On Thu, 8 Sep 2022 15:51:50 -0700 Dan Williams <dan.j.willi...@intel.com> wrote:
> Jonathan Cameron wrote: > > On Wed, 7 Sep 2022 18:07:31 -0700 > > Dan Williams <dan.j.willi...@intel.com> wrote: > > > > > Andrew Morton wrote: > > > > I really dislike the term "flush". Sometimes it means writeback, > > > > sometimes it means invalidate. Perhaps at other times it means > > > > both. > > > > > > > > Can we please be very clear in comments and changelogs about exactly > > > > what this "flush" does. With bonus points for being more specific in > > > > the > > > > function naming? > > > > > > > > > > That's a good point, "flush" has been cargo-culted along in Linux's > > > cache management APIs to mean write-back-and-invalidate. In this case I > > > think this API is purely about invalidate. It just so happens that x86 > > > has not historically had a global invalidate instruction readily > > > available which leads to the overuse of wbinvd. > > > > > > It would be nice to make clear that this API is purely about > > > invalidating any data cached for a physical address impacted by address > > > space management event (secure erase / new region provision). Write-back > > > is an unnecessary side-effect. > > > > > > So how about: > > > > > > s/arch_flush_memregion/cpu_cache_invalidate_memregion/? > > > > Want to indicate it 'might' write back perhaps? > > So could be invalidate or clean and invalidate (using arm ARM terms just to > > add > > to the confusion ;) > > > > Feels like there will be potential race conditions where that matters as we > > might > > force stale data to be written back. > > > > Perhaps a comment is enough for that. Anyone have the "famous last words" > > feeling? > > Is "invalidate" not clear that write-back is optional? Maybe not. Yes, I'd say that "invalidate" means "dirty stuff may of may not have been written back". Ditto for invalidate_inode_pages2(). > Also, I realized that we tried to include the address range to allow for > the possibility of flushing by virtual address range, but that > overcomplicates the use. I.e. if someone issue secure erase and the > region association is not established does that mean that mean that the > cache invalidation is not needed? It could be the case that someone > disables a device, does the secure erase, and then reattaches to the > same region. The cache invalidation is needed, but at the time of the > secure erase the HPA was unknown. > > All this to say that I feel the bikeshedding will need to continue until > morale improves. > > I notice that the DMA API uses 'sync' to indicate, "make this memory > consistent/coherent for the CPU or the device", so how about an API like > > memregion_sync_for_cpu(int res_desc) > > ...where the @res_desc would be IORES_DESC_CXL for all CXL and > IORES_DESC_PERSISTENT_MEMORY for the current nvdimm use case. "sync" is another of my pet peeves ;) In filesystem land, at least. Does it mean "start writeback and return" or does it mean "start writeback, wait for its completion then return".