From: Joel Fernandes <joel@joelfernandes.org>
To: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Cc: Shuah Khan <skhan@linuxfoundation.org>,
corbet@lwn.net, gregkh@linuxfoundation.org, shuah@kernel.org,
rafael@kernel.org, johannes@sipsolutions.net, lenb@kernel.org,
james.morse@arm.com, tony.luck@intel.com, bp@alien8.de,
arve@android.com, tkjos@android.com, maco@android.com,
christian@brauner.io, hridya@google.com, surenb@google.com,
minyard@acm.org, arnd@arndb.de, mchehab@kernel.org,
rric@kernel.org, linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kselftest@vger.kernel.org,
linux-acpi@vger.kernel.org, devel@driverdev.osuosl.org,
openipmi-developer@lists.sourceforge.net,
linux-edac@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 00/11] Introduce Simple atomic and non-atomic counters
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 2020 17:17:09 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20200928211709.GA2641213@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <202009281331.444F36A7B@keescook>
On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 01:34:31PM -0700, Kees Cook wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 27, 2020 at 07:35:26PM -0400, Joel Fernandes wrote:
> > On Fri, Sep 25, 2020 at 05:47:14PM -0600, Shuah Khan wrote:
> > > This patch series is a result of discussion at the refcount_t BOF
> > > the Linux Plumbers Conference. In this discussion, we identified
> > > a need for looking closely and investigating atomic_t usages in
> > > the kernel when it is used strictly as a counter without it
> > > controlling object lifetimes and state changes.
> > >
> > > There are a number of atomic_t usages in the kernel where atomic_t api
> > > is used strictly for counting and not for managing object lifetime. In
> > > some cases, atomic_t might not even be needed.
> > >
> > > The purpose of these counters is twofold: 1. clearly differentiate
> > > atomic_t counters from atomic_t usages that guard object lifetimes,
> > > hence prone to overflow and underflow errors. It allows tools that scan
> > > for underflow and overflow on atomic_t usages to detect overflow and
> > > underflows to scan just the cases that are prone to errors. 2. provides
> > > non-atomic counters for cases where atomic isn't necessary.
> >
> > Nice series :)
> >
> > It appears there is no user of counter_simple in this series other than the
> > selftest. Would you be planning to add any conversions in the series itself,
> > for illustration of use? Sorry if I missed a usage.
> >
> > Also how do we guard against atomicity of counter_simple RMW operations? Is
> > the implication that it should be guarded using other synchronization to
> > prevent lost-update problem?
> >
> > Some more comments:
> >
> > 1. atomic RMW operations that have a return value are fully ordered. Would
> > you be adding support to counter_simple for such ordering as well, for
> > consistency?
>
> No -- there is no atomicity guarantee for counter_simple. I would prefer
> counter_simple not exist at all, specifically for this reason.
Yeah I am ok with it not existing, especially also as there are no examples
of its conversion/usage in the series.
> > 2. I felt counter_atomic and counter_atomic64 would be nice equivalents to
> > the atomic and atomic64 naming currently used (i.e. dropping the '32').
> > However that is just my opinion and I am ok with either naming.
>
> I had asked that they be size-named to avoid any confusion (i.e. we're
> making a new API).
Works for me.
Cheers,
- Joel
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2020-09-28 21:17 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2020-09-25 23:47 [PATCH 00/11] Introduce Simple atomic and non-atomic counters Shuah Khan
2020-09-25 23:47 ` [PATCH 11/11] drivers/edac: convert pci counters to counter_atomic32 Shuah Khan
2020-09-28 12:05 ` Borislav Petkov
2020-09-25 23:52 ` [PATCH 00/11] Introduce Simple atomic and non-atomic counters Kees Cook
2020-09-26 0:13 ` Shuah Khan
2020-09-26 16:33 ` Kees Cook
2020-09-28 22:52 ` Shuah Khan
2020-09-26 16:22 ` Kees Cook
2020-09-28 22:42 ` Shuah Khan
2020-09-26 16:29 ` Kees Cook
2020-09-28 22:41 ` Shuah Khan
2020-09-28 23:13 ` Kees Cook
2020-10-06 15:21 ` Shuah Khan
2020-09-27 23:35 ` Joel Fernandes
2020-09-28 20:34 ` Kees Cook
2020-09-28 21:17 ` Joel Fernandes [this message]
2020-09-28 23:01 ` Shuah Khan
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