Re: [PATCH 3/4] mm: replace rw_semaphore with atomic_t in vma_lock

Peter Zijlstra
2024-12-10T22:39:12Z

On Tue, Nov 12, 2024 at 07:18:45AM -0800, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 11, 2024 at 8:58 PM Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 11, 2024 at 12:55:05PM -0800, Suren Baghdasaryan wrote:
> > > When a reader takes read lock, it increments the atomic, unless the
> > > top two bits are set indicating a writer is present.
> > > When writer takes write lock, it sets VMA_LOCK_WR_LOCKED bit if there
> > > are no readers or VMA_LOCK_WR_WAIT bit if readers are holding the lock
> > > and puts itself onto newly introduced mm.vma_writer_wait. Since all
> > > writers take mmap_lock in write mode first, there can be only one writer
> > > at a time. The last reader to release the lock will signal the writer
> > > to wake up.
> >
> > I don't think you need two bits. You can do it this way:
> >
> > 0x8000'0000 - No readers, no writers
> > 0x1-7fff'ffff - Some number of readers
> > 0x0 - Writer held
> > 0x8000'0001-0xffff'ffff - Reader held, writer waiting
> >
> > A prospective writer subtracts 0x8000'0000. If the result is 0, it got
> > the lock, otherwise it sleeps until it is 0.
> >
> > A writer unlocks by adding 0x8000'0000 (not by setting the value to
> > 0x8000'0000).
> >
> > A reader unlocks by adding 1. If the result is 0, it wakes the writer.
> >
> > A prospective reader subtracts 1. If the result is positive, it got the
> > lock, otherwise it does the unlock above (this might be the one which
> > wakes the writer).
> >
> > And ... that's it. See how we use the CPU arithmetic flags to tell us
> > everything we need to know without doing arithmetic separately?
>
> Yes, this is neat! You are using the fact that write-locked == no
> readers to eliminate unnecessary state. I'll give that a try. Thanks!

The reason I got here is that Vlastimil poked me about the whole
TYPESAFE_BY_RCU thing.

So the normal way those things work is with a refcount, if the refcount
is non-zero, the identifying fields should be stable and you can
determine if you have the right object, otherwise tough luck.

And I was thinking that since you abuse this rwsem you have, you might
as well turn that into a refcount with some extra.

So I would propose a slightly different solution.

Replace vm_lock with vm_refcnt. Replace vm_detached with vm_refcnt == 0
-- that is, attach sets refcount to 1 to indicate it is part of the mas,
detached is the final 'put'.

RCU lookup does the inc_not_zero thing, when increment succeeds, compare
mm/addr to validate.

vma_start_write() already relies on mmap_lock being held for writing,
and thus does not have to worry about writer-vs-writer contention, that
is fully resolved by mmap_sem. This means we only need to wait for
readers to drop out.

vma_start_write()
add(0x8000'0001); // could fetch_add and double check the high
// bit wasn't already set.
wait-until(refcnt == 0x8000'0002); // mas + writer ref
WRITE_ONCE(vma->vm_lock_seq, mm_lock_seq);
sub(0x8000'0000);

vma_end_write()
put();

vma_start_read() then becomes something like:

if (vm_lock_seq == mm_lock_seq)
return false;

cnt = fetch_inc(1);
if (cnt & msb || vm_lock_seq == mm_lock_seq) {
put();
return false;
}

return true;

vma_end_read() then becomes:
put();

and the down_read() from uffffffd requires mmap_read_lock() and thus
does not have to worry about writers, it can simpy be inc() and put(),
no?