diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/index.rst | 1 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst (renamed from Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.txt) | 75 |
2 files changed, 42 insertions, 34 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/index.rst b/Documentation/RCU/index.rst index b9b11481c727..c81d0e4fd999 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/index.rst +++ b/Documentation/RCU/index.rst @@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ RCU concepts :maxdepth: 3 arrayRCU + rcu_dereference whatisRCU rcu listRCU diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.txt b/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst index bf699e8cfc75..c9667eb0d444 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst @@ -1,4 +1,7 @@ +.. _rcu_dereference_doc: + PROPER CARE AND FEEDING OF RETURN VALUES FROM rcu_dereference() +=============================================================== Most of the time, you can use values from rcu_dereference() or one of the similar primitives without worries. Dereferencing (prefix "*"), @@ -8,7 +11,7 @@ subtraction of constants, and casts all work quite naturally and safely. It is nevertheless possible to get into trouble with other operations. Follow these rules to keep your RCU code working properly: -o You must use one of the rcu_dereference() family of primitives +- You must use one of the rcu_dereference() family of primitives to load an RCU-protected pointer, otherwise CONFIG_PROVE_RCU will complain. Worse yet, your code can see random memory-corruption bugs due to games that compilers and DEC Alpha can play. @@ -25,24 +28,24 @@ o You must use one of the rcu_dereference() family of primitives for an example where the compiler can in fact deduce the exact value of the pointer, and thus cause misordering. -o You are only permitted to use rcu_dereference on pointer values. +- You are only permitted to use rcu_dereference on pointer values. The compiler simply knows too much about integral values to trust it to carry dependencies through integer operations. There are a very few exceptions, namely that you can temporarily cast the pointer to uintptr_t in order to: - o Set bits and clear bits down in the must-be-zero low-order + - Set bits and clear bits down in the must-be-zero low-order bits of that pointer. This clearly means that the pointer must have alignment constraints, for example, this does -not- work in general for char* pointers. - o XOR bits to translate pointers, as is done in some + - XOR bits to translate pointers, as is done in some classic buddy-allocator algorithms. It is important to cast the value back to pointer before doing much of anything else with it. -o Avoid cancellation when using the "+" and "-" infix arithmetic +- Avoid cancellation when using the "+" and "-" infix arithmetic operators. For example, for a given variable "x", avoid "(x-(uintptr_t)x)" for char* pointers. The compiler is within its rights to substitute zero for this sort of expression, so that @@ -54,16 +57,16 @@ o Avoid cancellation when using the "+" and "-" infix arithmetic "p+a-b" is safe because its value still necessarily depends on the rcu_dereference(), thus maintaining proper ordering. -o If you are using RCU to protect JITed functions, so that the +- If you are using RCU to protect JITed functions, so that the "()" function-invocation operator is applied to a value obtained (directly or indirectly) from rcu_dereference(), you may need to interact directly with the hardware to flush instruction caches. This issue arises on some systems when a newly JITed function is using the same memory that was used by an earlier JITed function. -o Do not use the results from relational operators ("==", "!=", +- Do not use the results from relational operators ("==", "!=", ">", ">=", "<", or "<=") when dereferencing. For example, - the following (quite strange) code is buggy: + the following (quite strange) code is buggy:: int *p; int *q; @@ -81,11 +84,11 @@ o Do not use the results from relational operators ("==", "!=", after such branches, but can speculate loads, which can again result in misordering bugs. -o Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from +- Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from rcu_dereference() against non-NULL values. As Linus Torvalds explained, if the two pointers are equal, the compiler could substitute the pointer you are comparing against for the pointer - obtained from rcu_dereference(). For example: + obtained from rcu_dereference(). For example:: p = rcu_dereference(gp); if (p == &default_struct) @@ -93,7 +96,7 @@ o Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from Because the compiler now knows that the value of "p" is exactly the address of the variable "default_struct", it is free to - transform this code into the following: + transform this code into the following:: p = rcu_dereference(gp); if (p == &default_struct) @@ -105,14 +108,14 @@ o Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from However, comparisons are OK in the following cases: - o The comparison was against the NULL pointer. If the + - The comparison was against the NULL pointer. If the compiler knows that the pointer is NULL, you had better not be dereferencing it anyway. If the comparison is non-equal, the compiler is none the wiser. Therefore, it is safe to compare pointers from rcu_dereference() against NULL pointers. - o The pointer is never dereferenced after being compared. + - The pointer is never dereferenced after being compared. Since there are no subsequent dereferences, the compiler cannot use anything it learned from the comparison to reorder the non-existent subsequent dereferences. @@ -124,31 +127,31 @@ o Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from dereferenced, rcu_access_pointer() should be used in place of rcu_dereference(). - o The comparison is against a pointer that references memory + - The comparison is against a pointer that references memory that was initialized "a long time ago." The reason this is safe is that even if misordering occurs, the misordering will not affect the accesses that follow the comparison. So exactly how long ago is "a long time ago"? Here are some possibilities: - o Compile time. + - Compile time. - o Boot time. + - Boot time. - o Module-init time for module code. + - Module-init time for module code. - o Prior to kthread creation for kthread code. + - Prior to kthread creation for kthread code. - o During some prior acquisition of the lock that + - During some prior acquisition of the lock that we now hold. - o Before mod_timer() time for a timer handler. + - Before mod_timer() time for a timer handler. There are many other possibilities involving the Linux kernel's wide array of primitives that cause code to be invoked at a later time. - o The pointer being compared against also came from + - The pointer being compared against also came from rcu_dereference(). In this case, both pointers depend on one rcu_dereference() or another, so you get proper ordering either way. @@ -159,13 +162,13 @@ o Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from of such an RCU usage bug is shown in the section titled "EXAMPLE OF AMPLIFIED RCU-USAGE BUG". - o All of the accesses following the comparison are stores, + - All of the accesses following the comparison are stores, so that a control dependency preserves the needed ordering. That said, it is easy to get control dependencies wrong. Please see the "CONTROL DEPENDENCIES" section of Documentation/memory-barriers.txt for more details. - o The pointers are not equal -and- the compiler does + - The pointers are not equal -and- the compiler does not have enough information to deduce the value of the pointer. Note that the volatile cast in rcu_dereference() will normally prevent the compiler from knowing too much. @@ -175,7 +178,7 @@ o Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from comparison will provide exactly the information that the compiler needs to deduce the value of the pointer. -o Disable any value-speculation optimizations that your compiler +- Disable any value-speculation optimizations that your compiler might provide, especially if you are making use of feedback-based optimizations that take data collected from prior runs. Such value-speculation optimizations reorder operations by design. @@ -188,11 +191,12 @@ o Disable any value-speculation optimizations that your compiler EXAMPLE OF AMPLIFIED RCU-USAGE BUG +---------------------------------- Because updaters can run concurrently with RCU readers, RCU readers can see stale and/or inconsistent values. If RCU readers need fresh or consistent values, which they sometimes do, they need to take proper -precautions. To see this, consider the following code fragment: +precautions. To see this, consider the following code fragment:: struct foo { int a; @@ -244,7 +248,7 @@ to some reordering from the compiler and CPUs is beside the point. But suppose that the reader needs a consistent view? -Then one approach is to use locking, for example, as follows: +Then one approach is to use locking, for example, as follows:: struct foo { int a; @@ -299,6 +303,7 @@ As always, use the right tool for the job! EXAMPLE WHERE THE COMPILER KNOWS TOO MUCH +----------------------------------------- If a pointer obtained from rcu_dereference() compares not-equal to some other pointer, the compiler normally has no clue what the value of the @@ -308,7 +313,7 @@ guarantees that RCU depends on. And the volatile cast in rcu_dereference() should prevent the compiler from guessing the value. But without rcu_dereference(), the compiler knows more than you might -expect. Consider the following code fragment: +expect. Consider the following code fragment:: struct foo { int a; @@ -354,6 +359,7 @@ dereference the resulting pointer. WHICH MEMBER OF THE rcu_dereference() FAMILY SHOULD YOU USE? +------------------------------------------------------------ First, please avoid using rcu_dereference_raw() and also please avoid using rcu_dereference_check() and rcu_dereference_protected() with a @@ -370,7 +376,7 @@ member of the rcu_dereference() to use in various situations: 2. If the access might be within an RCU read-side critical section on the one hand, or protected by (say) my_lock on the other, - use rcu_dereference_check(), for example: + use rcu_dereference_check(), for example:: p1 = rcu_dereference_check(p->rcu_protected_pointer, lockdep_is_held(&my_lock)); @@ -378,14 +384,14 @@ member of the rcu_dereference() to use in various situations: 3. If the access might be within an RCU read-side critical section on the one hand, or protected by either my_lock or your_lock on - the other, again use rcu_dereference_check(), for example: + the other, again use rcu_dereference_check(), for example:: p1 = rcu_dereference_check(p->rcu_protected_pointer, lockdep_is_held(&my_lock) || lockdep_is_held(&your_lock)); 4. If the access is on the update side, so that it is always protected - by my_lock, use rcu_dereference_protected(): + by my_lock, use rcu_dereference_protected():: p1 = rcu_dereference_protected(p->rcu_protected_pointer, lockdep_is_held(&my_lock)); @@ -410,18 +416,19 @@ member of the rcu_dereference() to use in various situations: SPARSE CHECKING OF RCU-PROTECTED POINTERS +----------------------------------------- The sparse static-analysis tool checks for direct access to RCU-protected pointers, which can result in "interesting" bugs due to compiler optimizations involving invented loads and perhaps also load tearing. -For example, suppose someone mistakenly does something like this: +For example, suppose someone mistakenly does something like this:: p = q->rcu_protected_pointer; do_something_with(p->a); do_something_else_with(p->b); If register pressure is high, the compiler might optimize "p" out -of existence, transforming the code to something like this: +of existence, transforming the code to something like this:: do_something_with(q->rcu_protected_pointer->a); do_something_else_with(q->rcu_protected_pointer->b); @@ -435,7 +442,7 @@ Load tearing could of course result in dereferencing a mashup of a pair of pointers, which also might fatally disappoint your code. These problems could have been avoided simply by making the code instead -read as follows: +read as follows:: p = rcu_dereference(q->rcu_protected_pointer); do_something_with(p->a); @@ -448,7 +455,7 @@ or as a formal parameter, with "__rcu", which tells sparse to complain if this pointer is accessed directly. It will also cause sparse to complain if a pointer not marked with "__rcu" is accessed using rcu_dereference() and friends. For example, ->rcu_protected_pointer might be declared as -follows: +follows:: struct foo __rcu *rcu_protected_pointer; |