Re: Strict aliasing problem with rte_eth_linkstatus_set()

[Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit@amd.com>]

On 4/10/2024 11:30 AM, Morten Brørup wrote:
>> From: fengchengwen [mailto:fengchengwen@huawei.com]
>> Sent: Wednesday, 10 April 2024 11.34
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> We have a problem introduced by a compiler upgrade (from gcc10 to gcc12.3),
>> we've done some
>> research but haven't been able to figure out why. We'd like the community's
>> help.
>>
>> Environment:
>> 1. Source: DPDK 23.11
>> 2. GCC: 12.3.1 [1]
>> 3. Compiled with target kunpeng SoC (ARM64)
>> 4. Run on kunpeng SoC
>>
>>
>> Problem & Debug:
>> 1. We found the hns3 driver fails to update the link status. The corresponding
>> function is
>> hns3_update_linkstatus_and_event [2], and we found the rte_eth_linkstatus_set
>> [3] always return zero.
>> 2. After disassembly the hns3_update_linkstatus_and_event, and found
>> rte_eth_linkstatus_set's
>> rte_atomic_exchange_explicit return to xzr register (which is zero register):
>>  1239fec:       3900f3e0        strb    w0, [sp, #60]
>>  1239ff0:       9101a041        add     x1, x2, #0x68      ---x2 seem not the
>> variable new_link
>>  1239ff4:       f8ff8022        swpal   xzr, x2, [x1]      ---this instr
>> corresponding rte_atomic_exchange_explicit,
>>                                                               it will place
>> the resut in xzr which always zero,
>>                                                               and this will
>> lead to rte_eth_linkstatus_set return 0.
>>  1239ff8:       3940f3e0        ldrb    w0, [sp, #60]
>>  1239ffc:       d3609c41        ubfx    x1, x2, #32, #8
>>  123a000:       4a010000        eor     w0, w0, w1
>>  123a004:       36100080        tbz     w0, #2, 123a014
>> <hns3_update_linkstatus_and_event+0xd4>
>> 3. We checked other "ret = rte_eth_linkstatus_set" calls, and can't find
>> similar problem.
>> 4. After reading a lot of documents, we preliminarily think that the problem
>> is caused by -fstrict-aliasing
>> (which was enabled default with O2 or O3), if compiled with -fno-strict-
>> aliasing, then this problem don't
>> exist. We guest this maybe strict-aliasing's bug which only happened in our
>> function.
>> 5. We also try to use union to avoid such aliasing in rte_eth_linkstatus_set,
>> we changed the struct
>> rte_eth_link define, and it works:
>>   -__extension__
>>   -struct __rte_aligned(8) rte_eth_link { /**< aligned for atomic64 read/write
>> */
>>   -       uint32_t link_speed;        /**< RTE_ETH_SPEED_NUM_ */
>>   -       uint16_t link_duplex  : 1;  /**< RTE_ETH_LINK_[HALF/FULL]_DUPLEX */
>>   -       uint16_t link_autoneg : 1;  /**< RTE_ETH_LINK_[AUTONEG/FIXED] */
>>   -       uint16_t link_status  : 1;  /**< RTE_ETH_LINK_[DOWN/UP] */
>>   +struct rte_eth_link { /**< aligned for atomic64 read/write */
>>   +       union {
>>   +               uint64_t val64;
>>   +               struct {
>>   +                       uint32_t link_speed;        /**< RTE_ETH_SPEED_NUM_
>> */
>>   +                       uint16_t link_duplex  : 1;  /**<
>> RTE_ETH_LINK_[HALF/FULL]_DUPLEX */
>>   +                       uint16_t link_autoneg : 1;  /**<
>> RTE_ETH_LINK_[AUTONEG/FIXED] */
>>   +                       uint16_t link_status  : 1;  /**<
>> RTE_ETH_LINK_[DOWN/UP] */
>>   +               };
>>   +       };
>>   };
>> the corresponding rte_eth_linkstatus_set:
>>   @@ -1674,18 +1674,13 @@ static inline int
>>    rte_eth_linkstatus_set(struct rte_eth_dev *dev,
>>                          const struct rte_eth_link *new_link)
>>    {
>>   -       RTE_ATOMIC(uint64_t) *dev_link = (uint64_t __rte_atomic *)&(dev-
>>> data->dev_link);
>>   -       union {
>>   -               uint64_t val64;
>>   -               struct rte_eth_link link;
>>   -       } orig;
>>   -
>>   -       RTE_BUILD_BUG_ON(sizeof(*new_link) != sizeof(uint64_t));
>>   +       struct rte_eth_link old_link;
>>
>>   -       orig.val64 = rte_atomic_exchange_explicit(dev_link, *(const uint64_t
>> *)new_link,
>>   +       old_link.val64 = rte_atomic_exchange_explicit(&dev->data-
>>> dev_link.val64,
>>   +                                       new_link->val64,
>>                                           rte_memory_order_seq_cst);
>>
>>   -       return (orig.link.link_status == new_link->link_status) ? -1 : 0;
>>   +       return (old_link.link_status == new_link->link_status) ? -1 : 0;
>>    }
>> 6. BTW: the linux kernel enabled "-fno-strict-aliasing" default, please see
>> [4] for more.
>>
> 
> Thank you for the detailed analysis.
> Looking at the GCC documentation for -fstrict-aliasing supports your conclusion.
> 

Agree that issue looks like strict aliasing violation.

> Just out of curiosity:
> Does building with -Wstrict-aliasing=3 or -Wstrict-aliasing=1 provide any useful information?
> And are the any differences in the strict-aliasing warnings without/with your fix?
> 
>>
>> Last： We think there are two ways to solve this problem.
>> 1. Add the compilation option '-fno-strict-aliasing' for hold DPDK project.
>> 2. Use union to avoid such aliasing in rte_eth_linkstatus_set (please see
>> above).
>> PS: We prefer first way.
>>
>> Hope for more discuess.
>>
>> Thanks
> 
> Unfortunately, DPDK uses a lot of type casting where other methods would be formally more correct.
> I fear that you only found one of potentially many more bugs like this.
> Fixing this generally would be great, but probably not realistic.
> 
> I prefer correctness over performance, and thus am in favor of adding -fno-strict-aliasing project wide.
> 

strict aliasing violation is undefined behavior, instead of ignoring it
why not fix it, and option 2 is a way to fix it.

> Performance can be improved by adding more hints and attributes to functions and parameters, e.g. rte_memcpy() could be:
> __attribute__((access(write_only, 1, 3), access(read_only, 2, 3)))
> static void *
> rte_memcpy(void * restrict dst, const void * restrict src, size_t n);
> 
> Instead of just:
> static void *
> rte_memcpy(void * dst, const void * src, size_t n);
> 
> 
>>
>>
>> [1] https://developer.arm.com/downloads/-/arm-gnu-toolchain-downloads/12-3-
>> rel1
>> [2] void
>> hns3_update_linkstatus_and_event(struct hns3_hw *hw, bool query)
>> {
>> 	struct rte_eth_dev *dev = &rte_eth_devices[hw->data->port_id];
>> 	struct rte_eth_link new_link;
>> 	int ret;
>>
>> 	if (query)
>> 		hns3_update_port_link_info(dev);
>>
>> 	memset(&new_link, 0, sizeof(new_link));
>> 	hns3_setup_linkstatus(dev, &new_link);
>>
>> 	ret = rte_eth_linkstatus_set(dev, &new_link);
>> 	if (ret == 0 && dev->data->dev_conf.intr_conf.lsc != 0)
>> 		hns3_start_report_lse(dev);
>> }
>> [3] static inline int
>> rte_eth_linkstatus_set(struct rte_eth_dev *dev,
>> 		       const struct rte_eth_link *new_link)
>> {
>> 	RTE_ATOMIC(uint64_t) *dev_link = (uint64_t __rte_atomic *)&(dev->data-
>>> dev_link);
>> 	union {
>> 		uint64_t val64;
>> 		struct rte_eth_link link;
>> 	} orig;
>>
>> 	RTE_BUILD_BUG_ON(sizeof(*new_link) != sizeof(uint64_t));
>>
>> 	orig.val64 = rte_atomic_exchange_explicit(dev_link, *(const uint64_t
>> *)new_link,
>> 					rte_memory_order_seq_cst);
>>
>> 	return (orig.link.link_status == new_link->link_status) ? -1 : 0;
>> }
>> [4] https://lore.kernel.org/all/b3itcd$2bi$1@penguin.transmeta.com/