Re: [Xen-devel] new barrier type for paravirt (was Re: [PATCH] virtio_ring: use smp_store_mb)

2015-12-21 Thread David Vrabel
On 20/12/15 09:25, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> 
> I noticed that drivers/xen/xenbus/xenbus_comms.c uses
> full memory barriers to communicate with the other side.
> For example:
> 
> /* Must write data /after/ reading the consumer index.  * */
> mb();
> 
> memcpy(dst, data, avail);
> data += avail;
> len -= avail;
> 
> /* Other side must not see new producer until data is * 
> there. */
> wmb();
> intf->req_prod += avail;
> 
> /* Implies mb(): other side will see the updated producer. */
> notify_remote_via_evtchn(xen_store_evtchn);
> 
> To me, it looks like for guests compiled with CONFIG_SMP, smp_wmb and smp_mb
> would be sufficient, so mb() and wmb() here are only needed if
> a non-SMP guest runs on an SMP host.
> 
> Is my analysis correct?

For x86, yes.

For arm/arm64 I think so, but would prefer one of the Xen arm
maintainers to confirm.  In particular, whether inner-shareable barriers
are sufficient for memory shared with the hypervisor.

> So what I'm suggesting is something like the below patch,
> except instead of using virtio directly, a new set of barriers
> that behaves identically for SMP and non-SMP guests will be introduced.
> 
> And of course the weak barriers flag is not needed for Xen -
> that's a virtio only thing.
> 
> For example:
> 
> smp_pv_wmb()
> smp_pv_rmb()
> smp_pv_mb()

The smp_ prefix doesn't make a lot of sense to me here since these
barriers are going to be the same whether the kernel is SMP or not.

David
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Re: [Xen-devel] new barrier type for paravirt (was Re: [PATCH] virtio_ring: use smp_store_mb)

2015-12-21 Thread Michael S. Tsirkin
On Mon, Dec 21, 2015 at 10:47:49AM +, David Vrabel wrote:
> On 20/12/15 09:25, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > 
> > I noticed that drivers/xen/xenbus/xenbus_comms.c uses
> > full memory barriers to communicate with the other side.
> > For example:
> > 
> > /* Must write data /after/ reading the consumer index.  * */
> > mb();
> > 
> > memcpy(dst, data, avail);
> > data += avail;
> > len -= avail;
> > 
> > /* Other side must not see new producer until data is * 
> > there. */
> > wmb();
> > intf->req_prod += avail;
> > 
> > /* Implies mb(): other side will see the updated producer. 
> > */
> > notify_remote_via_evtchn(xen_store_evtchn);
> > 
> > To me, it looks like for guests compiled with CONFIG_SMP, smp_wmb and smp_mb
> > would be sufficient, so mb() and wmb() here are only needed if
> > a non-SMP guest runs on an SMP host.
> > 
> > Is my analysis correct?
> 
> For x86, yes.
> 
> For arm/arm64 I think so, but would prefer one of the Xen arm
> maintainers to confirm.  In particular, whether inner-shareable barriers
> are sufficient for memory shared with the hypervisor.
> 
> > So what I'm suggesting is something like the below patch,
> > except instead of using virtio directly, a new set of barriers
> > that behaves identically for SMP and non-SMP guests will be introduced.
> > 
> > And of course the weak barriers flag is not needed for Xen -
> > that's a virtio only thing.
> > 
> > For example:
> > 
> > smp_pv_wmb()
> > smp_pv_rmb()
> > smp_pv_mb()
> 
> The smp_ prefix doesn't make a lot of sense to me here since these
> barriers are going to be the same whether the kernel is SMP or not.
> 
> David

Guest kernel - yes. But it's only needed because you
are running on an SMP host.

-- 
MST
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Re: [Qemu-devel] [Xen-devel] new barrier type for paravirt (was Re: [PATCH] virtio_ring: use smp_store_mb)

2015-12-21 Thread Stefano Stabellini
On Mon, 21 Dec 2015, David Vrabel wrote:
> On 20/12/15 09:25, Michael S. Tsirkin wrote:
> > 
> > I noticed that drivers/xen/xenbus/xenbus_comms.c uses
> > full memory barriers to communicate with the other side.
> > For example:
> > 
> > /* Must write data /after/ reading the consumer index.  * */
> > mb();
> > 
> > memcpy(dst, data, avail);
> > data += avail;
> > len -= avail;
> > 
> > /* Other side must not see new producer until data is * 
> > there. */
> > wmb();
> > intf->req_prod += avail;
> > 
> > /* Implies mb(): other side will see the updated producer. 
> > */
> > notify_remote_via_evtchn(xen_store_evtchn);
> > 
> > To me, it looks like for guests compiled with CONFIG_SMP, smp_wmb and smp_mb
> > would be sufficient, so mb() and wmb() here are only needed if
> > a non-SMP guest runs on an SMP host.
> > 
> > Is my analysis correct?
> 
> For x86, yes.
> 
> For arm/arm64 I think so, but would prefer one of the Xen arm
> maintainers to confirm.  In particular, whether inner-shareable barriers
> are sufficient for memory shared with the hypervisor.

inner-shareable barriers are certainly OK. In this case there would be
also a switch from dsb to dmb barriers, which I also think should be OK.

What about all the mb() and wmb() in RING_PUSH_REQUESTS and
RING_PUSH_RESPONSES in include/xen/interface/io/ring.h ?


> > So what I'm suggesting is something like the below patch,
> > except instead of using virtio directly, a new set of barriers
> > that behaves identically for SMP and non-SMP guests will be introduced.
> > 
> > And of course the weak barriers flag is not needed for Xen -
> > that's a virtio only thing.
> > 
> > For example:
> > 
> > smp_pv_wmb()
> > smp_pv_rmb()
> > smp_pv_mb()
> 
> The smp_ prefix doesn't make a lot of sense to me here since these
> barriers are going to be the same whether the kernel is SMP or not.
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