Re: [PATCH] x86: Add an explicit barrier() to clflushopt()

From: Chris Wilson
Date: Thu Jan 07 2016 - 05:18:50 EST


On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 10:58:55AM +0100, Chris Wilson wrote:
> During testing we observed that the last cacheline was not being flushed
> from a
>
> mb()
> for (addr = addr & -clflush_size; addr < end; addr += clflush_size)
> clflushopt();
> mb()
>
> loop (where the initial addr and end were not cacheline aligned).
>
> Changing the loop from addr < end to addr <= end, or replacing the
> clflushopt() with clflush() both fixed the testcase. Hinting that GCC
> was miscompling the assembly within the loop and specifically the
> alternative within clflushopt() was confusing the loop optimizer.
>
> Adding a barrier() into clflushopt() is enough for GCC to dtrt, but
> solving why GCC is not seeing the constraints from the alternative_io()
> would be smarter...
>
> Bugzilla: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=92501
> Testcase: gem_tiled_partial_pwrite_pread/read
> Signed-off-by: Chris Wilson <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Ross Zwisler <ross.zwisler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Imre Deak <imre.deak@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Daniel Vetter <daniel.vetter@xxxxxxxx>
> Cc: dri-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ---
> arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h | 5 +++++
> 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h
> index 2270e41b32fd..0c7aedbf8930 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/special_insns.h
> @@ -199,6 +199,11 @@ static inline void clflushopt(volatile void *__p)
> ".byte 0x66; clflush %P0",
> X86_FEATURE_CLFLUSHOPT,
> "+m" (*(volatile char __force *)__p));
> + /* GCC (4.9.1 and 5.2.1 at least) appears to be very confused when
> + * meeting this alternative() and demonstrably miscompiles loops
> + * iterating over clflushopts.
> + */
> + barrier();
> }

Or an alternative:

+#define alternative_output(oldinstr, newinstr, feature, output) \
+ asm volatile (ALTERNATIVE(oldinstr, newinstr, feature) \
+ : output : "i" (0) : "memory")

I would really appreciate some knowledgeable folks taking a look at the
asm for clflushopt() as it still affects today's kernel and gcc.

Fwiw, I have confirmed that arch/x86/mm/pageattr.c clflush_cache_range()
is similarly affected.
-Chris

--
Chris Wilson, Intel Open Source Technology Centre
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