doc: Update memory-barriers.txt for read-to-write dependencies
The memory-barriers.txt document contains an obsolete passage stating that smp_read_barrier_depends() is required to force ordering for read-to-write dependencies. We now know that this is not required, even for DEC Alpha. This commit therefore updates this passage to state that read-to-write dependencies are respected even without smp_read_barrier_depends(). Reported-by: Lance Roy <ldr709@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Cc: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net> Cc: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu> Cc: Andrea Parri <parri.andrea@gmail.com> Cc: Jade Alglave <j.alglave@ucl.ac.uk> Cc: Luc Maranget <luc.maranget@inria.fr> [ paulmck: Reference control-dependencies sections and use WRITE_ONCE() per Will Deacon. Correctly place split-cache paragraph while there. ] Acked-by: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
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@ -594,29 +594,6 @@ between the address load and the data load:
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This enforces the occurrence of one of the two implications, and prevents the
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third possibility from arising.
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A data-dependency barrier must also order against dependent writes:
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CPU 1 CPU 2
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=============== ===============
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{ A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
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B = 4;
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<write barrier>
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WRITE_ONCE(P, &B);
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Q = READ_ONCE(P);
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<data dependency barrier>
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*Q = 5;
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The data-dependency barrier must order the read into Q with the store
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into *Q. This prohibits this outcome:
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(Q == &B) && (B == 4)
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Please note that this pattern should be rare. After all, the whole point
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of dependency ordering is to -prevent- writes to the data structure, along
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with the expensive cache misses associated with those writes. This pattern
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can be used to record rare error conditions and the like, and the ordering
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prevents such records from being lost.
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[!] Note that this extremely counterintuitive situation arises most easily on
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machines with split caches, so that, for example, one cache bank processes
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@ -628,6 +605,36 @@ odd-numbered bank is idle, one can see the new value of the pointer P (&B),
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but the old value of the variable B (2).
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A data-dependency barrier is not required to order dependent writes
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because the CPUs that the Linux kernel supports don't do writes
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until they are certain (1) that the write will actually happen, (2)
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of the location of the write, and (3) of the value to be written.
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But please carefully read the "CONTROL DEPENDENCIES" section and the
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Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.txt file: The compiler can and does
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break dependencies in a great many highly creative ways.
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CPU 1 CPU 2
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=============== ===============
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{ A == 1, B == 2, C = 3, P == &A, Q == &C }
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B = 4;
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<write barrier>
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WRITE_ONCE(P, &B);
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Q = READ_ONCE(P);
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WRITE_ONCE(*Q, 5);
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Therefore, no data-dependency barrier is required to order the read into
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Q with the store into *Q. In other words, this outcome is prohibited,
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even without a data-dependency barrier:
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(Q == &B) && (B == 4)
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Please note that this pattern should be rare. After all, the whole point
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of dependency ordering is to -prevent- writes to the data structure, along
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with the expensive cache misses associated with those writes. This pattern
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can be used to record rare error conditions and the like, and the CPUs'
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naturally occurring ordering prevents such records from being lost.
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The data dependency barrier is very important to the RCU system,
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for example. See rcu_assign_pointer() and rcu_dereference() in
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include/linux/rcupdate.h. This permits the current target of an RCU'd
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