparisons can
+sometimes cause problems, see Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst.
 
 As of v4.15 of the Linux kernel, an smp_mb() was added to READ_ONCE() for
 DEC Alpha, which means that about the only people who need to pay attention