Re: [patch 1/2] read_barrier_depends arch fixlets

["Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 06:35:11AM +0200, Nick Piggin wrote:
> read_barrie_depends has always been a noop (not a compiler barrier) on all
> architectures except SMP alpha. This brings UP alpha and frv into line with all
> other architectures, and fixes incorrect documentation.

One update for the documentation update.

							Thanx, Paul

> Signed-off-by: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
> Acked-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
> 
> ---
>  Documentation/memory-barriers.txt |   12 +++++++++++-
>  include/asm-alpha/barrier.h       |    2 +-
>  include/asm-frv/system.h          |    2 +-
>  3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
> 
> Index: linux-2.6/include/asm-alpha/barrier.h
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6.orig/include/asm-alpha/barrier.h
> +++ linux-2.6/include/asm-alpha/barrier.h
> @@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ __asm__ __volatile__("mb": : :"memory")
>  #define smp_mb()	barrier()
>  #define smp_rmb()	barrier()
>  #define smp_wmb()	barrier()
> -#define smp_read_barrier_depends()	barrier()
> +#define smp_read_barrier_depends()	do { } while (0)
>  #endif
> 
>  #define set_mb(var, value) \
> Index: linux-2.6/include/asm-frv/system.h
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6.orig/include/asm-frv/system.h
> +++ linux-2.6/include/asm-frv/system.h
> @@ -179,7 +179,7 @@ do {							\
>  #define mb()			asm volatile ("membar" : : :"memory")
>  #define rmb()			asm volatile ("membar" : : :"memory")
>  #define wmb()			asm volatile ("membar" : : :"memory")
> -#define read_barrier_depends()	barrier()
> +#define read_barrier_depends()	do { } while (0)
> 
>  #ifdef CONFIG_SMP
>  #define smp_mb()			mb()
> Index: linux-2.6/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-2.6.orig/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
> +++ linux-2.6/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
> @@ -994,7 +994,17 @@ The Linux kernel has eight basic CPU mem
>  	DATA DEPENDENCY	read_barrier_depends()	smp_read_barrier_depends()
> 
> 
> -All CPU memory barriers unconditionally imply compiler barriers.
> +All memory barriers except the data dependency barriers imply a compiler
> +barrier. Data dependencies do not impose any additional compiler ordering.
> +
> +Aside: In the case of data dependencies, the compiler would be expected to
> +issue the loads in the correct order (eg. `a[b]` would have to load the value
> +of b before loading a[b]), however there is no guarantee in the C specification
> +that the compiler may not speculate the value of b (eg. is equal to 1) and load
> +a before b (eg. tmp = a[1]; if (b != 1) tmp = a[b]; ). There is also the
> +problem of a compiler reloading b after having loaded a[b], thus having a newer
> +copy of b than a[b]. A consensus has not yet been reached about these problems,
> +however the ACCESS_ONCE macro is a good place to start looking.

Please add something like:

"For example, b_local = b; smp_read_barrier_depends(); tmp = a[b_local];"

>  SMP memory barriers are reduced to compiler barriers on uniprocessor compiled
>  systems because it is assumed that a CPU will appear to be self-consistent,

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