Re: Question about the barrier() in hlist_nulls_for_each_entry_rcu()
From: Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>
Date: 2023-07-21 14:48:16
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lkml, rcu
On Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 4:31 PM Alan Huang [off-list ref] wrote:
quoted hunk ↗ jump to hunk
quoted
2023年7月21日 05:11,Eric Dumazet [off-list ref] 写道: On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 10:00 PM Alan Huang [off-list ref] wrote:quoted
quoted
2023年7月21日 03:22,Eric Dumazet [off-list ref] 写道: On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 8:54 PM Alan Huang [off-list ref] wrote:quoted
Hi, I noticed a commit c87a124a5d5e(“net: force a reload of first item in hlist_nulls_for_each_entry_rcu”) and a related discussion [1]. After reading the whole discussion, it seems like that ptr->field was cached by gcc even with the deprecated ACCESS_ONCE(), so my question is: Is that a compiler bug? If so, has this bug been fixed today, ten years later? What about READ_ONCE(ptr->field)?Make sure sparse is happy.It caused a problem without barrier(), and the deprecated ACCESS_ONCE() didn’t help: https://lore.kernel.org/all/519D19DA.50400@yandex-team.ru/ (local) So, my real question is: With READ_ONCE(ptr->field), are there still some unusual cases where gcc decides not to reload ptr->field?I can not really answer without seeing an actual patch...The content of the potential patch:diff --git a/include/linux/rculist_nulls.h b/include/linux/rculist_nulls.h index 89186c499dd4..bcd39670f359 100644 --- a/include/linux/rculist_nulls.h +++ b/include/linux/rculist_nulls.h@@ -158,15 +158,9 @@ static inline void hlist_nulls_add_fake(struct hlist_nulls_node *n) * @pos: the &struct hlist_nulls_node to use as a loop cursor. * @head: the head of the list. * @member: the name of the hlist_nulls_node within the struct. - * - * The barrier() is needed to make sure compiler doesn't cache first element [1], - * as this loop can be restarted [2] - * [1] Documentation/memory-barriers.txt around line 1533 - * [2] Documentation/RCU/rculist_nulls.rst around line 146 */ #define hlist_nulls_for_each_entry_rcu(tpos, pos, head, member) \ - for (({barrier();}), \ - pos = rcu_dereference_raw(hlist_nulls_first_rcu(head)); \ + for (pos = rcu_dereference_raw(hlist_nulls_first_rcu(head)); \ (!is_a_nulls(pos)) && \ ({ tpos = hlist_nulls_entry(pos, typeof(*tpos), member); 1; }); \ pos = rcu_dereference_raw(hlist_nulls_next_rcu(pos)))@@ -180,8 +174,7 @@ static inline void hlist_nulls_add_fake(struct hlist_nulls_node *n) * @member: the name of the hlist_nulls_node within the struct. */ #define hlist_nulls_for_each_entry_safe(tpos, pos, head, member) \ - for (({barrier();}), \ - pos = rcu_dereference_raw(hlist_nulls_first_rcu(head)); \ + for (pos = rcu_dereference_raw(hlist_nulls_first_rcu(head)); \ (!is_a_nulls(pos)) && \ ({ tpos = hlist_nulls_entry(pos, typeof(*tpos), member); \ pos = rcu_dereference_raw(hlist_nulls_next_rcu(pos)); 1; });)quoted
Why are you asking ? Are you tracking compiler bug fixes ?The barrier() here makes me confused. If we really need that, do we need: READ_ONCE(head->first); barrier(); READ_ONCE(head->first);
Nope, the patch you want to revert (while it did fix (by pure luck ???) a real bug back in the days) was replacing ACCESS_ONCE() by barrier(); ACCESS_ONCE(); (There is one ACCESS_ONCE(), not two of them) BTW, barrier(); followed by an arbitrary number of barrier(); back to back, translates to one barrier() Frankly, I would not change the code, unless someone can explain what was the issue. (Perhaps there was a missing barrier elsewhere)