On Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 12:52:07AM +0800, Boqun Feng wrote:

I recall that last time you and Linus came into a conclusion that even
on Alpha, a barrier for read->write with data dependency is unnecessary:

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/2077661

And in an earlier mail of that thread, Linus made his point that
smp_read_barrier_depends() should only be used to order read->read.

So right now, are we going to extend the semantics of
smp_read_barrier_depends()? Can we just make smp_read_barrier_depends()
still only work for read->read, and assume all the architectures won't
reorder read->write with data dependency, so that the code above having
a smp_rmb() also works?

That discussions was about control dependencies. So writes that _depend_
on a prior read having an explicit value.

So something like:

	struct foo *x = READ_ONCE(*ptr);
	smp_read_barrier_depends()
	if (x->val == 5)
		x->bar = 5;

In that case, the load of x->val must be complete and its value
determined _before_ the store to x->bar can happen.

This is distinct from:

	struct foo *x = READ_ONCE(*ptr);
	smp_read_barrier_depends();
	x->bar = 5;

And its the second case where smp_read_barrier_depends() read->write
order matters.