summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/Documentation/atomic_t.txt
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorPeter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>2019-04-24 13:38:23 +0200
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>2019-06-17 12:09:59 +0200
commit69d927bba39517d0980462efc051875b7f4db185 (patch)
tree5552ef9cc71fcdde90c1e6544cc82b4b682362ed /Documentation/atomic_t.txt
parentlocking/lockdep: Remove unnecessary DEBUG_LOCKS_WARN_ON() (diff)
downloadlinux-69d927bba39517d0980462efc051875b7f4db185.tar.xz
linux-69d927bba39517d0980462efc051875b7f4db185.zip
x86/atomic: Fix smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic()
Recent probing at the Linux Kernel Memory Model uncovered a 'surprise'. Strongly ordered architectures where the atomic RmW primitive implies full memory ordering and smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic() are a simple barrier() (such as x86) fail for: *x = 1; atomic_inc(u); smp_mb__after_atomic(); r0 = *y; Because, while the atomic_inc() implies memory order, it (surprisingly) does not provide a compiler barrier. This then allows the compiler to re-order like so: atomic_inc(u); *x = 1; smp_mb__after_atomic(); r0 = *y; Which the CPU is then allowed to re-order (under TSO rules) like: atomic_inc(u); r0 = *y; *x = 1; And this very much was not intended. Therefore strengthen the atomic RmW ops to include a compiler barrier. NOTE: atomic_{or,and,xor} and the bitops already had the compiler barrier. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/atomic_t.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/atomic_t.txt3
1 files changed, 3 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/atomic_t.txt b/Documentation/atomic_t.txt
index 89eae7f6b360..d439a0fdbe47 100644
--- a/Documentation/atomic_t.txt
+++ b/Documentation/atomic_t.txt
@@ -196,6 +196,9 @@ These helper barriers exist because architectures have varying implicit
ordering on their SMP atomic primitives. For example our TSO architectures
provide full ordered atomics and these barriers are no-ops.
+NOTE: when the atomic RmW ops are fully ordered, they should also imply a
+compiler barrier.
+
Thus:
atomic_fetch_add();