Re: [PATCH] refcount: Strengthen inc_not_zero()

Will Deacon
2025-01-27T14:09:26Z

On Fri, Jan 17, 2025 at 03:41:36PM +0000, Will Deacon wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2025 at 05:00:11PM +0100, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 15, 2025 at 12:13:34PM +0100, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> >
> > > Notably, it means refcount_t is entirely unsuitable for anything
> > > SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU, since they all will need secondary validation
> > > conditions after the refcount succeeds.
> > >
> > > And this is probably fine, but let me ponder this all a little more.
> >
> > Even though SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU is relatively rare, I think we'd better
> > fix this, these things are hard enough as they are.
> >
> > Will, others, wdyt?
>
> We should also update the Documentation (atomic_t.txt and
> refcount-vs-atomic.rst) if we strengthen this.
>
> > ---
> > Subject: refcount: Strengthen inc_not_zero()
> >
> > For speculative lookups where a successful inc_not_zero() pins the
> > object, but where we still need to double check if the object acquired
> > is indeed the one we set out to aquire, needs this validation to happen
> > *after* the increment.
> >
> > Notably SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU is one such an example.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
> > ---
> > include/linux/refcount.h | 15 ++++++++-------
> > 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/include/linux/refcount.h b/include/linux/refcount.h
> > index 35f039ecb272..340e7ffa445e 100644
> > --- a/include/linux/refcount.h
> > +++ b/include/linux/refcount.h
> > @@ -69,9 +69,10 @@
> > * its the lock acquire, for RCU/lockless data structures its the dependent
> > * load.
> > *
> > - * Do note that inc_not_zero() provides a control dependency which will order
> > - * future stores against the inc, this ensures we'll never modify the object
> > - * if we did not in fact acquire a reference.
> > + * Do note that inc_not_zero() does provide acquire order, which will order
> > + * future load and stores against the inc, this ensures all subsequent accesses
> > + * are from this object and not anything previously occupying this memory --
> > + * consider SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU.
> > *
> > * The decrements will provide release order, such that all the prior loads and
> > * stores will be issued before, it also provides a control dependency, which
> > @@ -144,7 +145,7 @@ bool __refcount_add_not_zero(int i, refcount_t *r, int *oldp)
> > do {
> > if (!old)
> > break;
> > - } while (!atomic_try_cmpxchg_relaxed(&r->refs, &old, old + i));
> > + } while (!atomic_try_cmpxchg_acquire(&r->refs, &old, old + i));
>
> Hmm, do the later memory accesses need to be ordered against the store
> part of the increment or just the read? If it's the former, then I don't
> think that _acquire is sufficient -- accesses can still get in-between
> the read and write parts of the RmW.

I dug some more into this at the end of last week. For the
SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU where we're racing inc_not_zero() with
dec_and_test(), then I think using _acquire() above is correct as the
later references can only move up into the critical section in the case
that we successfully obtained a reference.

However, if we're going to make the barriers implicit in the refcount
operations here then I think we also need to do something on the producer
side for when the object is re-initialised after being destroyed and
allocated again. I think that would necessitate release ordering for
refcount_set() so that whatever allows the consumer to validate the
object (e.g. sequence number) is published *before* the refcount.

Will