[PATCH v2 3/3] arm64, compiler-context-analysis: Permit alias analysis through __READ_ONCE() with CONFIG_LTO=y
From: Marco Elver <elver@google.com>
Date: 2026-01-29 00:57:08
Also in:
lkml, llvm
Subsystem:
arm64 port (aarch64 architecture), the rest · Maintainers:
Catalin Marinas, Will Deacon, Linus Torvalds
When enabling Clang's Context Analysis (aka. Thread Safety Analysis) on
kernel/futex/core.o (see Peter's changes at [1]), in arm64 LTO builds we
could see:
| kernel/futex/core.c:982:1: warning: spinlock 'atomic ? __u.__val : q->lock_ptr' is still held at the end of function [-Wthread-safety-analysis]
| 982 | }
| | ^
| kernel/futex/core.c:976:2: note: spinlock acquired here
| 976 | spin_lock(lock_ptr);
| | ^
| kernel/futex/core.c:982:1: warning: expecting spinlock 'q->lock_ptr' to be held at the end of function [-Wthread-safety-analysis]
| 982 | }
| | ^
| kernel/futex/core.c:966:6: note: spinlock acquired here
| 966 | void futex_q_lockptr_lock(struct futex_q *q)
| | ^
| 2 warnings generated.
Where we have:
extern void futex_q_lockptr_lock(struct futex_q *q) __acquires(q->lock_ptr);
..
void futex_q_lockptr_lock(struct futex_q *q)
{
spinlock_t *lock_ptr;
/*
* See futex_unqueue() why lock_ptr can change.
*/
guard(rcu)();
retry:quoted
lock_ptr = READ_ONCE(q->lock_ptr);
spin_lock(lock_ptr); ... } The READ_ONCE() above is expanded to arm64's LTO __READ_ONCE(). Here, Clang Thread Safety Analysis's alias analysis resolves 'lock_ptr' to 'atomic ? __u.__val : q->lock_ptr', and considers this the identity of the context lock given it can't see through the inline assembly; however, we simply want 'q->lock_ptr' as the canonical context lock. While for code generation the compiler simplified to __u.__val for pointers (8 byte case -> atomic), TSA's analysis (a) happens much earlier on the AST, and (b) would be the wrong deduction. Now that we've gotten rid of the 'atomic' ternary comparison, we can return '__u.__val' through a pointer that we initialize with '&x', but then change with a pointer-to-pointer. When READ_ONCE()'ing a context lock pointer, TSA's alias analysis does not invalidate the initial alias when updated through the pointer-to-pointer, and we make it effectively "see through" the __READ_ONCE(). Code generation is unchanged. Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20260121110704.221498346@infradead.org [1] Reported-by: kernel test robot <redacted> Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/oe-kbuild-all/202601221040.TeM0ihff-lkp@intel.com/ (local) Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Signed-off-by: Marco Elver <elver@google.com> --- v2: * Rebase. --- arch/arm64/include/asm/rwonce.h | 7 +++++-- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/arch/arm64/include/asm/rwonce.h b/arch/arm64/include/asm/rwonce.h
index 712de3238f9a..3a50a1d0d17e 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/include/asm/rwonce.h
+++ b/arch/arm64/include/asm/rwonce.h@@ -48,8 +48,11 @@ */ #define __READ_ONCE(x) \ ({ \ - typeof(&(x)) __x = &(x); \ + auto __x = &(x); \ + auto __ret = (__rwonce_typeof_unqual(*__x) *)__x; \ + auto __retp = &__ret; \ union { __rwonce_typeof_unqual(*__x) __val; char __c[1]; } __u; \ + *__retp = &__u.__val; \ switch (sizeof(x)) { \ case 1: \ asm volatile(__LOAD_RCPC(b, %w0, %1) \
@@ -74,7 +77,7 @@ default: \ __u.__val = *(volatile typeof(*__x) *)__x; \ } \ - __u.__val; \ + *__ret; \ }) #endif /* !BUILD_VDSO */
--
2.53.0.rc1.217.geba53bf80e-goog