From nobody Thu Nov 28 20:29:40 2024 Received: from smtpout.efficios.com (smtpout.efficios.com [167.114.26.122]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 363101581EB; Sun, 29 Sep 2024 11:18:24 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=167.114.26.122 ARC-Seal: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1727608706; cv=none; b=A+V14Teasf02rcjcyaux73I0Gg89+4dTdxupA64fIWnCEu9LndJMM67NC/RIbvAVoSANS8yXAXESgrji+y1JitwIcLO5ho11KxWwckCjNdhO9EsEC3mavJr3/XVT9scpESWznowPR5t61LK7E0uk1g9K5+xpqoOxGJj7UGZtswU= ARC-Message-Signature: i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1727608706; c=relaxed/simple; bh=g1ERcjuxIIQfzyAE04JgYpLXWJLghnUv7XhUlDPv9Y4=; h=From:To:Cc:Subject:Date:Message-Id:In-Reply-To:References: MIME-Version; b=tgrX5IiIwE7OSpapF7FBOFSbP5Rjz6OXKW7COJK9DiBGx0ZdmHE4fXZjveU2rtOIInirEXd0eIAyoBYB9fpUrP4NMDD8KNQLXGKg2vgpGmtN0K8wM64p9OFLAsuh20lbvkeU9I8b8E0Vl1tvcSOR5JfS6tbmIjB3Nes9jzENhIw= ARC-Authentication-Results: i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=efficios.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=efficios.com; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=efficios.com header.i=@efficios.com header.b=bKR/jLng; arc=none smtp.client-ip=167.114.26.122 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=efficios.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=efficios.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=efficios.com header.i=@efficios.com header.b="bKR/jLng" DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/simple; d=efficios.com; s=smtpout1; t=1727608703; bh=g1ERcjuxIIQfzyAE04JgYpLXWJLghnUv7XhUlDPv9Y4=; h=From:To:Cc:Subject:Date:In-Reply-To:References:From; b=bKR/jLngSMnpfkC+0RATww72JqtH1SoYAn6K35TxeOozZBSsXRNV0CBRN0ZfegI/2 r/+8JtcIu/mnr+vyisFGHKYQCpbqhJzMgwf5KlY/WMQTlaVbWtVsjsmL2bw8G+Dv2B pdEAXppYbeIKbMF/A/Lq9/2RM3PMl2mHH92429U4/RbFXYOImIqKcKX+P5JpCYD+fL VT9cR8Io1Swpe+OhuwkP7Kvleoz191Ei4HHvUI7vSqAhUtSmCQWen7eNllMpbAZLQn wSfP0muk5IrqHAezuL9nH6FMnDjRQcxiSAEpRUQAXqftJHa5kuYzP6VAJBEeGwGEQq 0xmbgO178/+Iw== Received: from thinkos.internal.efficios.com (unknown [IPv6:2606:6d00:100:4000:cacb:9855:de1f:ded2]) by smtpout.efficios.com (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 4XGhXG75M3z6Ht; Sun, 29 Sep 2024 07:18:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Mathieu Desnoyers To: Linus Torvalds Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Mathieu Desnoyers , Greg Kroah-Hartman , Sebastian Andrzej Siewior , "Paul E. McKenney" , Will Deacon , Peter Zijlstra , Boqun Feng , Alan Stern , John Stultz , Neeraj Upadhyay , Frederic Weisbecker , Joel Fernandes , Josh Triplett , Uladzislau Rezki , Steven Rostedt , Lai Jiangshan , Zqiang , Ingo Molnar , Waiman Long , Mark Rutland , Thomas Gleixner , Vlastimil Babka , maged.michael@gmail.com, Mateusz Guzik , Gary Guo , Jonas Oberhauser , rcu@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, lkmm@lists.linux.dev, Nikita Popov , llvm@lists.linux.dev Subject: [PATCH v1 2/2] Documentation: RCU: Refer to ptr_eq() Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2024 07:16:08 -0400 Message-Id: <20240929111608.1016757-3-mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.39.2 In-Reply-To: <20240929111608.1016757-1-mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com> References: <20240929111608.1016757-1-mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com> Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Refer to ptr_eq() in the rcu_dereference() documentation. ptr_eq() is a mechanism that preserves address dependencies when comparing pointers, and should be favored when comparing a pointer obtained from rcu_dereference() against another pointer. Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior Cc: "Paul E. McKenney" Cc: Will Deacon Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Boqun Feng Cc: Alan Stern Cc: John Stultz Cc: Neeraj Upadhyay Cc: Linus Torvalds Cc: Boqun Feng Cc: Frederic Weisbecker Cc: Joel Fernandes Cc: Josh Triplett Cc: Uladzislau Rezki Cc: Steven Rostedt Cc: Lai Jiangshan Cc: Zqiang Cc: Ingo Molnar Cc: Waiman Long Cc: Mark Rutland Cc: Thomas Gleixner Cc: Vlastimil Babka Cc: maged.michael@gmail.com Cc: Mateusz Guzik Cc: Gary Guo Cc: Jonas Oberhauser Cc: rcu@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org Cc: lkmm@lists.linux.dev Cc: Nikita Popov Cc: llvm@lists.linux.dev Acked-by: Paul E. McKenney --- Changes since v0: - Include feedback from Alan Stern. --- Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst b/Documentation/RCU/rcu_= dereference.rst index 2524dcdadde2..9ef97b7ca74d 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst +++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst @@ -104,11 +104,12 @@ readers working properly: after such branches, but can speculate loads, which can again result in misordering bugs. =20 -- Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from - rcu_dereference() against non-NULL values. As Linus Torvalds - explained, if the two pointers are equal, the compiler could - substitute the pointer you are comparing against for the pointer - obtained from rcu_dereference(). For example:: +- Use operations that preserve address dependencies (such as + "ptr_eq()") to compare pointers obtained from rcu_dereference() + against non-NULL pointers. As Linus Torvalds explained, if the + two pointers are equal, the compiler could substitute the + pointer you are comparing against for the pointer obtained from + rcu_dereference(). For example:: =20 p =3D rcu_dereference(gp); if (p =3D=3D &default_struct) @@ -125,6 +126,23 @@ readers working properly: On ARM and Power hardware, the load from "default_struct.a" can now be speculated, such that it might happen before the rcu_dereference(). This could result in bugs due to misordering. + Performing the comparison with "ptr_eq()" ensures the compiler + does not perform such transformation. + + If the comparison is against another pointer, the compiler is + allowed to use either pointer for the following accesses, which + loses the address dependency and allows weakly-ordered + architectures such as ARM and PowerPC to speculate the + address-dependent load before rcu_dereference(). For example:: + + p1 =3D READ_ONCE(gp); + p2 =3D rcu_dereference(gp); + if (p1 =3D=3D p2) + do_default(p2->a); + + The compiler can use p1->a rather than p2->a, destroying the + address dependency. Performing the comparison with "ptr_eq()" + ensures the compiler preserves the address dependencies. =20 However, comparisons are OK in the following cases: =20 @@ -204,6 +222,10 @@ readers working properly: comparison will provide exactly the information that the compiler needs to deduce the value of the pointer. =20 + When in doubt, use operations that preserve address dependencies + (such as "ptr_eq()") to compare pointers obtained from + rcu_dereference() against non-NULL pointers. + - Disable any value-speculation optimizations that your compiler might provide, especially if you are making use of feedback-based optimizations that take data collected from prior runs. Such --=20 2.39.2