[PATCH v11 01/14] asm-generic: barrier: Add smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout()

Ankur Arora
2026-04-08T12:26:23Z

Add smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout(), which extends
smp_cond_load_relaxed() to allow waiting for a duration.

We loop around waiting for the condition variable to change while
peridically doing a time-check. The loop uses cpu_poll_relax() to slow
down the busy-wait, which, unless overridden by the architecture
code, amounts to a cpu_relax().

Note that there are two ways for the time-check to fail: the timeout
case or, @time_expr_ns returning an invalid value (negative or zero).
The second failure mode allows for clocks attached to the clock-domain
of @cond_expr -- which might cease to operate meaningfully once some
state internal to @cond_expr has changed -- to fail.

Evaluation of @time_expr_ns: in the fastpath we want to keep the
performance close to smp_cond_load_relaxed(). So defer evaluation
of the potentially costly @time_expr_ns to the slowpath.

This also means that there will always be some hardware dependent
duration that has passed in cpu_poll_relax() iterations at the time
of first evaluation. Additionally cpu_poll_relax() is not guaranteed
to return at timeout boundary. In sum, expect timeout overshoot when
we exit due to expiration of the timeout.

The number of spin iterations before time-check, SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT
is chosen to be 200 by default. With a cpu_poll_relax() iteration
taking ~20-30 cycles (measured on a variety of x86 platforms), we
expect a time-check every ~4000-6000 cycles.

The outer limit of the overshoot is double that when working with the
parameters above. This might be higher or lower depending on the
implementation of cpu_poll_relax() across architectures.

Lastly, config option ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX indicates availability of a
cpu_poll_relax() that is cheaper than polling. This might be relevant
for cases with a long timeout.

Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Cc: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Reviewed-by: Catalin Marinas <catalin.marinas@arm.com>
Signed-off-by: Ankur Arora <ankur.a.arora@oracle.com>
---
Notes:
- add a comment mentioning that smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout() might
be using architectural primitives that don't support MMIO.
(David Laight, Catalin Marinas)

include/asm-generic/barrier.h | 69 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 69 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/asm-generic/barrier.h b/include/asm-generic/barrier.h
index d4f581c1e21d..e5a6a1c04649 100644
--- a/include/asm-generic/barrier.h
+++ b/include/asm-generic/barrier.h
@@ -273,6 +273,75 @@ do { \
})
#endif

+/*
+ * Number of times we iterate in the loop before doing the time check.
+ * Note that the iteration count assumes that the loop condition is
+ * relatively cheap.
+ */
+#ifndef SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT
+#define SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT 200
+#endif
+
+/*
+ * Platforms with ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX have a cpu_poll_relax() implementation
+ * that is expected to be cheaper (lower power) than pure polling.
+ */
+#ifndef cpu_poll_relax
+#define cpu_poll_relax(ptr, val, timeout_ns) cpu_relax()
+#endif
+
+/**
+ * smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout() - (Spin) wait for cond with no ordering
+ * guarantees until a timeout expires.
+ * @ptr: pointer to the variable to wait on.
+ * @cond_expr: boolean expression to wait for.
+ * @time_expr_ns: expression that evaluates to monotonic time (in ns) or,
+ * on failure, returns a negative value.
+ * @timeout_ns: timeout value in ns
+ * Both of the above are assumed to be compatible with s64; the signed
+ * value is used to handle the failure case in @time_expr_ns.
+ *
+ * Equivalent to using READ_ONCE() on the condition variable.
+ *
+ * Callers that expect to wait for prolonged durations might want
+ * to take into account the availability of ARCH_HAS_CPU_RELAX.
+ *
+ * Note that @ptr is expected to point to a memory address. Using this
+ * interface with MMIO will be slower (since SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT is
+ * tuned for memory) and might also break in interesting architecture
+ * dependent ways.
+ */
+#ifndef smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout
+#define smp_cond_load_relaxed_timeout(ptr, cond_expr, \
+ time_expr_ns, timeout_ns) \
+({ \
+ typeof(ptr) __PTR = (ptr); \
+ __unqual_scalar_typeof(*ptr) VAL; \
+ u32 __n = 0, __spin = SMP_TIMEOUT_POLL_COUNT; \
+ s64 __timeout = (s64)timeout_ns; \
+ s64 __time_now, __time_end = 0; \
+ \
+ for (;;) { \
+ VAL = READ_ONCE(*__PTR); \
+ if (cond_expr) \
+ break; \
+ cpu_poll_relax(__PTR, VAL, (u64)__timeout); \
+ if (++__n < __spin) \
+ continue; \
+ __time_now = (s64)(time_expr_ns); \
+ if (unlikely(__time_end == 0)) \
+ __time_end = __time_now + __timeout; \
+ __timeout = __time_end - __time_now; \
+ if (__time_now <= 0 || __timeout <= 0) { \
+ VAL = READ_ONCE(*__PTR); \
+ break; \
+ } \
+ __n = 0; \
+ } \
+ (typeof(*ptr))VAL; \
+})
+#endif
+
/*
* pmem_wmb() ensures that all stores for which the modification
* are written to persistent storage by preceding instructions have
--
2.31.1