Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1755783Ab3CMJdM (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:33:12 -0400 Received: from mail-ie0-f179.google.com ([209.85.223.179]:64453 "EHLO mail-ie0-f179.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754468Ab3CMJdK (ORCPT ); Wed, 13 Mar 2013 05:33:10 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20130312175557.GF3725@linux.vnet.ibm.com> References: <1362843501-31159-1-git-send-email-tom.leiming@gmail.com> <20130312033906.GA3725@linux.vnet.ibm.com> <20130312143853.GD3725@linux.vnet.ibm.com> <20130312175557.GF3725@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:03:10 +0530 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH] atomic: improve atomic_inc_unless_negative/atomic_dec_unless_positive From: anish singh To: paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com Cc: Frederic Weisbecker , Ming Lei , Andrew Morton , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Shaohua Li , Al Viro Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 4034 Lines: 99 On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 11:25 PM, Paul E. McKenney wrote: > On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 04:02:47PM +0100, Frederic Weisbecker wrote: >> 2013/3/12 Paul E. McKenney : >> > On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 12:03:23PM +0800, Ming Lei wrote: >> >> On Tue, Mar 12, 2013 at 11:39 AM, Paul E. McKenney >> >> wrote: >> >> > >> >> > Atomic operations that return a value are required to act as full >> >> > memory >> >> > barriers. This means that code relying on ordering provided by >> >> > these >> >> > atomic operations must also do ordering, either by using an explicit >> >> > memory barrier or by relying on guarantees from atomic operations. >> >> > >> >> > For example: >> >> > >> >> > CPU 0 CPU 1 >> >> > >> >> > X = 1; r1 = Z; >> >> > if (atomic_inc_unless_negative(&Y) smp_mb(); >> >> > do_something(); >> >> > Z = 1; r2 = X; >> >> > >> >> > Assuming X and Z are initially zero, if r1==1, we are guaranteed >> >> > that r2==1. However, CPU 1 needs its smp_mb() in order to pair with >> >> > the barrier implicit in atomic_inc_unless_negative(). >> >> > >> >> > Make sense? >> >> >> >> Yes, it does, and thanks for the explanation. >> >> >> >> But looks the above example is not what Frederic described: >> >> >> >> "the above atomic_read() might return -1 because there is no >> >> guarantee it's seeing the recent update on the remote CPU." >> >> >> >> Even I am not sure if adding one smp_mb() around atomic_read() >> >> can guarantee that too. >> > >> > Frederic was likely thinking of some other scenario that would be >> > broken by atomic_inc_unless_negative() failing to act as a full >> > memory barrier. Here is another example: >> > >> > >> > CPU 0 CPU 1 >> > >> > X = 1; >> > if (atomic_inc_unless_negative(&Y) r1 = atomic_xchg(&Y, >> > -1); >> > r2 = X; >> > >> > If atomic_inc_unless_negative() acts as a full memory barrier, then >> > if CPU 0 reaches the assignment from X, the results will be guaranteed >> > to be 1. Otherwise, there is no guarantee. >> >> Your scenarios show an interesting guarantee I did not think about. >> But my concern was on such a situation: >> >> CPU 0 CPU 1 >> >> atomic_set(&X, -1) >> atomic_inc(&X) >> atomic_add_unless_negative(&X, 5) >> >> On the above situation, CPU 0 may still see X == -1 and thus not add >> the 5. Of course all that only make sense with datas coming along. > > That could happen, but you would need CPU 1 to carry out some other > reference for it to be a bug. Otherwise, CPU 1's atomic_inc() just CPU 0 CPU 1 atomic_set(&X, -1) A =5 &X = A atomic_add_unless_negative(&X, 5) Do you mean this when you referred "carry out some other reference for it to be a bug"? > happened after all of CPU 0's code. But yes, it would be possible > to misorder with some larger scenario starting with this example. > Especially given that atomic_inc() does not make any ordering guarantees. > > Thanx, Paul > > Thanx, Paul > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/