From ebff09a6ff164aec2b33bf1f9a488c45ac108413 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Paul E. McKenney" Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2016 16:08:17 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] locking/Documentation: Clarify limited control-dependency scope Nothing in the control-dependencies section of memory-barriers.txt says that control dependencies don't extend beyond the end of the if-statement containing the control dependency. Worse yet, in many situations, they do extend beyond that if-statement. In particular, the compiler cannot destroy the control dependency given proper use of READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE(). However, a weakly ordered system having a conditional-move instruction provides the control-dependency guarantee only to code within the scope of the if-statement itself. This commit therefore adds words and an example demonstrating this limitation of control dependencies. Reported-by: Will Deacon Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) Cc: Linus Torvalds Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Thomas Gleixner Cc: corbet@lwn.net Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org Cc: linux-doc@vger.kernel.org Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20160615230817.GA18039@linux.vnet.ibm.com Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar --- Documentation/memory-barriers.txt | 41 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 41 insertions(+) diff --git a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt index 147ae8ec836f..a4d0a99de04d 100644 --- a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt +++ b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt @@ -806,6 +806,41 @@ out-guess your code. More generally, although READ_ONCE() does force the compiler to actually emit code for a given load, it does not force the compiler to use the results. +In addition, control dependencies apply only to the then-clause and +else-clause of the if-statement in question. In particular, it does +not necessarily apply to code following the if-statement: + + q = READ_ONCE(a); + if (q) { + WRITE_ONCE(b, p); + } else { + WRITE_ONCE(b, r); + } + WRITE_ONCE(c, 1); /* BUG: No ordering against the read from "a". */ + +It is tempting to argue that there in fact is ordering because the +compiler cannot reorder volatile accesses and also cannot reorder +the writes to "b" with the condition. Unfortunately for this line +of reasoning, the compiler might compile the two writes to "b" as +conditional-move instructions, as in this fanciful pseudo-assembly +language: + + ld r1,a + ld r2,p + ld r3,r + cmp r1,$0 + cmov,ne r4,r2 + cmov,eq r4,r3 + st r4,b + st $1,c + +A weakly ordered CPU would have no dependency of any sort between the load +from "a" and the store to "c". The control dependencies would extend +only to the pair of cmov instructions and the store depending on them. +In short, control dependencies apply only to the stores in the then-clause +and else-clause of the if-statement in question (including functions +invoked by those two clauses), not to code following that if-statement. + Finally, control dependencies do -not- provide transitivity. This is demonstrated by two related examples, with the initial values of x and y both being zero: @@ -869,6 +904,12 @@ In summary: atomic{,64}_read() can help to preserve your control dependency. Please see the COMPILER BARRIER section for more information. + (*) Control dependencies apply only to the then-clause and else-clause + of the if-statement containing the control dependency, including + any functions that these two clauses call. Control dependencies + do -not- apply to code following the if-statement containing the + control dependency. + (*) Control dependencies pair normally with other types of barriers. (*) Control dependencies do -not- provide transitivity. If you -- 2.39.5