Re: [RFC patch] cmpxchg_double: remove local variables to get betterperformance

From: Alex Shi
Date: Fri Mar 02 2012 - 10:12:57 EST


On 03/02/2012 05:11 PM, Jan Beulich wrote:

>>>> On 02.03.12 at 10:00, Alex Shi <alex.shi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> Yes, we can use cast for intermediate data. And actually, current kernel
>> has live mis-used case on cmpxchg(), that I plan to point out too.
>>
>> -- a/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
>> +++ b/virt/kvm/kvm_main.c
>> @@ -203,12 +203,12 @@ static bool make_all_cpus_request(struct kvm *kvm,
>> unsigned int req)
>>
>> void kvm_flush_remote_tlbs(struct kvm *kvm)
>> {
>> - int dirty_count = kvm->tlbs_dirty;
>> + long dirty_count = kvm->tlbs_dirty;
>>
>> smp_mb();
>> if (make_all_cpus_request(kvm, KVM_REQ_TLB_FLUSH))
>> ++kvm->stat.remote_tlb_flush;
>> - cmpxchg(&kvm->tlbs_dirty, dirty_count, 0);
>> + cmpxchg(&kvm->tlbs_dirty, dirty_count, 0L);
>
> Indeed - the cmpxchg would fail if the value doesn't fit. But this is not
> to say that in certain cases it isn't valid to pass an int for the second
> and/or third argument. (And quite likely the issue here is theoretical
> only anyway.)


It may cause potential issue, if it is tlbs_dirty mis-used here, not
dirty_count. If so, it may cause data damage.

>
> In particular, requiring an L suffix here on literals should be avoided.


Even the each macro may save 0x40 bytes text, and bring more 10%
execution speed?

>
> Jan
>
>> }
>
>


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