Re: [RFC] locking/rwsem: Avoid issuing wakeup before setting the reader waiter to nil

From: Waiman Long
Date: Thu Nov 29 2018 - 13:34:42 EST


On 11/29/2018 01:31 PM, Will Deacon wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 29, 2018 at 01:26:34PM -0500, Waiman Long wrote:
>> On 11/29/2018 01:08 PM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
>>> Hmm, I think we're missing a barrier in wake_q_add(); when cmpxchg()
>>> fails we still need an smp_mb().
>>>
>>> Something like so.
>>>
>>> diff --git a/kernel/sched/core.c b/kernel/sched/core.c
>>> index 3d87a28da378..69def558edf6 100644
>>> --- a/kernel/sched/core.c
>>> +++ b/kernel/sched/core.c
>>> @@ -400,6 +400,13 @@ void wake_q_add(struct wake_q_head *head, struct task_struct *task)
>>> {
>>> struct wake_q_node *node = &task->wake_q;
>>>
>>> + /*
>>> + * Ensure, that when the below cmpxchg() fails, the corresponding
>>> + * wake_up_q() will observe our prior state.
>>> + *
>>> + * Pairs with the smp_mb() from wake_up_q()'s wake_up_process().
>>> + */
>>> + smp_mb();
>>> /*
>>> * Atomically grab the task, if ->wake_q is !nil already it means
>>> * its already queued (either by us or someone else) and will get the
>>> @@ -408,7 +415,7 @@ void wake_q_add(struct wake_q_head *head, struct task_struct *task)
>>> * This cmpxchg() executes a full barrier, which pairs with the full
>>> * barrier executed by the wakeup in wake_up_q().
>>> */
>>> - if (cmpxchg(&node->next, NULL, WAKE_Q_TAIL))
>>> + if (cmpxchg_relaxed(&node->next, NULL, WAKE_Q_TAIL))
>>> return;
>>>
>>> get_task_struct(task);
>> That can be costly for x86 which will now have 2 locked instructions.
>> Should we introduce a kind of special cmpxchg (e.g. cmpxchg_mb) that
>> will guarantee a memory barrier whether the operation fails or not?
> I thought smp_mb__before_atomic() was designed for this sort of thing?
>
> Will

That will certainly work for x86. However, I am not sure if that will be
optimal for arm and powerpc.

Cheers,
Longman