Re: [PATCH] rcupdate: fix 2 bugs of rcu_barrier*()

[Paul E. McKenney]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 01:47:42PM +0800, Lai Jiangshan wrote:
> Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 16, 2008 at 04:51:56PM +0800, Lai Jiangshan wrote:
> >> current rcu_barrier_bh() is like this:
> >>
> >> void rcu_barrier_bh(void)
> >> {
> >> 	BUG_ON(in_interrupt());
> >> 	/* Take cpucontrol mutex to protect against CPU hotplug */
> >> 	mutex_lock(&rcu_barrier_mutex);
> >> 	init_completion(&rcu_barrier_completion);
> >> 	atomic_set(&rcu_barrier_cpu_count, 0);
> >> 	/*
> >> 	 * The queueing of callbacks in all CPUs must be atomic with
> >> 	 * respect to RCU, otherwise one CPU may queue a callback,
> >> 	 * wait for a grace period, decrement barrier count and call
> >> 	 * complete(), while other CPUs have not yet queued anything.
> >> 	 * So, we need to make sure that grace periods cannot complete
> >> 	 * until all the callbacks are queued.
> >> 	 */
> >> 	rcu_read_lock();
> >> 	on_each_cpu(rcu_barrier_func, (void *)RCU_BARRIER_BH, 1);
> >> 	rcu_read_unlock();
> >> 	wait_for_completion(&rcu_barrier_completion);
> >> 	mutex_unlock(&rcu_barrier_mutex);
> >> }
> >>
> >> this is bug, rcu_read_lock() cannot make sure that "grace periods for RCU_BH
> >> cannot complete until all the callbacks are queued".
> >> it only make sure that race periods for RCU cannot complete
> >> until all the callbacks are queued.
> >>
> >> so we must use rcu_read_lock_bh() for rcu_barrier_bh().
> >> like this:
> >>
> >> void rcu_barrier_bh(void)
> >> {
> >> 	......
> >> 	rcu_read_lock_bh();
> >> 	on_each_cpu(rcu_barrier_func, (void *)RCU_BARRIER_BH, 1);
> >> 	rcu_read_unlock_bh();
> >> 	......
> >> }
> >>
> >> and also rcu_barrier() rcu_barrier_sched() are implemented like this.
> >> it will bring a lot of duplicate code. My patch uses another way to
> >> fix this bug, please see the comment of my patch.
> > 
> > Excellent catch!!!  I had incorrectly convinced myself that because RCU
> > read-side implies an RCU_BH and RCU_SCHED that I could simply use an
> > RCU read-side critical section.  Thank you for finding this!
> > 
> > Just out of curiosity, did an actual oops/hang lead you to this bug, or
> > did you find it by inspection?
> 
> by inspection. I was planning to put synchronize_rcu* back to
> kernel/rcupdate.c and I found the code and the comments are
> inconsistent suddenly when I was reviewing kernel/rcupdate.c.

Good eyes!!!

> >> Bug 2:
> >> on_each_cpu() do not imply wmb, so we need a explicit wmb.
> >> I became a paranoid too.
> > 
> > Actually, there is a memory barrier in the list_add_tail_rcu() in the
> > implementation of smp_call_function(), and furthermore, the way that
> > atomic operations work on all architectures I am aware of removes the need
> > for the memory barrier.  Nevertheless, I have absolutely no objection
> > to adding this memory barrier.  This code path is used infrequently and
> > has high overhead anyway, so I agree that making it easy to understand
> > is the correct approach.  If it were on the read side, I would argue.  ;-)
> 
> I will remove this wmb.
> Thank you a lot

Sounds good to me -- on_each_cpu() really needs to provide the barrier
internally anyway, otherwise it is too hard to use.  So am OK with your
leaving the wmb out.

							Thanx, Paul

> Lai.
> 
> > 
> > In any case, I must agree that you are doing a good job of learning to
> > be paranoid!
> > 
> > The only change I suggest is to rewrite the comments as shown below.
> > 
> > With that update, this change should be applied.
> > 
> > Reviewed-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > 
> >> Signed-off-by: Lai Jiangshan <laijs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> ---
> >> diff --git a/kernel/rcupdate.c b/kernel/rcupdate.c
> >> index 467d594..a667e21 100644
> >> --- a/kernel/rcupdate.c
> >> +++ b/kernel/rcupdate.c
> >> @@ -119,18 +119,23 @@ static void _rcu_barrier(enum rcu_barrier type)
> >>  	/* Take cpucontrol mutex to protect against CPU hotplug */
> >>  	mutex_lock(&rcu_barrier_mutex);
> >>  	init_completion(&rcu_barrier_completion);
> >> -	atomic_set(&rcu_barrier_cpu_count, 0);
> >>  	/*
> >> -	 * The queueing of callbacks in all CPUs must be atomic with
> >> -	 * respect to RCU, otherwise one CPU may queue a callback,
> >> -	 * wait for a grace period, decrement barrier count and call
> >> -	 * complete(), while other CPUs have not yet queued anything.
> >> -	 * So, we need to make sure that grace periods cannot complete
> >> -	 * until all the callbacks are queued.
> >> +	 * init and set rcu_barrier_cpu_count to 1, otherwise(set it to 0)
> >> +	 * one CPU may queue a callback, wait for a grace period, decrement
> >> +	 * barrier count and call complete(), while other CPUs have not yet
> >> +	 * queued anything.
> >> +	 * So, we need to make sure that rcu_barrier_cpu_count cannot become
> >> +	 * 0 until all the callbacks are queued.
> > 
> > 	 * Initialize rcu_barrier_cpu_count to 1, then invoke
> > 	 * rcu_barrier_func() on each CPU, so that each CPU also has
> > 	 * incremented rcu_barrier_cpu_count.  Only then is it safe to
> > 	 * decrement rcu_barrier_cpu_count -- otherwise the first CPU
> > 	 * might complete its grace period before all of the other CPUs
> > 	 * did their increment, causing this function to return too
> > 	 * early.
> > 
> >>  	 */
> >> -	rcu_read_lock();
> >> +	atomic_set(&rcu_barrier_cpu_count, 1);
> >> +	/*
> >> +	 * rcu_barrier_cpu_count = 1 must be visible to cpus before
> >> +	 * them call rcu_barrier_func().
> >> +	 */
> >> +	smp_wmb();
> > 
> > 	smp_wmb(); /* atomic_set() must precede all rcu_barrier_func()s. */
> > 
> >>  	on_each_cpu(rcu_barrier_func, (void *)type, 1);
> >> -	rcu_read_unlock();
> >> +	if (atomic_dec_and_test(&rcu_barrier_cpu_count))
> >> +		complete(&rcu_barrier_completion);
> >>  	wait_for_completion(&rcu_barrier_completion);
> >>  	mutex_unlock(&rcu_barrier_mutex);
> >>  }
> >>
> >>
> >>
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> 
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