Refer to ptr_eq() in the rcu_dereference() documentation.
ptr_eq() is a mechanism that preserves address dependencies when
comparing pointers, and should be favored when comparing a pointer
obtained from rcu_dereference() against another pointer.
Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoy...@efficios.com>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gre...@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bige...@linutronix.de>
Cc: "Paul E. McKenney" <paul...@kernel.org>
Cc: Will Deacon <w...@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <pet...@infradead.org>
Cc: Boqun Feng <boqun.f...@gmail.com>
Cc: Alan Stern <st...@rowland.harvard.edu>
Cc: John Stultz <jstu...@google.com>
Cc: Neeraj Upadhyay <neeraj.upadh...@amd.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torva...@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Boqun Feng <boqun.f...@gmail.com>
Cc: Frederic Weisbecker <frede...@kernel.org>
Cc: Joel Fernandes <j...@joelfernandes.org>
Cc: Josh Triplett <j...@joshtriplett.org>
Cc: Uladzislau Rezki <ure...@gmail.com>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rost...@goodmis.org>
Cc: Lai Jiangshan <jiangshan...@gmail.com>
Cc: Zqiang <qiang.zhang1...@gmail.com>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mi...@redhat.com>
Cc: Waiman Long <long...@redhat.com>
Cc: Mark Rutland <mark.rutl...@arm.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <t...@linutronix.de>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vba...@suse.cz>
Cc: maged.mich...@gmail.com
Cc: Mateusz Guzik <mjgu...@gmail.com>
Cc: Gary Guo <g...@garyguo.net>
Cc: Jonas Oberhauser <jonas.oberhau...@huaweicloud.com>
Cc: r...@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux...@kvack.org
Cc: l...@lists.linux.dev
Cc: Nikita Popov <git...@npopov.com>
Cc: l...@lists.linux.dev
---
Changes since v0:
- Include feedback from Alan Stern.
---
Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst
b/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst
index 2524dcdadde2..9ef97b7ca74d 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst
@@ -104,11 +104,12 @@ readers working properly:
after such branches, but can speculate loads, which can again
result in misordering bugs.
-- Be very careful about comparing pointers obtained from
- rcu_dereference() against non-NULL values. As Linus Torvalds
- explained, if the two pointers are equal, the compiler could
- substitute the pointer you are comparing against for the pointer
- obtained from rcu_dereference(). For example::
+- Use operations that preserve address dependencies (such as
+ "ptr_eq()") to compare pointers obtained from rcu_dereference()
+ against non-NULL pointers. As Linus Torvalds explained, if the
+ two pointers are equal, the compiler could substitute the
+ pointer you are comparing against for the pointer obtained from
+ rcu_dereference(). For example::
p = rcu_dereference(gp);
if (p == &default_struct)
@@ -125,6 +126,23 @@ readers working properly:
On ARM and Power hardware, the load from "default_struct.a"
can now be speculated, such that it might happen before the
rcu_dereference(). This could result in bugs due to misordering.
+ Performing the comparison with "ptr_eq()" ensures the compiler
+ does not perform such transformation.
+
+ If the comparison is against another pointer, the compiler is
+ allowed to use either pointer for the following accesses, which
+ loses the address dependency and allows weakly-ordered
+ architectures such as ARM and PowerPC to speculate the
+ address-dependent load before rcu_dereference(). For example::
+
+ p1 = READ_ONCE(gp);
+ p2 = rcu_dereference(gp);
+ if (p1 == p2)
+ do_default(p2->a);
+
+ The compiler can use p1->a rather than p2->a, destroying the
+ address dependency. Performing the comparison with "ptr_eq()"
+ ensures the compiler preserves the address dependencies.
However, comparisons are OK in the following cases:
@@ -204,6 +222,10 @@ readers working properly:
comparison will provide exactly the information that the
compiler needs to deduce the value of the pointer.
+ When in doubt, use operations that preserve address dependencies
+ (such as "ptr_eq()") to compare pointers obtained from
+ rcu_dereference() against non-NULL pointers.
+
- Disable any value-speculation optimizations that your compiler
might provide, especially if you are making use of feedback-based
optimizations that take data collected from prior runs. Such
--
2.39.2
