[PATCH] timers/nohz: Annotate lockless accesses to got_idle_tick

From: Kunwu Chan

Date: Sun Sep 20 2026 - 04:54:54 EST


tick_sched_do_timer(), called from the tick interrupt handler, sets
ts->got_idle_tick when a tick fires while the CPU is idle. The idle
path reads and clears it via tick_nohz_idle_got_tick() to detect
whether the tick handler has run.

The flag is accessed locklessly from hardirq and task context. A
concurrent set can be overwritten by the clear.

Use READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE() to annotate the lockless accesses.

Signed-off-by: Kunwu Chan <kunwu.chan@xxxxxxxxx>
---
kernel/time/tick-sched.c | 6 +++---
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/time/tick-sched.c b/kernel/time/tick-sched.c
index 6c3fea386713..c0ab32e543b3 100644
--- a/kernel/time/tick-sched.c
+++ b/kernel/time/tick-sched.c
@@ -269,7 +269,7 @@ static void tick_sched_do_timer(struct tick_sched *ts, ktime_t now)
}

if (tick_sched_flag_test(ts, TS_FLAG_INIDLE))
- ts->got_idle_tick = 1;
+ WRITE_ONCE(ts->got_idle_tick, 1);
}

static void tick_sched_handle(struct tick_sched *ts, struct pt_regs *regs)
@@ -1248,8 +1248,8 @@ bool tick_nohz_idle_got_tick(void)
{
struct tick_sched *ts = this_cpu_ptr(&tick_cpu_sched);

- if (ts->got_idle_tick) {
- ts->got_idle_tick = 0;
+ if (READ_ONCE(ts->got_idle_tick)) {
+ WRITE_ONCE(ts->got_idle_tick, 0);
return true;
}
return false;
--
2.43.0