Re: [patch 09/11] x86/vdso: Simplify the invalid vclock case

From: Thomas Gleixner
Date: Tue Sep 18 2018 - 09:23:29 EST


On Tue, 18 Sep 2018, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 18, 2018 at 12:41:57PM +0200, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> > I still have one of the machines which is affected by this.
>
> Are we sure this isn't a load vs rdtsc reorder? Because if I look at the
> current code:

The load order of last vs. rdtsc does not matter at all.

CPU0 CPU1

....
now0 = rdtsc_ordered();
...
tk->cycle_last = now0;

gtod->seq++;
gtod->cycle_last = tk->cycle_last;
...
gtod->seq++;
seq_begin(gtod->seq);
now1 = rdtsc_ordered();

So if the TSC on CPU1 is slightly behind the TSC on CPU0 then now1 can be
smaller than cycle_last. The TSC sync stuff does not catch the small delta
for unknown raisins. I'll go and find that machine and test that again.

Thanks,

tglx