Re: wake_q memory ordering

From: Manfred Spraul
Date: Thu Oct 10 2019 - 08:13:52 EST


Hi Peter,

On 10/10/19 1:42 PM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
On Thu, Oct 10, 2019 at 12:41:11PM +0200, Manfred Spraul wrote:
Hi,

Waiman Long noticed that the memory barriers in sem_lock() are not really
documented, and while adding documentation, I ended up with one case where
I'm not certain about the wake_q code:

Questions:
- Does smp_mb__before_atomic() + a (failed) cmpxchg_relaxed provide an
 ordering guarantee?
Yep. Either the atomic instruction implies ordering (eg. x86 LOCK
prefix) or it doesn't (most RISC LL/SC), if it does,
smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic() are a NO-OP and the ordering is
unconditinoal, if it does not, then smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic() are
unconditional barriers.

And _relaxed() differs from "normal" cmpxchg only for LL/SC architectures, correct?

Therefore smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic() may be combined with cmpxchg_relaxed, to form a full memory barrier, on all archs.

[...]


- Is it ok that wake_up_q just writes wake_q->next, shouldn't
 smp_store_acquire() be used? I.e.: guarantee that wake_up_process()
 happens after cmpxchg_relaxed(), assuming that a failed cmpxchg_relaxed
 provides any ordering.
There is no such thing as store_acquire, it is either load_acquire or
store_release. But just like how we can write load-aquire like
load+smp_mb(), so too I suppose we could write store-acquire like
store+smp_mb(), and that is exactly what is there (through the implied
barrier of wake_up_process()).

Thanks for confirming my assumption:
The code is correct, due to the implied barrier inside wake_up_process().

[...]
rewritten:

start condition: A = 1; B = 0;

CPU1:
ÂÂÂ B = 1;
ÂÂÂ RELEASE, unlock LockX;

CPU2:
ÂÂÂ lock LockX, ACQUIRE
ÂÂÂ if (LOAD A == 1) return; /* using cmp_xchg_relaxed */

CPU2:
ÂÂÂ A = 0;
ÂÂÂ ACQUIRE, lock LockY
ÂÂÂ smp_mb__after_spinlock();
ÂÂÂ READ B

Question: is A = 1, B = 0 possible?
Your example is incomplete (there is no A=1 assignment for example), but
I'm thinking I can guess where that should go given the earlier text.

A=1 is listed as start condition. Way before, someone did wake_q_add().


I don't think this is broken.

Thanks.

--

ÂÂÂ Manfred