Re: LKMM litmus test for Roman Penyaev's rcu-rr

From: Paul E. McKenney
Date: Tue May 29 2018 - 15:02:03 EST


On Tue, May 29, 2018 at 02:35:34PM -0400, Alan Stern wrote:
> On Mon, 28 May 2018, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
>
> > Hello!
> >
> > The litmus test below is a first attempt to model Roman's rcu-rr
> > round-robin RCU-protected linked list. His test code, which includes
> > the algorithm under test, may be found here:
> >
> > https://github.com/rouming/rcu-rr/blob/master/rcu-rr.c
> >
> > The P0() process below roughly corresponds to remove_conn_from_arr(),
> > with litmus-test variable "c" standing in for the per-CPU ppcpu_con.
> > Similarly, P1() roughly corresponds to get_next_conn_rr(). It claims
> > that the algorithm is safe, and also claims that it becomes unsafe if
> > either synchronize_rcu() is removed.
>
> This algorithm (the one in the litmus test; I haven't looked at Roman's
> code) does seem valid. In addition to removing either
> synchronize_rcu(), interchanging the order of the stores in P0 (c
> first, then w) would also invalidate it.
>
> This is a little unusual in that c is written by more than one thread
> with no protection. It works because the writes are all stores of a
> single pointer.
>
> Why does the litmus test use smp_store_release() in three places?
> There doesn't seem to be any need; WRITE_ONCE() would be sufficient.

Because the algorithm did. A bit of a stretch for kfree, but... ;-)

Let's try removing them, please see below.

> Alan
>
> > Does this in fact realistically model Roman's algorithm? Either way,
> > is there a better approach?
> >
> > Thanx, Paul
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > C C-RomanPenyaev-list-rcu-rr
> >
> > {
> > int *z=1; (* List: v->w->x->y->z. Noncircular, but long enough. *)
> > int *y=z;
> > int *x=y;
> > int *w=x;
> > int *v=w; (* List head is v. *)
> > int *c=w; (* Cache, emulating ppcpu_con. *)
> > }
> >
> > P0(int *c, int *v, int *w, int *x, int *y)
> > {
> > rcu_assign_pointer(*w, y); /* Remove x from list. */

No change when converting this to WRITE_ONCE();

> > synchronize_rcu();
> > r1 = READ_ONCE(*c);
> > if (r1 == x) {
> > WRITE_ONCE(*c, 0); /* Invalidate cache. */
> > synchronize_rcu();
> > }
> > smp_store_release(x, 0); /* Emulate kfree(x). */

Converting this one to WRITE_ONCE() does have an effect:

Test C-RomanPenyaev-list-rcu-rr Allowed
States 8
0:r1=0; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=x; 1:r3=x; 1:r4=0; c=0; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=w; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=y; 1:r3=y; 1:r4=z; c=z; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=x; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=x; 1:r3=w; 1:r4=y; c=y; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=x; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=x; 1:r3=x; 1:r4=y; c=0; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=x; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=x; 1:r3=x; 1:r4=y; c=y; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=y; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=x; 1:r3=x; 1:r4=y; c=y; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=y; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=y; 1:r3=y; 1:r4=z; c=z; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
0:r1=z; 1:r1=w; 1:r2=y; 1:r3=y; 1:r4=z; c=z; v=w; w=y; x=0; y=z;
Ok
Witnesses
Positive: 1 Negative: 7
Condition exists (1:r1=0 \/ 1:r2=0 \/ 1:r3=0 \/ 1:r4=0)
Observation C-RomanPenyaev-list-rcu-rr Sometimes 1 7
Time C-RomanPenyaev-list-rcu-rr 0.40
Hash=2ec66290a6622117b9877436950e6a08

Maybe reordered with READ_ONCE(*c) when r1 != x?

> > }
> >
> > P1(int *c, int *v)
> > {
> > rcu_read_lock();
> > r1 = READ_ONCE(*c); /* Pick up cache. */
> > if (r1 == 0) {
> > r1 = READ_ONCE(*v); /* Cache empty, start from head. */
> > }
> > r2 = rcu_dereference(*r1); /* Advance to next element. */
> > smp_store_release(c, r2); /* Update cache. */
> > rcu_read_unlock();
> >
> > /* And repeat. */
> > rcu_read_lock();
> > r3 = READ_ONCE(*c);
> > if (r3 == 0) {
> > r3 = READ_ONCE(*v);
> > }
> > r4 = rcu_dereference(*r3);
> > smp_store_release(c, r4);

Converting this to WRITE_ONCE() has no effect.

> > rcu_read_unlock();
> > }
> >
> > locations [0:r1; 1:r1; 1:r3; c; v; w; x; y]
> > exists (1:r1=0 \/ 1:r2=0 \/ 1:r3=0 \/ 1:r4=0) (* Better not be freed!!! *)
>

Thanx, Paul