Re: [PATCH] virtio_ring: Fix the stale index in available ring

From: Michael S. Tsirkin
Date: Sun Mar 17 2024 - 12:50:58 EST


On Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 09:24:36PM +1000, Gavin Shan wrote:
>
> On 3/15/24 21:05, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 08:45:10PM +1000, Gavin Shan wrote:
> > > > > Yes, I guess smp_wmb() ('dmb') is buggy on NVidia's grace-hopper platform. I tried
> > > to reproduce it with my own driver where one thread writes to the shared buffer
> > > and another thread reads from the buffer. I don't hit the out-of-order issue so
> > > far.
> >
> > Make sure the 2 areas you are accessing are in different cache lines.
> >
>
> Yes, I already put those 2 areas to separate cache lines.
>
> >
> > > My driver may be not correct somewhere and I will update if I can reproduce
> > > the issue with my driver in the future.
> >
> > Then maybe your change is just making virtio slower and masks the bug
> > that is actually elsewhere?
> >
> > You don't really need a driver. Here's a simple test: without barriers
> > assertion will fail. With barriers it will not.
> > (Warning: didn't bother testing too much, could be buggy.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > #include <pthread.h>
> > #include <stdio.h>
> > #include <stdlib.h>
> > #include <assert.h>
> >
> > #define FIRST values[0]
> > #define SECOND values[64]
> >
> > volatile int values[100] = {};
> >
> > void* writer_thread(void* arg) {
> > while (1) {
> > FIRST++;
> > // NEED smp_wmb here
> __asm__ volatile("dmb ishst" : : : "memory");
> > SECOND++;
> > }
> > }
> >
> > void* reader_thread(void* arg) {
> > while (1) {
> > int first = FIRST;
> > // NEED smp_rmb here
> __asm__ volatile("dmb ishld" : : : "memory");
> > int second = SECOND;
> > assert(first - second == 1 || first - second == 0);
> > }
> > }
> >
> > int main() {
> > pthread_t writer, reader;
> >
> > pthread_create(&writer, NULL, writer_thread, NULL);
> > pthread_create(&reader, NULL, reader_thread, NULL);
> >
> > pthread_join(writer, NULL);
> > pthread_join(reader, NULL);
> >
> > return 0;
> > }
> >
>
> Had a quick test on NVidia's grace-hopper and Ampere's CPUs. I hit
> the assert on both of them. After replacing 'dmb' with 'dsb', I can
> hit assert on both of them too. I need to look at the code closely.
>
> [root@virt-mtcollins-02 test]# ./a
> a: a.c:26: reader_thread: Assertion `first - second == 1 || first - second == 0' failed.
> Aborted (core dumped)
>
> [root@nvidia-grace-hopper-05 test]# ./a
> a: a.c:26: reader_thread: Assertion `first - second == 1 || first - second == 0' failed.
> Aborted (core dumped)
>
> Thanks,
> Gavin


Actually this test is broken. No need for ordering it's a simple race.
The following works on x86 though (x86 does not need barriers
though).


#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <assert.h>

#if 0
#define x86_rmb() asm volatile("lfence":::"memory")
#define x86_mb() asm volatile("mfence":::"memory")
#define x86_smb() asm volatile("sfence":::"memory")
#else
#define x86_rmb() asm volatile("":::"memory")
#define x86_mb() asm volatile("":::"memory")
#define x86_smb() asm volatile("":::"memory")
#endif

#define FIRST values[0]
#define SECOND values[640]
#define FLAG values[1280]

volatile unsigned values[2000] = {};

void* writer_thread(void* arg) {
while (1) {
/* Now synchronize with reader */
while(FLAG);
FIRST++;
x86_smb();
SECOND++;
x86_smb();
FLAG = 1;
}
}

void* reader_thread(void* arg) {
while (1) {
/* Now synchronize with writer */
while(!FLAG);
x86_rmb();
unsigned first = FIRST;
x86_rmb();
unsigned second = SECOND;
assert(first - second == 1 || first - second == 0);
FLAG = 0;

if (!(first %1000000))
printf("%d\n", first);
}
}

int main() {
pthread_t writer, reader;

pthread_create(&writer, NULL, writer_thread, NULL);
pthread_create(&reader, NULL, reader_thread, NULL);

pthread_join(writer, NULL);
pthread_join(reader, NULL);

return 0;
}