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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/memory-barriers.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/memory-barriers.txt | 34 |
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt index a863009849a3..6dafc8085acc 100644 --- a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt +++ b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt @@ -14,7 +14,11 @@ DISCLAIMER This document is not a specification; it is intentionally (for the sake of brevity) and unintentionally (due to being human) incomplete. This document is meant as a guide to using the various memory barriers provided by Linux, but -in case of any doubt (and there are many) please ask. +in case of any doubt (and there are many) please ask. Some doubts may be +resolved by referring to the formal memory consistency model and related +documentation at tools/memory-model/. Nevertheless, even this memory +model should be viewed as the collective opinion of its maintainers rather +than as an infallible oracle. To repeat, this document is not a specification of what Linux expects from hardware. @@ -48,7 +52,7 @@ CONTENTS - Varieties of memory barrier. - What may not be assumed about memory barriers? - - Data dependency barriers. + - Data dependency barriers (historical). - Control dependencies. - SMP barrier pairing. - Examples of memory barrier sequences. @@ -399,7 +403,7 @@ Memory barriers come in four basic varieties: where two loads are performed such that the second depends on the result of the first (eg: the first load retrieves the address to which the second load will be directed), a data dependency barrier would be required to - make sure that the target of the second load is updated before the address + make sure that the target of the second load is updated after the address obtained by the first load is accessed. A data dependency barrier is a partial ordering on interdependent loads @@ -550,8 +554,15 @@ There are certain things that the Linux kernel memory barriers do not guarantee: Documentation/DMA-API.txt -DATA DEPENDENCY BARRIERS ------------------------- +DATA DEPENDENCY BARRIERS (HISTORICAL) +------------------------------------- + +As of v4.15 of the Linux kernel, an smp_read_barrier_depends() was +added to READ_ONCE(), which means that about the only people who +need to pay attention to this section are those working on DEC Alpha +architecture-specific code and those working on READ_ONCE() itself. +For those who need it, and for those who are interested in the history, +here is the story of data-dependency barriers. The usage requirements of data dependency barriers are a little subtle, and it's not always obvious that they're needed. To illustrate, consider the @@ -2839,8 +2850,9 @@ as that committed on CPU 1. To intervene, we need to interpolate a data dependency barrier or a read -barrier between the loads. This will force the cache to commit its coherency -queue before processing any further requests: +barrier between the loads (which as of v4.15 is supplied unconditionally +by the READ_ONCE() macro). This will force the cache to commit its +coherency queue before processing any further requests: CPU 1 CPU 2 COMMENT =============== =============== ======================================= @@ -2869,8 +2881,8 @@ Other CPUs may also have split caches, but must coordinate between the various cachelets for normal memory accesses. The semantics of the Alpha removes the need for hardware coordination in the absence of memory barriers, which permitted Alpha to sport higher CPU clock rates back in the day. However, -please note that smp_read_barrier_depends() should not be used except in -Alpha arch-specific code and within the READ_ONCE() macro. +please note that (again, as of v4.15) smp_read_barrier_depends() should not +be used except in Alpha arch-specific code and within the READ_ONCE() macro. CACHE COHERENCY VS DMA @@ -3035,7 +3047,9 @@ the data dependency barrier really becomes necessary as this synchronises both caches with the memory coherence system, thus making it seem like pointer changes vs new data occur in the right order. -The Alpha defines the Linux kernel's memory barrier model. +The Alpha defines the Linux kernel's memory model, although as of v4.15 +the Linux kernel's addition of smp_read_barrier_depends() to READ_ONCE() +greatly reduced Alpha's impact on the memory model. See the subsection on "Cache Coherency" above. |