Re: [RFC][PATCH] sched: Use lightweight hazard pointers to grab lazy mms

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2021 at 11:08:03AM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> +static void mmdrop_lazy(struct rq *rq)
> +{
> +	struct mm_struct *old_mm;
> +
> +	if (likely(!READ_ONCE(rq->drop_mm)))
> +		return;
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * Slow path.  This only happens when we recently stopped using
> +	 * an mm that is exiting.
> +	 */
> +	old_mm = xchg(&rq->drop_mm, NULL);
> +	if (old_mm)
> +		mmdrop(old_mm);
> +}

AFAICT if we observe a !NULL value on the load, the xchg() *MUST* also
see !NULL (although it might see a different !NULL value). So do we want
to write it something like so instead?

static void mmdrop_lazy(struct rq *rq)
{
	struct mm_struct *old_mm;

	if (likely(!READ_ONCE(rq->drop_mm)))
		return;

	/*
	 * Slow path.  This only happens when we recently stopped using
	 * an mm that is exiting.
	 */
	old_mm = xchg(&rq->drop_mm, NULL);
	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(!old_mm))
		return;

	mmdrop(old_mm);
}