Re: math_state_restore and kernel_fpu_end disable interrupts?

From: Nate Eldredge
Date: Tue Jan 28 2014 - 14:23:33 EST


On Tue, 28 Jan 2014, George Spelvin wrote:

I'm trying it now. But it takes a while for me to reproduce, and even
longer to be sure the problem has gone away. So anything you hear from
me within a week will be bad news.

Well, it's been a week, and: good news!

I'd still wish for some review by someone who really understands this
code; in particular it seems dangerous to just enable interrupts for
a window without re-checking the condition afterward.

Yeah, I was thinking the same. If interrupts were disabled on entry it was probably for a good reason, and it is strange for math_state_restore() and/or kernel_fpu_end() to unilaterally enable them. Maybe the caller is supposed to know this and account for it, but I didn't see any documentation of the intended semantics of kernel_fpu_{begin,end}() with respect to interrupts. The current behavior doesn't really make sense either way, but it does make me wonder if something deeper is wrong.

[...]

But this patch clearly doesn't make these issues any *worse*, so
these concerns are no reason to block it.


Would you like add an appropriate commit message and send in the patch?

Ok, when I have a chance I will write something up and send it in, and maybe having it as a formal patch submission will get more attention.

Thanks, George!

--
Nate Eldredge
nate@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/