Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751584Ab3JWHkG (ORCPT ); Wed, 23 Oct 2013 03:40:06 -0400 Received: from e06smtp13.uk.ibm.com ([195.75.94.109]:48501 "EHLO e06smtp13.uk.ibm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751130Ab3JWHkD (ORCPT ); Wed, 23 Oct 2013 03:40:03 -0400 In-Reply-To: <12083.1382486094@ale.ozlabs.ibm.com> References: <12083.1382486094@ale.ozlabs.ibm.com> Subject: Re: perf events ring buffer memory barrier on powerpc X-KeepSent: D776C320:26C485FF-43257C0D:00264F32; type=4; name=$KeepSent To: Michael Neuling Cc: anton@samba.org, benh@kernel.crashing.org, Frederic Weisbecker , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Linux PPC dev , Mathieu Desnoyers , michael@ellerman.id.au X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 8.5.3 September 15, 2011 Message-ID: From: Victor Kaplansky Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 10:39:55 +0300 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on D06ML319/06/M/IBM(Release 8.5.3FP5|July 31, 2013) at 23/10/2013 10:39:45 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII X-TM-AS-MML: No X-Content-Scanned: Fidelis XPS MAILER x-cbid: 13102307-2966-0000-0000-0000091FAE07 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2047 Lines: 64 See below. Michael Neuling wrote on 10/23/2013 02:54:54 AM: > > diff --git a/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c b/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c > index cd55144..95768c6 100644 > --- a/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c > +++ b/kernel/events/ring_buffer.c > @@ -87,10 +87,10 @@ again: > goto out; > > /* > - * Publish the known good head. Rely on the full barrier implied > - * by atomic_dec_and_test() order the rb->head read and this > - * write. > + * Publish the known good head. We need a memory barrier to order the > + * order the rb->head read and this write. > */ > + smp_mb (); > rb->user_page->data_head = head; > > /* 1. As far as I understand, smp_mb() is superfluous in this case, smp_wmb() should be enough. (same for the space between the name of function and open parenthesis :-) ) 2. Again, as far as I understand from ./Documentation/atomic_ops.txt, it is mistake in architecture independent code to rely on memory barriers in atomic operations, all the more so in "local" operations. 3. The solution above is sub-optimal on architectures where memory barrier is part of "local", since we are going to execute two consecutive barriers. So, maybe, it would be better to use smp_mb__after_atomic_dec(). 4. I'm not sure, but I think there is another, unrelated potential problem in function perf_output_put_handle() - the write to "data_head" - kernel/events/ring_buffer.c: 77 /* 78 * Publish the known good head. Rely on the full barrier implied 79 * by atomic_dec_and_test() order the rb->head read and this 80 * write. 81 */ 82 rb->user_page->data_head = head; As data_head is 64-bit wide, the update should be done by an atomic64_set (). Regards, -- Victor -- 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/