Re: [PATCH RFC 1/2] arch: Introduce ARCH_HAS_HW_XCHG_SMALL

[Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jul 27, 2021 at 12:41:34AM +0800, Guo Ren wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 26, 2021 at 6:39 PM Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Jul 26, 2021 at 04:56:49PM +0800, Huacai Chen wrote:
> > > Hi, Geert,
> > >
> > > On Mon, Jul 26, 2021 at 4:36 PM Geert Uytterhoeven <geert@linux-m68k.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Hi Huacai,
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, Jul 24, 2021 at 2:36 PM Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@loongson.cn> wrote:
> > > > > Introduce a new Kconfig option ARCH_HAS_HW_XCHG_SMALL, which means arch
> > > > > has hardware sub-word xchg/cmpxchg support. This option will be used as
> > > > > an indicator to select the bit-field definition in the qspinlock data
> > > > > structure.
> > > > >
> > > > > Signed-off-by: Huacai Chen <chenhuacai@loongson.cn>
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for your patch!
> > > >
> > > > > --- a/arch/Kconfig
> > > > > +++ b/arch/Kconfig
> > > > > @@ -228,6 +228,10 @@ config ARCH_HAS_FORTIFY_SOURCE
> > > > >           An architecture should select this when it can successfully
> > > > >           build and run with CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE.
> > > > >
> > > > > +# Select if arch has hardware sub-word xchg/cmpxchg support
> > > > > +config ARCH_HAS_HW_XCHG_SMALL
> > > >
> > > > What do you mean by "hardware"?
> > > > Does a software fallback count?
> > > This new option is supposed as an indicator to select bit-field
> > > definition of qspinlock, software fallback is not helpful in this
> > > case.
> > >
> >
> > I don't think this is true. IIUC, the rationale of the config is that
> > for some architectures, since the architectural cmpxchg doesn't provide
> > forward-progress guarantee then using cmpxchg of machine-word to
> > implement xchg{8,16}() may cause livelock, therefore these architectures
> > don't want to provide xchg{8,16}(), as a result they cannot work with
> > qspinlock when _Q_PENDING_BITS is 8.
> >
> > So as long as an architecture can provide and has already provided an
> > implementation of xchg{8,16}() which guarantee forward-progress (even
> > though the implementation is using a machine-word size cmpxchg), the
> > architecture doesn't need to select ARCH_HAS_HW_XCHG_SMALL.
> Seems only atomic could provide forward progress, isn't it? And lr/sc
> couldn't implement xchg/cmpxchg primitive properly.
> 

I'm missing you point here, a) ll/sc can provide forward progress and b)
ll/sc instructions are used to implement xchg/cmpxchg (see ARM64 and
PPC).

> How to make CPU guarantee  "load + cmpxchg" forward-progress? Fusion
> these instructions and lock the snoop channel?
> Maybe hardware guys would think that it's easier to implement cas +
> dcas + amo(short & byte).
> 

Please note that if _Q_PENDING_BITS == 1, then the xchg_tail() is
implemented as a "load + cmpxchg", so if "load + cmpxchg" implementation
of xchg16() doesn't provide forward-progress in an architecture, neither
does xchg_tail().

Regards,
Boqun

> >
> > Regards,
> > Boqun
> >
> > > >
> > > > > --- a/arch/m68k/Kconfig
> > > > > +++ b/arch/m68k/Kconfig
> > > > > @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ config M68K
> > > > >         select ARCH_32BIT_OFF_T
> > > > >         select ARCH_HAS_BINFMT_FLAT
> > > > >         select ARCH_HAS_DMA_PREP_COHERENT if HAS_DMA && MMU && !COLDFIRE
> > > > > +       select ARCH_HAS_HW_XCHG_SMALL
> > > >
> > > > M68k CPUs which support the CAS (Compare And Set) instruction do
> > > > support this on 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit quantities.
> > > > M68k CPUs which lack CAS use a software implementation, which
> > > > supports the same quantities.
> > > >
> > > > As CAS is used only if CONFIG_RMW_INSNS=y, perhaps this needs
> > > > a dependency?
> > > OK, I think this dependency is needed.
> > >
> > > Huacai
> > >
> > > >
> > > >    select ARCH_HAS_HW_XCHG_SMALL if RMW_INSNS
> > > >
> > > > Gr{oetje,eeting}s,
> > > >
> > > >                         Geert
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org
> > > >
> > > > In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
> > > > when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
> > > >                                 -- Linus Torvalds
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Best Regards
>  Guo Ren
> 
> ML: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-csky/