[PATCH v3 1/2] Documentation/litmus-tests: Add SRCU fastpath anchor-before-scan test

From: Kunwu Chan

Date: Mon Sep 14 2026 - 12:19:05 EST


synchronize_srcu_atomic() may end its grace period immediately when
its scan of the per-CPU lock counters finds no readers. Correctness
requires the grace-period anchor written by srcu_gp_start() to precede
the smp_mb() ordering the lock scan. This ordering ensures that any
reader whose lock increment is missed by the scan cannot have
incremented its lock counter before the grace-period anchor, and
therefore cannot be a pre-existing reader of this grace period.

This litmus test models the key ordering between the grace-period
anchor and the lock counter scan, where "seq" models the
grace-period anchor in ->srcu_gp_seq and "ctr" models the per-CPU
->srcu_ctrs[].srcu_locks counter. P0 writes the anchor before the
smp_mb() and the lock scan. P1 models the reader-side counter
increment and its smp_mb() from __srcu_read_lock(), which orders
the increment against subsequent critical-section access. P2 models
an observer that sees the reader's increment before seeing the
anchor.

The outcome is forbidden by LKMM, and herd7 reports "Never". See
SRCU-fastpath-scan-before-anchor.litmus for the reversed ordering,
which permits this outcome.

Tested with herd7 7.58 using linux-kernel.cfg.

Signed-off-by: Kunwu Chan <kunwu.chan@xxxxxxxxx>
---
.../SRCU-fastpath-anchor-before-scan.litmus | 58 +++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 58 insertions(+)
create mode 100644 Documentation/litmus-tests/srcu/SRCU-fastpath-anchor-before-scan.litmus

diff --git a/Documentation/litmus-tests/srcu/SRCU-fastpath-anchor-before-scan.litmus b/Documentation/litmus-tests/srcu/SRCU-fastpath-anchor-before-scan.litmus
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..e0492a4d8e07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/litmus-tests/srcu/SRCU-fastpath-anchor-before-scan.litmus
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+C SRCU-fastpath-anchor-before-scan
+
+(*
+ * Result: Never
+ *
+ * The synchronize_srcu_atomic() fastpath may end its grace period
+ * immediately when its scan of the per-CPU lock counters finds no
+ * readers. Correctness requires the grace-period anchor written by
+ * srcu_gp_start() to precede the smp_mb() ordering the lock scan.
+ * This ordering ensures that any reader whose lock increment is missed
+ * by the scan cannot have incremented its lock counter before the
+ * grace-period anchor, and therefore cannot be a pre-existing reader
+ * of this grace period.
+ *
+ * This litmus test models the key ordering between the grace-period
+ * anchor and the lock counter scan, where "seq" models the
+ * grace-period anchor in ->srcu_gp_seq and "ctr" models the per-CPU
+ * ->srcu_ctrs[].srcu_locks counter. P0 writes the anchor before the
+ * smp_mb() and the lock scan. P1 models the reader-side counter
+ * increment and its smp_mb() from __srcu_read_lock(), which orders the
+ * increment against subsequent critical-section access. P2 models an
+ * observer that sees the reader's increment before seeing the anchor.
+ *
+ * The outcome is forbidden by LKMM, and herd7 reports "Never". See
+ * SRCU-fastpath-scan-before-anchor.litmus for the reversed ordering,
+ * which permits this outcome.
+ *)
+
+{}
+
+P0(int *seq, int *ctr)
+{
+ int r2;
+
+ WRITE_ONCE(*seq, 1);
+ smp_mb();
+ r2 = READ_ONCE(*ctr);
+}
+
+P1(int *ctr, int *x)
+{
+ WRITE_ONCE(*ctr, 1);
+ smp_mb();
+ WRITE_ONCE(*x, 1);
+}
+
+P2(int *seq, int *ctr)
+{
+ int r3;
+ int r4;
+
+ r3 = READ_ONCE(*ctr);
+ smp_mb();
+ r4 = READ_ONCE(*seq);
+}
+
+filter (0:r2 = 0)
+exists (2:r3 = 1 /\ 2:r4 = 0)
--
2.43.0