On Wed, Jan 09, 2008 at 11:37:27AM +0100, Eric Dumazet wrote: > On Wed, 9 Jan 2008 20:46:37 +1100 > Herbert Xu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Jan 09, 2008 at 08:38:56AM +0100, Eric Dumazet wrote: > > > > > > I am not sure this is valid, since it will do this : > > > > > > r = rt_hash_table[st->bucket].chain; > > > if (r) > > > return rcu_dereference(r); > > > > > > So compiler might be dumb enough do dereference > > > &rt_hash_table[st->bucket].chain two times. > > > > That wouldn't be a problem at all. The key is to add a barrier between > > reading the pointer: > > > > r = rt_hash_table[st->bucket].chain > > > > and dereferencing it later, e.g., > > > > r->u.dst.rt_next > > > > The barrier is there so that when we dereference r we don't read > > stale cache that was there before the memory at r was initialised. > > How many times you read the pointer value before the barrier is > > irrelevant to the effectiveness of the barrier preceding the > > dereference.
Agreed -- as long as you don't try to dereference the pointer before passing it through rcu_dereference(), and as long as both the initial fetch of the pointer, the rcu_dereference(), and the actual dereferencing of the pointer are all within the same RCU read-side critical section. > You are absolutely right Herbert, so I changed the patch to : > > [NET] ROUTE: fix rcu_dereference() uses in /proc/net/rt_cache > > In rt_cache_get_next(), no need to guard seq->private by a rcu_dereference() > since seq is private to the thread running this function. Reading seq.private > once (as guaranted bu rcu_dereference()) or several time if compiler really > is > dumb enough wont change the result. > > But we miss real spots where rcu_dereference() are needed, both in > rt_cache_get_first() and rt_cache_get_next() > > Signed-off-by: Eric Dumazet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Signed-off-by: Herbert Xu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > diff --git a/net/ipv4/route.c b/net/ipv4/route.c > index d337706..28484f3 100644 > --- a/net/ipv4/route.c > +++ b/net/ipv4/route.c > @@ -283,12 +283,12 @@ static struct rtable *rt_cache_get_first(struct > seq_file *seq) > break; > rcu_read_unlock_bh(); > } > - return r; > + return rcu_dereference(r); > } Would it be possible to tag rt_cache_get_first() with an __acquires(RCU) to help out sparse? > static struct rtable *rt_cache_get_next(struct seq_file *seq, struct rtable > *r) > { > - struct rt_cache_iter_state *st = rcu_dereference(seq->private); > + struct rt_cache_iter_state *st = seq->private; > > r = r->u.dst.rt_next; > while (!r) { > @@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ static struct rtable *rt_cache_get_next(struct seq_file > *seq, struct rtable *r) > rcu_read_lock_bh(); > r = rt_hash_table[st->bucket].chain; > } > - return r; > + return rcu_dereference(r); > } Ditto for rt_cache_get_next()? > static struct rtable *rt_cache_get_idx(struct seq_file *seq, loff_t pos) There would need to be a __releases(RCU) somewhere -- possibly in rt_cache_seq_stop(), but need to defer to you guys on this one. Thanx, Paul -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netdev" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html