From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-9.8 required=3.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, INCLUDES_PATCH,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SIGNED_OFF_BY,SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS, URIBL_BLOCKED,USER_AGENT_GIT autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C4A4DC19759 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 22:22:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92C9B2080C for ; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 22:22:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S2389499AbfHAWVL (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Aug 2019 18:21:11 -0400 Received: from mx0a-001b2d01.pphosted.com ([148.163.156.1]:3000 "EHLO mx0a-001b2d01.pphosted.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S2389467AbfHAWVH (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 Aug 2019 18:21:07 -0400 Received: from pps.filterd (m0098393.ppops.net [127.0.0.1]) by mx0a-001b2d01.pphosted.com (8.16.0.27/8.16.0.27) with SMTP id x71MGuRk102317 for ; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 18:21:06 -0400 Received: from e11.ny.us.ibm.com (e11.ny.us.ibm.com [129.33.205.201]) by mx0a-001b2d01.pphosted.com with ESMTP id 2u48hagh1d-1 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Thu, 01 Aug 2019 18:21:06 -0400 Received: from localhost by e11.ny.us.ibm.com with IBM ESMTP SMTP Gateway: Authorized Use Only! Violators will be prosecuted for from ; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 23:21:05 +0100 Received: from b01cxnp22034.gho.pok.ibm.com (9.57.198.24) by e11.ny.us.ibm.com (146.89.104.198) with IBM ESMTP SMTP Gateway: Authorized Use Only! Violators will be prosecuted; (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256/256) Thu, 1 Aug 2019 23:20:59 +0100 Received: from b01ledav003.gho.pok.ibm.com (b01ledav003.gho.pok.ibm.com [9.57.199.108]) by b01cxnp22034.gho.pok.ibm.com (8.14.9/8.14.9/NCO v10.0) with ESMTP id x71MKwes49545538 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 1 Aug 2019 22:20:58 GMT Received: from b01ledav003.gho.pok.ibm.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by IMSVA (Postfix) with ESMTP id 49865B2076; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 22:20:58 +0000 (GMT) Received: from b01ledav003.gho.pok.ibm.com (unknown [127.0.0.1]) by IMSVA (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24F4BB207E; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 22:20:58 +0000 (GMT) Received: from paulmck-ThinkPad-W541 (unknown [9.70.82.154]) by b01ledav003.gho.pok.ibm.com (Postfix) with ESMTP; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 22:20:58 +0000 (GMT) Received: by paulmck-ThinkPad-W541 (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 2834016C9A64; Thu, 1 Aug 2019 15:20:59 -0700 (PDT) From: "Paul E. McKenney" To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-arch@vger.kernel.org, mingo@kernel.org Cc: stern@rowland.harvard.edu, andrea.parri@amarulasolutions.com, will@kernel.org, peterz@infradead.org, boqun.feng@gmail.com, npiggin@gmail.com, dhowells@redhat.com, j.alglave@ucl.ac.uk, luc.maranget@inria.fr, akiyks@gmail.com, Will Deacon , "Paul E. McKenney" , Daniel Lustig Subject: [PATCH RFC memory-model 31/31] tools/memory-model: Update the informal documentation Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 15:20:56 -0700 X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.17.1 In-Reply-To: <20190801222026.GA11315@linux.ibm.com> References: <20190801222026.GA11315@linux.ibm.com> X-TM-AS-GCONF: 00 x-cbid: 19080122-2213-0000-0000-000003B871F8 X-IBM-SpamModules-Scores: X-IBM-SpamModules-Versions: BY=3.00011535; HX=3.00000242; KW=3.00000007; PH=3.00000004; SC=3.00000287; SDB=6.01240728; UDB=6.00654291; IPR=6.01022153; MB=3.00028000; MTD=3.00000008; XFM=3.00000015; UTC=2019-08-01 22:21:03 X-IBM-AV-DETECTION: SAVI=unused REMOTE=unused XFE=unused x-cbparentid: 19080122-2214-0000-0000-00005F7B87D1 Message-Id: <20190801222056.12144-31-paulmck@linux.ibm.com> X-Proofpoint-Virus-Version: vendor=fsecure engine=2.50.10434:,, definitions=2019-08-01_09:,, signatures=0 X-Proofpoint-Spam-Details: rule=outbound_notspam policy=outbound score=0 priorityscore=1501 malwarescore=0 suspectscore=0 phishscore=0 bulkscore=0 spamscore=0 clxscore=1015 lowpriorityscore=0 mlxscore=0 impostorscore=0 mlxlogscore=999 adultscore=1 classifier=spam adjust=0 reason=mlx scancount=1 engine=8.0.1-1906280000 definitions=main-1908010234 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org From: Andrea Parri The formal memory consistency model has added support for plain accesses (and data races). While updating the informal documentation to describe this addition to the model is highly desirable and important future work, update the informal documentation to at least acknowledge such addition. Signed-off-by: Andrea Parri Cc: Will Deacon Cc: Peter Zijlstra Cc: Boqun Feng Cc: Nicholas Piggin Cc: David Howells Cc: Jade Alglave Cc: Luc Maranget Cc: "Paul E. McKenney" Cc: Akira Yokosawa Cc: Daniel Lustig Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney Acked-by: Alan Stern --- .../Documentation/explanation.txt | 47 +++++++++---------- tools/memory-model/README | 18 +++---- 2 files changed, 30 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-) diff --git a/tools/memory-model/Documentation/explanation.txt b/tools/memory-model/Documentation/explanation.txt index 634dc6db26c4..488f11f6c588 100644 --- a/tools/memory-model/Documentation/explanation.txt +++ b/tools/memory-model/Documentation/explanation.txt @@ -42,7 +42,8 @@ linux-kernel.bell and linux-kernel.cat files that make up the formal version of the model; they are extremely terse and their meanings are far from clear. -This document describes the ideas underlying the LKMM. It is meant +This document describes the ideas underlying the LKMM, but excluding +the modeling of bare C (or plain) shared memory accesses. It is meant for people who want to understand how the model was designed. It does not go into the details of the code in the .bell and .cat files; rather, it explains in English what the code expresses symbolically. @@ -354,31 +355,25 @@ be extremely complex. Optimizing compilers have great freedom in the way they translate source code to object code. They are allowed to apply transformations that add memory accesses, eliminate accesses, combine them, split them -into pieces, or move them around. Faced with all these possibilities, -the LKMM basically gives up. It insists that the code it analyzes -must contain no ordinary accesses to shared memory; all accesses must -be performed using READ_ONCE(), WRITE_ONCE(), or one of the other -atomic or synchronization primitives. These primitives prevent a -large number of compiler optimizations. In particular, it is -guaranteed that the compiler will not remove such accesses from the -generated code (unless it can prove the accesses will never be -executed), it will not change the order in which they occur in the -code (within limits imposed by the C standard), and it will not -introduce extraneous accesses. - -This explains why the MP and SB examples above used READ_ONCE() and -WRITE_ONCE() rather than ordinary memory accesses. Thanks to this -usage, we can be certain that in the MP example, P0's write event to -buf really is po-before its write event to flag, and similarly for the -other shared memory accesses in the examples. - -Private variables are not subject to this restriction. Since they are -not shared between CPUs, they can be accessed normally without -READ_ONCE() or WRITE_ONCE(), and there will be no ill effects. In -fact, they need not even be stored in normal memory at all -- in -principle a private variable could be stored in a CPU register (hence -the convention that these variables have names starting with the -letter 'r'). +into pieces, or move them around. The use of READ_ONCE(), WRITE_ONCE(), +or one of the other atomic or synchronization primitives prevents a +large number of compiler optimizations. In particular, it is guaranteed +that the compiler will not remove such accesses from the generated code +(unless it can prove the accesses will never be executed), it will not +change the order in which they occur in the code (within limits imposed +by the C standard), and it will not introduce extraneous accesses. + +The MP and SB examples above used READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE() rather +than ordinary memory accesses. Thanks to this usage, we can be certain +that in the MP example, the compiler won't reorder P0's write event to +buf and P0's write event to flag, and similarly for the other shared +memory accesses in the examples. + +Since private variables are not shared between CPUs, they can be +accessed normally without READ_ONCE() or WRITE_ONCE(). In fact, they +need not even be stored in normal memory at all -- in principle a +private variable could be stored in a CPU register (hence the convention +that these variables have names starting with the letter 'r'). A WARNING diff --git a/tools/memory-model/README b/tools/memory-model/README index 2b87f3971548..fc07b52f2028 100644 --- a/tools/memory-model/README +++ b/tools/memory-model/README @@ -167,15 +167,15 @@ scripts Various scripts, see scripts/README. LIMITATIONS =========== -The Linux-kernel memory model has the following limitations: - -1. Compiler optimizations are not modeled. Of course, the use - of READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE() limits the compiler's ability - to optimize, but there is Linux-kernel code that uses bare C - memory accesses. Handling this code is on the to-do list. - For more information, see Documentation/explanation.txt (in - particular, the "THE PROGRAM ORDER RELATION: po AND po-loc" - and "A WARNING" sections). +The Linux-kernel memory model (LKMM) has the following limitations: + +1. Compiler optimizations are not accurately modeled. Of course, + the use of READ_ONCE() and WRITE_ONCE() limits the compiler's + ability to optimize, but under some circumstances it is possible + for the compiler to undermine the memory model. For more + information, see Documentation/explanation.txt (in particular, + the "THE PROGRAM ORDER RELATION: po AND po-loc" and "A WARNING" + sections). Note that this limitation in turn limits LKMM's ability to accurately model address, control, and data dependencies. -- 2.17.1