documentation: Subsequent writes ordered by rcu_dereference()
The current memory-barriers.txt does not address the possibility of a write to a dereferenced pointer. This should be rare, but when it happens, we need that write -not- to be clobbered by the initialization. This commit therefore adds an example showing a data dependency ordering a later data-dependent write. Reported-by: Leonid Yegoshin <Leonid.Yegoshin@imgtec.com> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
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@ -555,6 +555,30 @@ between the address load and the data load:
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This enforces the occurrence of one of the two implications, and prevents the
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third possibility from arising.
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A data-dependency barrier must also order against dependent writes:
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CPU 1 CPU 2
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=============== ===============
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{ A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
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B = 4;
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<write barrier>
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WRITE_ONCE(P, &B);
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Q = READ_ONCE(P);
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<data dependency barrier>
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*Q = 5;
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The data-dependency barrier must order the read into Q with the store
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into *Q. This prohibits this outcome:
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(Q == B) && (B == 4)
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Please note that this pattern should be rare. After all, the whole point
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of dependency ordering is to -prevent- writes to the data structure, along
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with the expensive cache misses associated with those writes. This pattern
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can be used to record rare error conditions and the like, and the ordering
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prevents such records from being lost.
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[!] Note that this extremely counterintuitive situation arises most easily on
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machines with split caches, so that, for example, one cache bank processes
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even-numbered cache lines and the other bank processes odd-numbered cache
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