Re: KCSAN: data-race in __alloc_file / __alloc_file

[Eric Dumazet <edumazet@google.com>]

On Fri, Nov 8, 2019 at 9:01 AM Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
>
> On Fri, Nov 8, 2019 at 5:28 AM Eric Dumazet <eric.dumazet@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Linus, what do you think of the following fix ?
>
> I think it's incredibly ugly.
>
> I realize that avoiding the cacheline dirtying might be worth it, but
> I'd like to see some indication that it actually matters and helps
> from a performance angle. We've already dirtied memory fairly close,
> even if it might not share a cacheline (that structure is randomized,
> we've touched - or will touch - 'cred->usage') too.
>
> Honestly, I don't think get_cred() is even in a hotpath. Most cred use
> just use the current cred that doesn't need the 'get'. So the
> optimization looks somewhat questionable - for all we know it just
> makes things worse.
>
> I also don't like using a "WRITE_ONCE()" without a reason for it. In
> this case, the only "reason" is that KCSAN special-cases that thing.
> I'd much rather have some other way to mark it.
>
> So it just looks hacky to me.
>
> I like that people are looking at KCSAN, but I get a very strong
> feeling that right now the workarounds for KCSAN false-positives are
> incredibly ugly, and not always appropriate.
>
> There is absolutely zero need for a WRITE_ONCE() in this case. The
> code would work fine if the compiler did the zero write fifty times,
> and re-ordered it wildly. We have a flag that starts out set, and we
> clear it.  There's really no "write-once" about it.
>

Ok, so what do you suggest next ?

Declare KCSAN useless because too many false positives ?