On 11/07/2017 12:59 PM, Andreas Dilger wrote: > On Nov 7, 2017, at 4:59 AM, Jan Kara <j...@suse.cz> wrote: >> On Mon 06-11-17 10:47:08, Davidlohr Bueso wrote: >>> + /* >>> + * Serialize dlist->used_lists such that a 0->1 transition is not >>> + * missed by another thread checking if any of the dlock lists are >>> + * used. >>> + * >>> + * CPU0 CPU1 >>> + * dlock_list_add() dlock_lists_empty() >>> + * [S] atomic_inc(used_lists); >>> + * smp_mb__after_atomic(); >>> + * smp_mb__before_atomic(); >>> + * [L] atomic_read(used_lists) >>> + * list_add() >>> + */ >>> + smp_mb__before_atomic(); >>> + return !atomic_read(&dlist->used_lists); > Just a general kernel programming question here - I thought the whole point > of atomics is that they are, well, atomic across all CPUs so there is no > need for a memory barrier? If there is a need for a memory barrier for > each atomic access (assuming it isn't accessed under another lock, which would > make the use of atomic types pointless, IMHO) then I'd think there is a lot > of code in the kernel that isn't doing this properly. > > What am I missing here?
Atomic update and memory barrier are 2 different things. Atomic update means other CPUs see either the value before or after the update. They won't see anything in between. For a counter, it means we won't miss any counts. However, not all atomic operations give an ordering guarantee. The atomic_read() and atomic_inc() are examples that do not provide memory ordering guarantee. See Documentation/memory-barriers.txt for more information about it. A CPU can perform atomic operations 1 & 2 in program order, but other CPUs may see operation 2 first before operation 1. Here memory barrier can be used to guarantee that other CPUs see the memory updates in certain order. Hope this help. Longman
