On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 1:23 AM Sabrina Dubroca [off-list ref] wrote:

2026-01-20, 17:21:29 +0800, David Yang wrote:

quoted

The following (anti-)pattern was observed in the code tree:

        do {
                start = u64_stats_fetch_begin(&pstats->syncp);
                memcpy(&temp, &pstats->stats, sizeof(temp));
        } while (u64_stats_fetch_retry(&pstats->syncp, start));

On 64bit arches, struct u64_stats_sync is empty and provides no help
against load/store tearing, especially for memcpy(), for which arches may
provide their highly-optimized implements.

In theory the affected code should convert to u64_stats_t, or use
READ_ONCE()/WRITE_ONCE() properly.

However since there are needs to copy chunks of statistics, instead of
writing loops at random places, we provide a safe memcpy() variant for
u64_stats.

Signed-off-by: David Yang <mmyangfl@gmail.com>
---
 include/linux/u64_stats_sync.h | 15 +++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/u64_stats_sync.h b/include/linux/u64_stats_sync.h
index 457879938fc1..849ff6e159c6 100644
--- a/include/linux/u64_stats_sync.h
+++ b/include/linux/u64_stats_sync.h

@@ -79,6 +79,14 @@ static inline u64 u64_stats_read(const u64_stats_t *p)
      return local64_read(&p->v);
 }

+static inline void *u64_stats_copy(void *dst, const void *src, size_t len)
+{
+     BUILD_BUG_ON(len % sizeof(u64_stats_t));
+     for (size_t i = 0; i < len / sizeof(u64_stats_t); i++)
+             ((u64 *)dst)[i] = local64_read(&((local64_t *)src)[i]);

Maybe u64_stats_read/u64_stats_t instead of local64_read/local64_t?

I think casting to u64_stats_t is a bit overkill here since we accept
const void * and we are the actual implementation.

Again, they should convert to u64_stats_t, and this solution already
implies that u64_stats_t is binary compatible with u64. I've already
sent several patches related to that, but that's another issue.

quoted

+     return dst;
+}

Since this new helper is always used within a
u64_stats_fetch_begin/u64_stats_fetch_retry loop, maybe it would be
nicer to push the retry loop into the helper as well?  Not a strong
opinion. It would be a bit "simpler" for the callers, but your current
proposal has the advantage of looking like memcpy(), and of also
looking (for the caller) like other retry loops fetching each counter
explicitly.

The callers may want to copy other discontinuous data as well, albeit
no one did it then.

         do {
                 start = u64_stats_fetch_begin(&pstats->syncp);
                 memcpy(...);
                 u64_stats_read(...);
         } while (u64_stats_fetch_retry(&pstats->syncp, start));

It would be redundant to provide two variants of the function.
Moreover, callers can (and already) invent their own reader/writer
helpers, for example

         #define SLIC_GET_STATS_COUNTER(newst, st, counter) \
         { \
                  unsigned int start; \
                  do { \
                          start = u64_stats_fetch_begin(&(st)->syncp); \
                          newst = u64_stats_read(&(st)->counter); \
                  } while (u64_stats_fetch_retry(&(st)->syncp, start)); \
         }

Either way, I think extending the "Usage" section of the big comment
at the top of the file with this new helper would be nice.

I think callers should avoid memcpy() eventually, and they almost
certainly copied more data than what they need. However, I took a look
at some instances, and it would be non trivial to modify those
drivers.

--
Sabrina