Re: Udpated sys_membarrier() speedup patch, FYI

Andrew Hunter
2017-07-28T17:37:28Z

On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 12:06 PM, Paul E. McKenney
<paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> IPIin only those CPUs running threads in the same process as the
> thread invoking membarrier() would be very nice! There is some LKML
> discussion on this topic, which is currently circling around making this
> determination reliable on all CPU families. ARM and x86 are thought
> to be OK, PowerPC is thought to require a smallish patch, MIPS is
> a big question mark, and so on.
>

I'm not sure what you mean by the determination or how this is arch specific?

> But I am surprised when you say that the downgrade would not work, at
> least if you are not running with nohz_full CPUs. The rcu_sched_qs()
> function simply sets a per-CPU quiescent-state flag. The needed strong
> ordering is instead supplied by the combination of the code starting
> the grace period, reporting the setting of the quiescent-state flag
> to core RCU, and the code completing the grace period. Each non-idle
> CPU will execute full memory barriers either in RCU_SOFTIRQ context,
> on entry to idle, on exit from idle, or within the grace-period kthread.
> In particular, a CPU running the same usermode thread for the entire
> grace period will execute the needed memory barriers in RCU_SOFTIRQ
> context shortly after taking a scheduling-clock interrupt.
>

Recall that I need more than just a memory barrier--also to interrupt
RSEQ critical sections in progress on those CPUs. I know this isn't
general purpose, I'm just saying a trivial downgrade wouldn't work for
me. :) It would probably be sufficient to set NOTIFY_RESUME on all
cpus running my code (which is what my IPI function does anyway...)