Re: [PATCH v2 4/7] powerpc/ftrace: Additionally nop out the preceding mflr with -mprofile-kernel

["Naveen N. Rao" <naveen.n.rao@linux.vnet.ibm.com>]

Steven Rostedt wrote:
> On Thu, 27 Jun 2019 20:58:20 +0530
> "Naveen N. Rao" <naveen.n.rao@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> > But interesting, I don't see a synchronize_rcu_tasks() call
>> > there.  
>> 
>> We felt we don't need it in this case. We patch the branch to ftrace 
>> with a nop first. Other cpus should see that first. But, now that I 
>> think about it, should we add a memory barrier to ensure the writes get 
>> ordered properly?
> 
> Do you send an ipi to the other CPUs. I would just to be safe.
> 

<snip>

>> 
>> We are handling this through ftrace_replace_code() and 
>> __ftrace_make_call_prep() below. For FTRACE_UPDATE_MAKE_CALL, we patch 
>> in the mflr, followed by smp_call_function(isync) and 
>> synchronize_rcu_tasks() before we proceed to patch the branch to ftrace.
>> 
>> I don't see any other scenario where we end up in 
>> __ftrace_make_nop_kernel() without going through ftrace_replace_code().  
>> For kernel modules, this can happen during module load/init and so, I 
>> patch out both instructions in __ftrace_make_call() above without any 
>> synchronization.
>> 
>> Am I missing anything?
>> 
> 
> No, I think I got confused ;-), it's the patch out that I was worried
> about, but when I was going through the scenario, I somehow turned it
> into the patching in (which I already audited :-p). I was going to
> reply with just the top part of this email, but then the confusion
> started :-/
> 
> OK, yes, patching out should be fine, and you already covered the
> patching in. Sorry for the noise.
> 
> Just to confirm and totally remove the confusion, the patch does:
> 
> 	<func>:
> 	mflr	r0 <-- preempt here
> 	bl	_mcount
> 
> 	<func>:
> 	mflr	r0
> 	nop
> 
> And this is fine regardless.
> 
> OK, Reviewed-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@goodmis.org>

Thanks for confirming! We do need an IPI to be sure, as you pointed out 
above. I will have the patching out take the same path to simplify 
things.


- Naveen