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From: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@intel.com>
To: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>,
	Qiaowei Ren <qiaowei.ren@intel.com>
Cc: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@zytor.com>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>,
	x86@kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-ia64@vger.kernel.org, linux-mips@linux-mips.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v9 05/12] x86, mpx: on-demand kernel allocation of bounds tables
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 10:43:48 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <544FD5D4.4090404@intel.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.11.1410241257300.5308@nanos>

On 10/24/2014 05:08 AM, Thomas Gleixner wrote:
> On Sun, 12 Oct 2014, Qiaowei Ren wrote:
>> +	/*
>> +	 * Go poke the address of the new bounds table in to the
>> +	 * bounds directory entry out in userspace memory.  Note:
>> +	 * we may race with another CPU instantiating the same table.
>> +	 * In that case the cmpxchg will see an unexpected
>> +	 * 'actual_old_val'.
>> +	 */
>> +	ret = user_atomic_cmpxchg_inatomic(&actual_old_val, bd_entry,
>> +					   expected_old_val, bt_addr);
> 
> This is fully preemptible non-atomic context, right?
> 
> So this wants a proper comment, why using
> user_atomic_cmpxchg_inatomic() is the right thing to do here.

Hey Thomas,

How's this for a new comment?  Does this cover the points you think need
clarified?

====

The kernel has allocated a bounds table and needs to point the
(userspace-allocated) directory to it.  The directory entry is the
*only* place we track that this table was allocated, so we essentially
use it instead of an kernel data structure for synchronization.  A
copy_to_user()-style function would not give us the atomicity that we need.

If two threads race to instantiate a table, the cmpxchg ensures we know
which one lost the race and that the loser frees the table that they
just allocated.

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  parent reply	other threads:[~2014-10-28 17:43 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 44+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2014-10-12  4:41 [PATCH v9 00/12] Intel MPX support Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 01/12] x86, mpx: introduce VM_MPX to indicate that a VMA is MPX specific Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 02/12] x86, mpx: rename cfg_reg_u and status_reg Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 03/12] x86, mpx: add MPX specific mmap interface Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 04/12] x86, mpx: add MPX to disaabled features Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 05/12] x86, mpx: on-demand kernel allocation of bounds tables Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-24 12:08   ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-27  3:20     ` Ren Qiaowei
2014-10-28 17:43     ` Dave Hansen [this message]
2014-10-28 17:57       ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 06/12] mpx: extend siginfo structure to include bound violation information Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 07/12] mips: sync struct siginfo with general version Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 08/12] ia64: " Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 09/12] x86, mpx: decode MPX instruction to get bound violation information Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-24 12:36   ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-27  1:43     ` Ren, Qiaowei
2014-10-27 20:36       ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-28  5:58         ` Ren Qiaowei
2014-10-31 20:16         ` Dave Hansen
2014-10-31 20:33           ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-30 22:38   ` Dave Hansen
2014-10-31  2:12     ` Ren Qiaowei
2014-10-31  9:09       ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 10/12] x86, mpx: add prctl commands PR_MPX_ENABLE_MANAGEMENT, PR_MPX_DISABLE_MANAGEMENT Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-24 12:49   ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-24 15:10     ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-27  2:17     ` Ren, Qiaowei
2014-10-27 20:38       ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-28  5:57         ` Ren Qiaowei
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 11/12] x86, mpx: cleanup unused bound tables Qiaowei Ren
2014-10-24 14:40   ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-27  3:13     ` Ren Qiaowei
2014-10-27 20:49       ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-28  5:56         ` Ren Qiaowei
2014-10-28 10:42           ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-11-03 20:53         ` Dave Hansen
2014-11-03 21:29           ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-11-04 16:00             ` Dave Hansen
2014-11-04 17:02               ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-11-06 21:50     ` Dave Hansen
2014-11-11 18:27       ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-11-11 20:44         ` Dave Hansen
2014-11-11 21:36           ` Thomas Gleixner
2014-10-12  4:41 ` [PATCH v9 12/12] x86, mpx: add documentation on Intel MPX Qiaowei Ren

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