Re: [PATCH v2] powerpc/npu-dma.c: Fix deadlock in mmio_invalidate

quoted

diff --git a/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/npu-dma.c b/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/npu-dma.c
index 0a253b64ac5f..2fed4b116e19 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/npu-dma.c
+++ b/arch/powerpc/platforms/powernv/npu-dma.c

@@ -726,7 +749,7 @@ struct npu_context *pnv_npu2_init_context(struct pci_dev *gpdev,
 	if (WARN_ON(of_property_read_u32(nvlink_dn, "ibm,npu-link-index",
 							&nvlink_index)))
 		return ERR_PTR(-ENODEV);
-	npu_context->npdev[npu->index][nvlink_index] = npdev;
+	WRITE_ONCE(npu_context->npdev[npu->index][nvlink_index], npdev);

  
When you're publishing a struct via a pointer you would typically have a
barrier between the stores that set the fields of the struct, and the
store that publishes the struct. Otherwise the reader can see a
partially setup struct.

npdev is just a pointer to a pci_dev setup by the PCI code. We assign it to
npdev[][] to indicate to the mmu notifiers that an invalidation should also
be sent to this nvlink. However I don't think there is any ordering
required wrt to the rest of the npu_context setup - so long as when the
notifiers deference npu_context->npdev[i][j] it either sees a valid
non-NULL pointer or NULL assigned to npdev[][] everything should be ok.

I think here the npdev was setup somewhere else, and maybe there has
been an intervening barrier, but it's not clear. A comment at least
would be good.

Yes it has been. I will submit a v3 with some more comments incorporating
the above. Unless you think my argument is wrong?

In general I feel like a spinlock or two could significantly simply the
locking/ordering in this code, and given we're doing MMIOs anyway would
not affect performance.

Indeed, I am working on a patch to add a spinlock around the allocation of
the npu_context as pnv_npu2_destroy_context() needs to be serialised with
respect to pnv_npu2_init_context() on the same mm_struct. I'd incorrectly
assumed the driver would do this serialisation but apparently it can't so
we need to ensure kref_get(npu_context) can't race with it's destruction
(concurrent init_context() is protected by mmap_sem). I could fold that
(unposted) patch into this one if you think that would be better?

Thanks!

- Alistair

</rant>

cheers