[PATCH 1/4] x86: Add a comment about the "magic" behind shadow sti before mwait

Frederic Weisbecker
2023-11-15T15:14:12Z

Add a note to make sure we never miss and break the requirements behind
it.

Acked-by: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>
---
arch/x86/include/asm/mwait.h | 9 +++++++++
1 file changed, 9 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/mwait.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/mwait.h
index 778df05f8539..341ee4f1d91e 100644
--- a/arch/x86/include/asm/mwait.h
+++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/mwait.h
@@ -87,6 +87,15 @@ static __always_inline void __mwaitx(unsigned long eax, unsigned long ebx,
:: "a" (eax), "b" (ebx), "c" (ecx));
}

+/*
+ * Re-enable interrupts right upon calling mwait in such a way that
+ * no interrupt can fire _before_ the execution of mwait, ie: no
+ * instruction must be placed between "sti" and "mwait".
+ *
+ * This is necessary because if an interrupt queues a timer before
+ * executing mwait, it would otherwise go unnoticed and the next tick
+ * would not be reprogrammed accordingly before mwait ever wakes up.
+ */
static __always_inline void __sti_mwait(unsigned long eax, unsigned long ecx)
{
mds_idle_clear_cpu_buffers();
--
2.42.1