Re: [PATCH] ethernet:arc: Fix racing of TX ring buffer

[Francois Romieu <romieu@fr.zoreil.com>]

Shuyu Wei <wsy2220@gmail.com> :
> The tail of the ring buffer(txbd_dirty) should never go ahead of the
> head(txbd_curr) or the ring buffer will corrupt. 
> 
> This is the root cause of racing.

No (see below).

It may suffer from some barrier illness though.

> Besides, setting the FOR_EMAC flag should be the last step of modifying
> the buffer descriptor, or possible racing will occur.

(s/Besides//)

Yes. Good catch.

> Signed-off-by: Shuyu Wei <sy.w@outlook.com>
> ---
> 
> diff --git a/drivers/net/ethernet/arc/emac_main.c b/drivers/net/ethernet/arc/emac_main.c
> index a3a9392..5ece05b 100644
> --- a/drivers/net/ethernet/arc/emac_main.c
> +++ b/drivers/net/ethernet/arc/emac_main.c
> @@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ static void arc_emac_tx_clean(struct net_device *ndev)
>         struct net_device_stats *stats = &ndev->stats;
>         unsigned int i;
>  
> -       for (i = 0; i < TX_BD_NUM; i++) {
> +       for (i = priv->txbd_dirty; i != priv->txbd_curr; i = (i + 1) % TX_BD_NUM) {
>                 unsigned int *txbd_dirty = &priv->txbd_dirty;
>                 struct arc_emac_bd *txbd = &priv->txbd[*txbd_dirty];
>                 struct buffer_state *tx_buff = &priv->tx_buff[*txbd_dirty];

"i" is only used as a loop counter in arc_emac_tx_clean. It is not even
used as an index to dereference an array or whatever. Only "priv->txbd_dirty"
is used.

arc_emac_tx_clean() checks FOR_EMAC, skb, and dirty tx data. It takes care of
clearing those itself. Thus, (memory / io barrier considerations apart) it can
only proceed beyond its own "if ((info & FOR_EMAC) || !txbd->data || !skb)"
check if arc_emac_tx wrote all of those.

Where they are used as loop counters, both TX_BD_NUM and txbd_curr - txbd_dirty
can be considered as hints (please note that unsigned arithmetic can replace
the "%" sludgehammer here).

> @@ -686,12 +686,12 @@ static int arc_emac_tx(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *ndev)
>  
>         skb_tx_timestamp(skb);

> +       priv->tx_buff[*txbd_curr].skb = skb;

	dma_wmb();

(sync writes to memory before releasing descriptor)

>         *info = cpu_to_le32(FOR_EMAC | FIRST_OR_LAST_MASK | len);
>  
>         /* Make sure info word is set */
>         wmb();

arc_emac_tx_clean can run from this point.

txbd_curr is still not set (and it does need to). So, if you insist
on txbd_curr appearing in arc_emac_tx_clean::for(...), it's perfectly
possible to ignore a sent packet.

I ignored arc_reg_set() at the end of arc_emac_tx(). I have no idea
if it is posted nor if it forces the chipset to read the descriptors
(synchronously ?) so part of the sentence above could be wrong.

You have found a big offender in arc_emac_tx() but the arc_emac_tx_clean()
part is imho useless, incorrectly understood or misworded.

-- 
Ueimor