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Alan Stern 4289ee7d5a tools/memory-model: Improve data-race detection
Herbert Xu recently reported a problem concerning RCU and compiler
barriers.  In the course of discussing the problem, he put forth a
litmus test which illustrated a serious defect in the Linux Kernel
Memory Model's data-race-detection code [1].

The defect was that the LKMM assumed visibility and executes-before
ordering of plain accesses had to be mediated by marked accesses.  In
Herbert's litmus test this wasn't so, and the LKMM claimed the litmus
test was allowed and contained a data race although neither is true.

In fact, plain accesses can be ordered by fences even in the absence
of marked accesses.  In most cases this doesn't matter, because most
fences only order accesses within a single thread.  But the rcu-fence
relation is different; it can order (and induce visibility between)
accesses in different threads -- events which otherwise might be
concurrent.  This makes it relevant to data-race detection.

This patch makes two changes to the memory model to incorporate the
new insight:

	If a store is separated by a fence from another access,
	the store is necessarily visible to the other access (as
	reflected in the ww-vis and wr-vis relations).  Similarly,
	if a load is separated by a fence from another access then
	the load necessarily executes before the other access (as
	reflected in the rw-xbstar relation).

	If a store is separated by a strong fence from a marked access
	then it is necessarily visible to any access that executes
	after the marked access (as reflected in the ww-vis and wr-vis
	relations).

With these changes, the LKMM gives the desired result for Herbert's
litmus test and other related ones [2].

[1]	https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/Pine.LNX.4.44L0.1906041026570.1731-100000@iolanthe.rowland.org/

[2]	https://github.com/paulmckrcu/litmus/blob/master/manual/plain/C-S-rcunoderef-1.litmus
	https://github.com/paulmckrcu/litmus/blob/master/manual/plain/C-S-rcunoderef-2.litmus
	https://github.com/paulmckrcu/litmus/blob/master/manual/plain/C-S-rcunoderef-3.litmus
	https://github.com/paulmckrcu/litmus/blob/master/manual/plain/C-S-rcunoderef-4.litmus
	https://github.com/paulmckrcu/litmus/blob/master/manual/plain/strong-vis.litmus

Reported-by: Herbert Xu <herbert@gondor.apana.org.au>
Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Acked-by: Andrea Parri <andrea.parri@amarulasolutions.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.ibm.com>
Tested-by: Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@gmail.com>
2019-06-24 09:08:54 -07:00
Documentation Documentation: atomic_t.txt: Explain ordering provided by smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic() 2019-06-19 09:31:53 -07:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Rename other to deprecated 2019-05-03 06:34:32 -06:00
arch Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2019-05-19 12:15:32 -07:00
block for-5.2/block-post-20190516 2019-05-16 19:08:15 -07:00
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drivers Kbuild updates for v5.2 (2nd) 2019-05-19 11:53:58 -07:00
fs This pull request contains the following fixes for UBIFS: 2019-05-19 15:22:03 -07:00
include Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2019-05-19 12:15:32 -07:00
init initramfs: don't free a non-existent initrd 2019-05-18 15:52:26 -07:00
ipc ipc: do cyclic id allocation for the ipc object. 2019-05-14 19:52:52 -07:00
kernel Merge branch 'akpm' (patches from Andrew) 2019-05-19 12:15:32 -07:00
lib slab: remove /proc/slab_allocators 2019-05-16 15:51:55 -07:00
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scripts kconfig: use 'else ifneq' for Makefile to improve readability 2019-05-19 09:34:35 +09:00
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sound sound fixes for 5.2-rc1 2019-05-17 13:57:54 -07:00
tools tools/memory-model: Improve data-race detection 2019-06-24 09:08:54 -07:00
usr user/Makefile: Fix typo and capitalization in comment section 2018-12-11 00:18:03 +09:00
virt * ARM: support for SVE and Pointer Authentication in guests, PMU improvements 2019-05-17 10:33:30 -07:00
.clang-format Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net 2019-04-17 11:26:25 -07:00
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COPYING COPYING: use the new text with points to the license files 2018-03-23 12:41:45 -06:00
CREDITS Char/Misc driver patches for 5.1-rc1 2019-03-06 14:18:59 -08:00
Kbuild Kbuild updates for v5.1 2019-03-10 17:48:21 -07:00
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MAINTAINERS Kbuild updates for v5.2 (2nd) 2019-05-19 11:53:58 -07:00
Makefile Linux 5.2-rc1 2019-05-19 15:47:09 -07:00
README Drop all 00-INDEX files from Documentation/ 2018-09-09 15:08:58 -06:00

README

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the Restructured Text markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.