Re: [PATCH 8/8] membarrier: Rewrite sync_core_before_usermode() and improve documentation

On 6/17/21 8:16 AM, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:

----- On Jun 15, 2021, at 11:21 PM, Andy Lutomirski luto@kernel.org wrote:

[...]

quoted

+# An architecture that wants to support
+# MEMBARRIER_CMD_PRIVATE_EXPEDITED_SYNC_CORE needs to define precisely what it
+# is supposed to do and implement membarrier_sync_core_before_usermode() to
+# make it do that.  Then it can select ARCH_HAS_MEMBARRIER_SYNC_CORE via
+# Kconfig.Unfortunately, MEMBARRIER_CMD_PRIVATE_EXPEDITED_SYNC_CORE is not a
+# fantastic API and may not make sense on all architectures.  Once an
+# architecture meets these requirements,

Can we please remove the editorial comment about the quality of the membarrier
sync-core's API ?

Done

quoted

+#
+# On x86, a program can safely modify code, issue
+# MEMBARRIER_CMD_PRIVATE_EXPEDITED_SYNC_CORE, and then execute that code, via
+# the modified address or an alias, from any thread in the calling process.
+#
+# On arm64, a program can modify code, flush the icache as needed, and issue
+# MEMBARRIER_CMD_PRIVATE_EXPEDITED_SYNC_CORE to force a "context synchronizing
+# event", aka pipeline flush on all CPUs that might run the calling process.
+# Then the program can execute the modified code as long as it is executed
+# from an address consistent with the icache flush and the CPU's cache type.
+#
+# On powerpc, a program can use MEMBARRIER_CMD_PRIVATE_EXPEDITED_SYNC_CORE
+# similarly to arm64.  It would be nice if the powerpc maintainers could
+# add a more clear explanantion.

We should document the requirements on ARMv7 as well.

Done.

Thanks,

Mathieu