On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 12:06 PM, Paul E. McKenney <paul...@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote: > IPIin only those CPUs running threads in the same process as the > thread invoking membarrier() would be very nice! There is some LKML > discussion on this topic, which is currently circling around making this > determination reliable on all CPU families. ARM and x86 are thought > to be OK, PowerPC is thought to require a smallish patch, MIPS is > a big question mark, and so on. >
I'm not sure what you mean by the determination or how this is arch specific? > But I am surprised when you say that the downgrade would not work, at > least if you are not running with nohz_full CPUs. The rcu_sched_qs() > function simply sets a per-CPU quiescent-state flag. The needed strong > ordering is instead supplied by the combination of the code starting > the grace period, reporting the setting of the quiescent-state flag > to core RCU, and the code completing the grace period. Each non-idle > CPU will execute full memory barriers either in RCU_SOFTIRQ context, > on entry to idle, on exit from idle, or within the grace-period kthread. > In particular, a CPU running the same usermode thread for the entire > grace period will execute the needed memory barriers in RCU_SOFTIRQ > context shortly after taking a scheduling-clock interrupt. > Recall that I need more than just a memory barrier--also to interrupt RSEQ critical sections in progress on those CPUs. I know this isn't general purpose, I'm just saying a trivial downgrade wouldn't work for me. :) It would probably be sufficient to set NOTIFY_RESUME on all cpus running my code (which is what my IPI function does anyway...)