[PATCH v15 01/16] asm-generic: barrier: Add smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout()

From: Ankur Arora

Date: Mon Aug 31 2026 - 16:34:23 EST


Add smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout(), which extends
smp_cond_load_relaxed() to allow waiting for a duration.

The interface loops around waiting for the condition variable to change
while peridically doing a time-check. It uses cpu_poll_relax() to slow
down the busy-wait, which, unless overridden by the architecture code,
amounts to a cpu_relax().

There are two ways for the time-check to fail: the timeout case or,
@time_expr_ns returning an invalid value (negative or zero). The second
failure mode allows for clocks attached to the clock-domain of
@cond_expr -- clocks which might cease to operate meaningfully once
some state internal to @cond_expr has changed -- to fail.

Evaluation of @time_expr_ns: in the fastpath we want to keep the
performance close to smp_cond_load_relaxed(). So defer evaluation
of the potentially costly @time_expr_ns to the slowpath.

This also means that there will always be some hardware dependent
duration that has passed in cpu_poll_relax() iterations at the time
of first evaluation. Additionally cpu_poll_relax() is not guaranteed
to return at timeout boundary. In sum, expect timeout overshoot when
we exit due to expiration of the timeout.

The number of spin iterations before time-check, SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT
is chosen to be 200 by default. With a cpu_poll_relax() iteration
taking ~20-30 cycles (measured on a variety of x86 platforms), we
expect a time-check every ~4000-6000 cycles.

If a architecture provides a waiting implementation for cpu_poll_relax()
(and signifies that by defining CPU_POLL_RELAX_WAITS) we define
SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT to 1.

Lastly, config option ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX indicates availability of a
cpu_poll_relax() that is cheaper than polling. Long timeout values
might not make sense for architectures not having ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX.

Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@xxxxxxx>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: linux-arch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Ankur Arora <ankur.a.arora@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Notes:
- deferred time-check is now limited to a single usec. This allows the
fastpath to not pay the time check penalty while ensuring that
architecturs with precise waits (like WFET) don't end up with a
huge overshoot.

- smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout() now checks that timeout_ns fits in
s64. (This is kept as a wrapper around __smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout()
to avoid cluttering the core logic.)

- SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT is explicitly defined to 1 if the
architecture provides a waiting implementation of cpu_poll_relax()
(defines CPU_POLL_RELAX_WAITS)
- this was the only sane behaviour from arch code but now the code
explicitly encodes it.

- __smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout now uses prefixed names to avoid
any possibility of collision.

- minor language changes in the commit message; comment block around
cpu_poll_relax() and CPU_POLL_RELAX_WAITS

Catalin: the changes are a significant number of lines of code.
Though IMO only minor updates to the logic. But I didn't want to stretch
your R-by too far. Could you take another look?

include/asm-generic/barrier.h | 106 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 106 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/barrier.h b/include/asm-generic/barrier.h
index b99cb57dfccc..4437d27c46b9 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/barrier.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/barrier.h
@@ -273,6 +273,112 @@ do { \
})
#endif

+/*
+ * Number of times we iterate in the loop before doing the time check.
+ */
+#ifndef SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT
+#ifdef CPU_POLL_RELAX_WAITS
+#define SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT 1 /* Wait mode. No need to poll. */
+#else
+/*
+ * Assume that cpu_poll_relax() provides a small blip in the pipeline.
+ * Combine a reasonable number of cpu_poll_relax() instances before
+ * doing anything substantial like a time-check.
+ * Note that this assumes that the rest of the loop (largely evaluation
+ * of the loop condition is relatively cheap.)
+ */
+#define SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT 200
+#endif
+#endif
+
+/*
+ * cpu_poll_relax() stitches up two kinds of primitives: ones that provide
+ * a momentary blip in the pipeline (ex. cpu_relax() on x86), or ones that
+ * support waiting for @ptr value to change, coupled with a precise (or not)
+ * timeout.
+ *
+ * We keep both together because the objective is to minimize expensive
+ * operations while polling on @ptr waiting for it to change. Either
+ * version allows for that.
+ * The arguments (@ptr, @val, @timeout_ns) are only needed for waiting
+ * implementations.
+ *
+ * Note that platforms with a suitable cpu_poll_relax() implementation are
+ * expected to define ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX.
+ */
+#ifndef cpu_poll_relax
+#define cpu_poll_relax(ptr, val, timeout_ns) cpu_relax()
+#endif
+
+/**
+ * smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout() - (Spin) wait for cond with no ordering
+ * guarantees until a timeout expires.
+ * @ptr: pointer to the variable to wait on.
+ * @cond_expr: boolean expression to wait for.
+ * @time_expr_ns: expression that evaluates to monotonic time (in ns) or,
+ * on failure, returns zero or a negative value.
+ * @timeout_ns: timeout value in ns
+ * Both of the above are expected to be compatible with s64; the signed
+ * value is used to handle the failure case in @time_expr_ns.
+ *
+ * Equivalent to using READ_ONCE() on the condition variable.
+ *
+ * Callers that expect to wait for prolonged durations might want
+ * to take into account the availability of ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX.
+ *
+ * Note that @ptr is expected to point to a memory address. Using this
+ * interface with MMIO will be slower (since SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT is
+ * tuned for memory) and might also break in interesting architecture
+ * dependent ways.
+ */
+#ifndef smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout
+#define __smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout(ptr, cond_expr, \
+ time_expr_ns, timeout_ns) \
+({ \
+ typeof(ptr) __PTR = (ptr); \
+ __unqual_scalar_typeof(*(ptr)) VAL; \
+ u32 __scl_count = 0, __scl_spin = SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT; \
+ s64 __scl_timeout = NSEC_PER_USEC; \
+ s64 __scl_time_now, __scl_time_end = 0; \
+ \
+ for (;;) { \
+ VAL = READ_ONCE(*__PTR); \
+ if (cond_expr) \
+ break; \
+ cpu_poll_relax(__PTR, VAL, (u64)__scl_timeout); \
+ if (++__scl_count < __scl_spin) \
+ continue; \
+ __scl_time_now = (s64)(time_expr_ns); \
+ if (unlikely(__scl_time_end == 0)) { \
+ __scl_timeout = (s64)(timeout_ns); \
+ __scl_time_end = __scl_time_now + __scl_timeout;\
+ } \
+ __scl_timeout = __scl_time_end - __scl_time_now; \
+ if (__scl_time_now <= 0 || __scl_timeout <= 0) { \
+ VAL = READ_ONCE(*__PTR); \
+ break; \
+ } \
+ __scl_count = 0; \
+ } \
+ (typeof(*(ptr)))VAL; \
+})
+
+#define smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout(ptr, cond_expr, \
+ time_expr_ns, timeout_ns) \
+({ \
+ __unqual_scalar_typeof(*(ptr)) VAL; \
+ s64 __scl_timeout_ns = (s64)(timeout_ns); \
+ \
+ if (__scl_timeout_ns < 0) \
+ VAL = READ_ONCE(*(ptr)); \
+ else \
+ VAL = __smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout(ptr, cond_expr, \
+ time_expr_ns, \
+ __scl_timeout_ns);\
+ (typeof(*(ptr)))VAL; \
+})
+#endif
+
/*
* pmem_wmb() ensures that all stores for which the modification
* are written to persistent storage by preceding instructions have
--
2.43.7