Re: [patch 01/15] Kernel Tracepoints

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Tue, 2008-07-15 at 11:22 -0400, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> * Peter Zijlstra (peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> > 
> > I'm confused by the barrier games here.
> > 
> > Why not:
> > 
> >   void **it_func;
> > 
> >   preempt_disable();
> >   it_func = rcu_dereference((tp)->funcs);
> >   if (it_func) {
> >     for (; *it_func; it_func++)
> >       ((void(*)(proto))(*it_func))(args);
> >   }
> >   preempt_enable();
> > 
> > That is, why can we skip the barrier when !it_func? is that because at
> > that time we don't actually dereference it_func and therefore cannot
> > observe stale data?
> > 
> 
> Exactly. I used the implementation of rcu_assign_pointer as a hint that
> we did not need barriers when setting the pointer to NULL, and thus we
> should not need the read barrier when reading the NULL pointer, because
> it references no data.
> 
> #define rcu_assign_pointer(p, v) \
>         ({ \
>                 if (!__builtin_constant_p(v) || \
>                     ((v) != NULL)) \
>                         smp_wmb(); \
>                 (p) = (v); \
>         })

Yeah, I saw that,.. made me wonder. It basically assumes that when we
write:

  rcu_assign_pointer(foo, NULL);

foo will not be used as an index or offset.

I guess Paul has thought it through and verified all in-kernel use
cases, but it still makes me feel unconfortable.

> #define rcu_dereference(p)     ({ \
>                                 typeof(p) _________p1 = ACCESS_ONCE(p); \
>                                 smp_read_barrier_depends(); \
>                                 (_________p1); \
>                                 })
> 
> But I think you are right, since we are already in unlikely code, using
> rcu_dereference as you do is better than my use of read barrier depends.
> It should not change anything in the assembly result except on alpha,
> where the read_barrier_depends() is not a nop.
> 
> I wonder if there would be a way to add this kind of NULL pointer case
> check without overhead in rcu_dereference() on alpha. I guess not, since
> the pointer is almost never known at compile-time. And I guess Paul must
> already have thought about it. The only case where we could add this
> test is when we know that we have a if (ptr != NULL) test following the
> rcu_dereference(); we could then assume the compiler will merge the two
> branches since they depend on the same condition.

I remember seeing a thread about all this special casing NULL, but have
never been able to find it again - my google skillz always fail me.

Basically it doesn't work if you use the variable as an index/offset,
because in that case 0 is a valid offset and you still generate a data
dependency.

IIRC the conclusion was that the gains were too small to spend more time
on it, although I would like to hear about the special case in
rcu_assign_pointer.

/me goes use git blame....

> > If so, does this really matter since we're already in an unlikely
> > section? Again, if so, this deserves a comment ;-)
> > 
> > [ still think those preempt_* calls should be called
> >   rcu_read_sched_lock() or such. ]
> > 
> > Anyway, does this still generate better code?
> > 
> 
> On x86_64 :
> 
>  820:   bf 01 00 00 00          mov    $0x1,%edi
>  825:   e8 00 00 00 00          callq  82a <thread_return+0x136>
>  82a:   48 8b 1d 00 00 00 00    mov    0x0(%rip),%rbx        # 831 <thread_return+0x13d>
>  831:   48 85 db                test   %rbx,%rbx
>  834:   75 21                   jne    857 <thread_return+0x163>
>  836:   eb 27                   jmp    85f <thread_return+0x16b>
>  838:   0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00    nopl   0x0(%rax,%rax,1)
>  83f:   00 
>  840:   48 8b 95 68 ff ff ff    mov    -0x98(%rbp),%rdx
>  847:   48 8b b5 60 ff ff ff    mov    -0xa0(%rbp),%rsi
>  84e:   4c 89 e7                mov    %r12,%rdi
>  851:   48 83 c3 08             add    $0x8,%rbx
>  855:   ff d0                   callq  *%rax
>  857:   48 8b 03                mov    (%rbx),%rax
>  85a:   48 85 c0                test   %rax,%rax
>  85d:   75 e1                   jne    840 <thread_return+0x14c>
>  85f:   bf 01 00 00 00          mov    $0x1,%edi
>  864:
> 
> for 68 bytes.
> 
> My original implementation was 77 bytes, so yes, we have a win.

Ah, good good ! :-)

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