[PATCH hazptr v3 2/4] ptr_eq.h: Introduce ptr_eq() to preserve address dependency

From: Mathieu Desnoyers

Date: Sun Oct 11 2026 - 15:51:17 EST


Compiler CSE and SSA GVN optimizations can cause the address dependency
of addresses returned by rcu_dereference to be lost when comparing those
pointers with either constants or previously loaded pointers.

Introduce ptr_eq() to compare two addresses while preserving the address
dependencies for later use of the address. It should be used when
comparing an address returned by rcu_dereference().

This is needed to prevent the compiler CSE and SSA GVN optimizations
from using @a (or @b) in places where the source refers to @b (or @a)
based on the fact that after the comparison, the two are known to be
equal, which does not preserve address dependencies and allows the
following misordering speculations:

- If @b is a constant, the compiler can issue the loads which depend
on @a before loading @a.
- If @b is a register populated by a prior load, weakly-ordered
CPUs can speculate loads which depend on @a before loading @a.

The same logic applies with @a and @b swapped.

The header "linux/ptr_eq.h" is the expected include target. It
contains the documentation of the ptr_eq() API.

An architecture specific implementation of the pointer comparison
can be implemented by each architecture as asm/ptr_eq.h. The x86
implementation is provided initially. If no implementation header is
present for the architecture, an arch-agnostic fallback based on
OPTIMIZER_HIDE_VAR is included from asm-generic.

The arguments to ptr_eq() are const volatile to take advantage of
implicit conversion that adds cv-qualifiers, which are thus added
implicitly.

Suggested-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Suggested-by: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reviewed-by: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Alan Stern <stern@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: John Stultz <jstultz@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Joel Fernandes <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Josh Triplett <josh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Uladzislau Rezki <urezki@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Zqiang <qiang.zhang1211@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Waiman Long <longman@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@xxxxxxx>
Cc: maged.michael@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Gary Guo <gary@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: rcu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: lkmm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Nikita Popov <github@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: llvm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Lian Wang <lianux.mm@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Kunwu Chan <kunwu.chan@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes since v2:
- Rename ptreq.h to ptr_eq.h (x86, asm-generic and linux headers).
Adapt the include guards accordingly.

Changes since v1:
- Move to linux/ptreq.h, implement x86-specific comparison
and asm-generic header (fallback).

Changes since v0:
- Include feedback from Alan Stern.
---
arch/x86/include/asm/ptr_eq.h | 16 +++++++++
include/asm-generic/Kbuild | 1 +
include/asm-generic/ptr_eq.h | 16 +++++++++
include/linux/ptr_eq.h | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
4 files changed, 96 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 arch/x86/include/asm/ptr_eq.h
create mode 100644 include/asm-generic/ptr_eq.h
create mode 100644 include/linux/ptr_eq.h

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/ptr_eq.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/ptr_eq.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8e521cabe24b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/ptr_eq.h
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+#ifndef _ASM_X86_PTR_EQ_H
+#define _ASM_X86_PTR_EQ_H
+
+#include <linux/types.h>
+#include <asm/asm.h>
+
+static __always_inline
+bool ptr_eq(const volatile void *a, const volatile void *b)
+{
+ bool ret;
+ asm(__ASM_SIZE(cmp) " %1,%2" : "=@ccz" (ret) : "r" (a), "r" (b));
+ return ret;
+}
+
+#endif /* _ASM_X86_PTR_EQ_H */
diff --git a/include/asm-generic/Kbuild b/include/asm-generic/Kbuild
index 2bc00c67dc54..86cee0dfd47f 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/Kbuild
+++ b/include/asm-generic/Kbuild
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ mandatory-y += percpu.h
mandatory-y += percpu_types.h
mandatory-y += pgalloc.h
mandatory-y += preempt.h
+mandatory-y += ptr_eq.h
mandatory-y += rqspinlock.h
mandatory-y += runtime-const.h
mandatory-y += rwonce.h
diff --git a/include/asm-generic/ptr_eq.h b/include/asm-generic/ptr_eq.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2bd1c3b8a56f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/asm-generic/ptr_eq.h
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+#ifndef __ASM_GENERIC_PTR_EQ_H
+#define __ASM_GENERIC_PTR_EQ_H
+
+#include <linux/types.h>
+#include <linux/compiler.h>
+
+static __always_inline
+bool ptr_eq(const volatile void *a, const volatile void *b)
+{
+ OPTIMIZER_HIDE_VAR(a);
+ OPTIMIZER_HIDE_VAR(b);
+ return a == b;
+}
+
+#endif /* __ASM_GENERIC_PTR_EQ_H */
diff --git a/include/linux/ptr_eq.h b/include/linux/ptr_eq.h
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..7a2bbf6e64b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/ptr_eq.h
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+/* SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 */
+#ifndef _LINUX_PTR_EQ_H
+#define _LINUX_PTR_EQ_H
+
+/*
+ * Compare two addresses while preserving the address dependencies for
+ * later use of the address. It should be used when comparing an address
+ * returned by rcu_dereference().
+ *
+ * This is needed to prevent the compiler CSE and SSA GVN optimizations
+ * from using @a (or @b) in places where the source refers to @b (or @a)
+ * based on the fact that after the comparison, the two are known to be
+ * equal, which does not preserve address dependencies and allows the
+ * following misordering speculations:
+ *
+ * - If @b is a constant, the compiler can issue the loads which depend
+ * on @a before loading @a.
+ * - If @b is a register populated by a prior load, weakly-ordered
+ * CPUs can speculate loads which depend on @a before loading @a.
+ *
+ * The same logic applies with @a and @b swapped.
+ *
+ * Return value: true if pointers are equal, false otherwise.
+ *
+ * The compiler barrier() is ineffective at fixing this issue. It does
+ * not prevent the compiler CSE from losing the address dependency:
+ *
+ * int fct_2_volatile_barriers(void)
+ * {
+ * int *a, *b;
+ *
+ * do {
+ * a = READ_ONCE(p);
+ * asm volatile ("" : : : "memory");
+ * b = READ_ONCE(p);
+ * } while (a != b);
+ * asm volatile ("" : : : "memory"); <-- barrier()
+ * return *b;
+ * }
+ *
+ * With gcc 14.2 (arm64):
+ *
+ * fct_2_volatile_barriers:
+ * adrp x0, .LANCHOR0
+ * add x0, x0, :lo12:.LANCHOR0
+ * .L2:
+ * ldr x1, [x0] <-- x1 populated by first load.
+ * ldr x2, [x0]
+ * cmp x1, x2
+ * bne .L2
+ * ldr w0, [x1] <-- x1 is used for access which should depend on b.
+ * ret
+ *
+ * On weakly-ordered architectures, this lets CPU speculation use the
+ * result from the first load to speculate "ldr w0, [x1]" before
+ * "ldr x2, [x0]".
+ * Based on the RCU documentation, the control dependency does not
+ * prevent the CPU from speculating loads.
+ */
+
+#include <asm/ptr_eq.h>
+
+#endif /* _LINUX_PTR_EQ_H */
--
2.43.0