tools: memory-model: Document that the LKMM can easily miss control dependencies
Add a small section to the litmus-tests.txt documentation file for the Linux Kernel Memory Model explaining that the memory model often fails to recognize certain control dependencies. Suggested-by: Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu> Reviewed-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) <joel@joelfernandes.org> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
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@ -946,6 +946,23 @@ Limitations of the Linux-kernel memory model (LKMM) include:
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carrying a dependency, then the compiler can break that dependency
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by substituting a constant of that value.
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Conversely, LKMM sometimes doesn't recognize that a particular
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optimization is not allowed, and as a result, thinks that a
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dependency is not present (because the optimization would break it).
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The memory model misses some pretty obvious control dependencies
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because of this limitation. A simple example is:
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r1 = READ_ONCE(x);
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if (r1 == 0)
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smp_mb();
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WRITE_ONCE(y, 1);
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There is a control dependency from the READ_ONCE to the WRITE_ONCE,
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even when r1 is nonzero, but LKMM doesn't realize this and thinks
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that the write may execute before the read if r1 != 0. (Yes, that
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doesn't make sense if you think about it, but the memory model's
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intelligence is limited.)
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2. Multiple access sizes for a single variable are not supported,
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and neither are misaligned or partially overlapping accesses.
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