Re: [PATCH v3 1/3] x86/fpu: Make XCR0 accessors immune to unwanted compiler reordering

[Dave Hansen]

On 4/1/22 10:58, Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 3/24/22 19:22, Chang S. Bae wrote:
>> Some old GCC versions (4.9.x and 5.x) have an issue that incorrectly
>> reordering volatile asm statements with each other [1]. While this bug was
>> fixed on later versions (8.1, 7.3, and 6.5), and the kernel's current XCR0
>> read/write do not appear to be impacted, it is preventive to ensure them on
>> the program order.
> I thought you *actually* saw xgetbv() be reordered, though.  Was that on
> a buggy compiler?

Actually, reading the gcc bug[1] a bit more, it says:

> However, correctness here depends on the compiler honouring the
> ordering of volatile asm statements with respect to other volatile
> code, and this patch fixes that.
In your case, there was presumably no volatile code, just a
fpu_state_size_dynamic() call.  The compiler thought the xgetbv() was
safe to reorder, and did so.

So, I'm not quite sure how that bug is relevant.  It just dealt with
multiple "asm volatile" statements that don't have memory clobbers.  We
only have one "asm volatile" in play.  Adding the memory clobber should
make that bug totally irrelevant.

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=82602