[PATCH v2 2/2] tools/memory-model: Make ppo a subrelation of po

Jonas Oberhauser
2023-01-26T13:42:52Z

As stated in the documentation and implied by its name, the ppo
(preserved program order) relation is intended to link po-earlier
to po-later instructions under certain conditions. However, a
corner case currently allows instructions to be linked by ppo that
are not executed by the same thread, i.e., instructions are being
linked that have no po relation.

This happens due to the mb/strong-fence relations, which (as one
case) provide order when locks are passed between threads followed
by an smp_mb__after_unlock_lock() fence. This is illustrated in
the following litmus test (as can be seen when using herd7 with
`doshow ppo`):

P0(int *x, int *y)
{
spin_lock(x);
spin_unlock(x);
}

P1(int *x, int *y)
{
spin_lock(x);
smp_mb__after_unlock_lock();
*y = 1;
}

The ppo relation will link P0's spin_lock(x) and P1's *y=1, because
P0 passes a lock to P1 which then uses this fence.

The patch makes ppo a subrelation of po by eliminating this possibility
from mb (but not strong-fence) and relying explicitly on mb|gp instead
of strong-fence when defining ppo.

Signed-off-by: Jonas Oberhauser <jonas.oberhauser@huaweicloud.com>
---
tools/memory-model/linux-kernel.cat | 9 +++++----
1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/memory-model/linux-kernel.cat b/tools/memory-model/linux-kernel.cat
index 6e531457bb73..815fdafacaef 100644
--- a/tools/memory-model/linux-kernel.cat
+++ b/tools/memory-model/linux-kernel.cat
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@ let wmb = [W] ; fencerel(Wmb) ; [W]
let mb = ([M] ; fencerel(Mb) ; [M]) |
([M] ; fencerel(Before-atomic) ; [RMW] ; po? ; [M]) |
([M] ; po? ; [RMW] ; fencerel(After-atomic) ; [M]) |
- ([M] ; po? ; [LKW] ; fencerel(After-spinlock) ; [M]) |
+ ([M] ; po? ; [LKW] ; fencerel(After-spinlock) ; [M])
+let gp = po ; [Sync-rcu | Sync-srcu] ; po?
+let strong-fence = mb | gp |
(*
* Note: The po-unlock-lock-po relation only passes the lock to the direct
* successor, perhaps giving the impression that the ordering of the
@@ -50,10 +52,9 @@ let mb = ([M] ; fencerel(Mb) ; [M]) |
*)
([M] ; po-unlock-lock-po ;
[After-unlock-lock] ; po ; [M])
-let gp = po ; [Sync-rcu | Sync-srcu] ; po?
-let strong-fence = mb | gp

-let nonrw-fence = strong-fence | po-rel | acq-po
+
+let nonrw-fence = mb | gp | po-rel | acq-po
let fence = nonrw-fence | wmb | rmb
let barrier = fencerel(Barrier | Rmb | Wmb | Mb | Sync-rcu | Sync-srcu |
Before-atomic | After-atomic | Acquire | Release |
--
2.17.1