Re: [PATCH] locking/lockdep: Use sched_clock() for random numbers.

From: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior
Date: Tue May 17 2022 - 08:08:22 EST


On 2022-05-17 11:59:19 [+0200], Jason A. Donenfeld wrote:
> On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 11:53:43AM +0200, Jason A. Donenfeld wrote:
> > Hi Sebastian,

Hi Jason,

> > Interesting RT consideration. I hope there aren't too many of these
> > special cases that would necessitate a general mechanism. Fingers
> > crossed this is the only one.

lockdep is special here. Haven't seen other explosions so far ;)

> > On Tue, May 17, 2022 at 11:16:14AM +0200, Sebastian Andrzej Siewior wrote:
> > > - cookie.val = 1 + (prandom_u32() >> 16);
> > > + cookie.val = 1 + (sched_clock() & 0xffff);
> > > hlock->pin_count += cookie.val;
> >
> > I have no idea what the requirements here are. What would happen if you
> > just did atomic_inc_return(&some_global) instead? That'd be faster
> > anyhow, and it's not like 16 bits gives you much variance anyway...

it might work I guess. PeterZ? Would this_cpu_inc_return() work?

> Also, what is that `1 +` doing there? If the intention is to make sure
> this is non-zero, you might want the mask to be 0xfffe? Or you're
> counting on the assigned type being a u32 so it all overflows into the
> next zone the way you want it? Kinda weird.

hmm. It used to be 1 before prandom_u32() was introduced and the point
is probably to have a cookie != 0. val and pin_count are both unsigned
int/ 32bit so that overflow doesn't matter.

> Jason

Sebastian