Re: [PATCH v4 00/10] Add Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer (KCSAN)

["Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>]

On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 01:02:08PM +0100, Marco Elver wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Nov 2019 at 23:16, Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 10:33:03PM +0100, Marco Elver wrote:
> > > On Thu, 14 Nov 2019, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Thu, Nov 14, 2019 at 07:02:53PM +0100, Marco Elver wrote:
> > > > > This is the patch-series for the Kernel Concurrency Sanitizer (KCSAN).
> > > > > KCSAN is a sampling watchpoint-based *data race detector*. More details
> > > > > are included in **Documentation/dev-tools/kcsan.rst**. This patch-series
> > > > > only enables KCSAN for x86, but we expect adding support for other
> > > > > architectures is relatively straightforward (we are aware of
> > > > > experimental ARM64 and POWER support).
> > > > >
> > > > > To gather early feedback, we announced KCSAN back in September, and have
> > > > > integrated the feedback where possible:
> > > > > http://lkml.kernel.org/r/CANpmjNPJ_bHjfLZCAPV23AXFfiPiyXXqqu72n6TgWzb2Gnu1eA@mail.gmail.com
> > > > >
> > > > > The current list of known upstream fixes for data races found by KCSAN
> > > > > can be found here:
> > > > > https://github.com/google/ktsan/wiki/KCSAN#upstream-fixes-of-data-races-found-by-kcsan
> > > > >
> > > > > We want to point out and acknowledge the work surrounding the LKMM,
> > > > > including several articles that motivate why data races are dangerous
> > > > > [1, 2], justifying a data race detector such as KCSAN.
> > > > >
> > > > > [1] https://lwn.net/Articles/793253/
> > > > > [2] https://lwn.net/Articles/799218/
> > > >
> > > > I queued this and ran a quick rcutorture on it, which completed
> > > > successfully with quite a few reports.
> > >
> > > Great. Many thanks for queuing this in -rcu. And regarding merge window
> > > you mentioned, we're fine with your assumption to targeting the next
> > > (v5.6) merge window.
> > >
> > > I've just had a look at linux-next to check what a future rebase
> > > requires:
> > >
> > > - There is a change in lib/Kconfig.debug and moving KCSAN to the
> > >   "Generic Kernel Debugging Instruments" section seems appropriate.
> > > - bitops-instrumented.h was removed and split into 3 files, and needs
> > >   re-inserting the instrumentation into the right places.
> > >
> > > Otherwise there are no issues. Let me know what you recommend.
> >
> > Sounds good!
> >
> > I will be rebasing onto v5.5-rc1 shortly after it comes out.  My usual
> > approach is to fix any conflicts during that rebasing operation.
> > Does that make sense, or would you prefer to send me a rebased stack at
> > that point?  Either way is fine for me.
> 
> That's fine with me, thanks!  To avoid too much additional churn on
> your end, I just replied to the bitops patch with a version that will
> apply with the change to bitops-instrumented infrastructure.

My first thought was to replace 8/10 of the previous version of your
patch in -rcu (047ca266cfab "asm-generic, kcsan: Add KCSAN instrumentation
for bitops"), but this does not apply.  So I am guessing that I instead
do this substitution when a rebase onto -rc1..

Except...

> Also considering the merge window, we had a discussion and there are
> some arguments for targeting the v5.5 merge window:
> - we'd unblock ARM and POWER ports;
> - we'd unblock people wanting to use the data_race macro;
> - we'd unblock syzbot just tracking upstream;
> Unless there are strong reasons to not target v5.5, I leave it to you
> if you think it's appropriate.

My normal process is to send the pull request shortly after -rc5 comes
out, but you do call out some benefits of getting it in sooner, so...

What I will do is to rebase your series onto (say) -rc7, test it, and
see about an RFC pull request.

One possible complication is the new 8/10 patch.  But maybe it will
apply against -rc7?

Another possible complication is this:

scripts/kconfig/conf  --syncconfig Kconfig
*
* Restart config...
*
*
* KCSAN: watchpoint-based dynamic data race detector
*
KCSAN: watchpoint-based dynamic data race detector (KCSAN) [N/y/?] (NEW)

Might be OK in this case because it is quite obvious what it is doing.
(Avoiding pain from this is the reason that CONFIG_RCU_EXPERT exists.)

But I will just mention this in the pull request.

If there is a -rc8, there is of course a higher probability of making it
into the next merge window.

Fair enough?

							Thanx, Paul