Hi Alexander!

On Fri 05-02-21 16:31:54, Alexander Lochmann wrote:

have you had the chance to review our results?

It fell through the cracks I guess. Thanks for pinging. Let me have a look.

On 15.10.20 15:56, Alexander Lochmann wrote:

quoted

Hi folks,

when comparing our generated locking documentation with the current
documentation
located in include/linux/jbd2.h, I found some inconsistencies. (Our
approach: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3302424.3303948)
According to the official documentation, the following members should be
read using a lock:
journal_t
- j_flags: j_state_lock
- j_barrier_count: j_state_lock
- j_running_transaction: j_state_lock
- j_commit_sequence: j_state_lock
- j_commit_request: j_state_lock
transactiont_t
- t_nr_buffers: j_list_lock
- t_buffers: j_list_lock
- t_reserved_list: j_list_lock
- t_shadow_list: j_list_lock
jbd2_inode
- i_transaction: j_list_lock
- i_next_transaction: j_list_lock
- i_flags: j_list_lock
- i_dirty_start: j_list_lock
- i_dirty_start: j_list_lock

However, our results say that no locks are needed at all for *reading*
those members.
From what I know, it is common wisdom that word-sized data types can be
read without any lock in the Linux kernel.

Yes, although in last year, people try to convert these unlocked reads to
READ_ONCE() or similar as otherwise the compiler is apparently allowed to
generate code which is not safe. But that's a different story. Also note
that although reading that particular word may be safe without any other
locks, the lock still may be needed to safely interpret the value in the
context of other fetched values (e.g., due to consistency among multiple
structure members). So sometimes requiring the lock is just the least
problematic solution - there's always the tradeoff between the speed and
simplicity.

quoted

All of the above members have word size, i.e., int, long, or ptr.
Is it therefore safe to split the locking documentation as follows?
@j_flags: General journaling state flags [r:nolocks, w:j_state_lock]

I've checked the code and we usually use unlocked reads for quick, possibly
racy checks and if they indicate we may need to do something then take the
lock and do a reliable check. This is quite common pattern, not sure how to
best document this. Maybe like [j_state_lock, no lock for quick racy checks]?

quoted

The following members are not word-sizes. Our results also suggest that
no locks are needed.
Can the proposed change be applied to them as well?
transaction_t
- t_chp_stats: j_checkpoint_sem

Where do we read t_chp_stats outside of a lock? j_list_lock seems to be
used pretty consistently there. Except perhaps
__jbd2_journal_remove_checkpoint() but there we know we are already the
only ones touching the transaction and thus its statistics.

quoted

jbd2_inode:
- i_list: j_list_lock

And here as well. I would not complicate the locking description unless we
really have places that access these fields without locks...

								Honza
-- 
Jan Kara [off-list ref]
SUSE Labs, CR