On Wed, 2019-06-12 at 10:32 +0100, Jan Beulich wrote:
> > > > On 12.06.19 at 10:19, <jgross@suse.com> wrote:
> > On 12.06.19 10:05, Andrew Cooper wrote:
> > > On 28/05/2019 11:32, Juergen Gross wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > +    per_cpu(scheduler, cpu) = new_ops;
> > > > +    sd->sched_priv = ppriv;
> > > > +
> > > > +    /*
> > > > +     * (Re?)route the lock to the per pCPU lock as /last/
> > > > thing. In fact,
> > > > +     * if it is free (and it can be) we want that anyone that
> > > > manages
> > > > +     * taking it, finds all the initializations we've done
> > > > above in place.
> > > > +     */
> > > > +    smp_mb();
> > > 
> > > A full memory barrier is a massive overhead for what should be
> > > smp_wmb().  The matching barrier is actually hidden in the
> > > implicit
> > > semantics of managing to lock sd->schedule_lock (which is trial
> > > an error
> > > anyway), but the only thing that matters here is that all other
> > > written
> > > data is in place first.
> > > 
> > Not that it would really matter for performance (switching cpus
> > between
> > cpupools is a _very_ rare operation), I'm fine transforming the
> > barrier
> > into smp_wmb().
> 
> This again is a change easy enough to make while committing. I'm
> recording the above in case I end up being the committer.
> 
I'm fine (i.e., my Rev-by: remains valid) with this being turned into a
wmb(), and it being done upon commit (thanks Jan for the offer to do
that!).

If we do it, however, I think the comment needs to be adjusted too, and
the commit message needs to briefly mention this new change we're
doing.

Maybe, for the comment, add something like:

"The smp_wmb() corresponds to the barrier implicit in successfully
taking the lock."

And, for the changelog, add:

"While there, turn the full barrier, which was overkill, into an
smp_wmb(), matching with the one implicit in managing to take the
lock."

Or something similar (and again, R-b: still stands with such changes).

Regards
-- 
Dario Faggioli, Ph.D
http://about.me/dario.faggioli
Virtualization Software Engineer
SUSE Labs, SUSE https://www.suse.com/
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