Re: [PATCH] generic dynamic per cpu refcounting

From: Oleg Nesterov
Date: Fri Jan 25 2013 - 14:12:16 EST


On 01/25, Oleg Nesterov wrote:
>
> > +int percpu_ref_kill(struct percpu_ref *ref)
> > +{
> > ...
> > + if (status == PCPU_REF_PTR) {
> > + unsigned count = 0, cpu;
> > +
> > + synchronize_rcu();
> > +
> > + for_each_possible_cpu(cpu)
> > + count += *per_cpu_ptr((unsigned __percpu *) pcpu_count, cpu);
> > +
> > + pr_debug("global %lli pcpu %i",
> > + atomic64_read(&ref->count) & PCPU_COUNT_MASK,
> > + (int) count);
> > +
> > + atomic64_add((int) count, &ref->count);
> > + smp_wmb();
> > + /* Between setting global count and setting PCPU_REF_DEAD */
> > + ref->pcpu_count = PCPU_REF_DEAD;
>
> The coment explains what the code does, but not why ;)
>
> I guess this is for percpu_ref_put(), and this wmb() pairs with implicit
> mb() implied by atomic64_dec_return().

Hmm. Most probably I missed something, but it seems we need another
synchronize_rcu() _after_ we set PCPU_REF_DEAD.

To simplify, suppose that percpu_ref_put() is never called directly but
we have

void put_and_dsetroy(...)
{
if (percpu_ref_put(...))
destroy(...);
}

Suppose that ref->count == 2 after atomic64_add() above. IOW, we have
a "master" reference for _kill() and someone else did _get.

So the caller does

percpu_ref_kill();
put_and_dsetroy();

And this can race with another holder which drops the last reference,
its put_and_dsetroy() can see PCPU_REF_DYING and return false.

Or I misunderstood the code/interface?

Oleg.

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