Re: [PATCH v6 03/13] vpci: move lock outside of struct vpci

[Oleksandr Andrushchenko]

On 08.02.22 10:57, Jan Beulich wrote:
> On 08.02.2022 08:35, Oleksandr Andrushchenko wrote:
>> 1.1. Semi read lock upgrade in modify bars
>> --------------------------------------------------------------
>> In this case both vpci_read and vpci_write take a read lock and when it comes
>> to modify_bars:
>>
>> 1. read_unlock(d->vpci_lock)
>> 2. write_lock(d->vpci_lock)
>> 3. Check that pdev->vpci is still available and is the same object:
>> if (pdev->vpci && (pdev->vpci == old_vpci) )
>> {
>>       /* vpci structure is valid and can be used. */
>> }
>> else
>> {
>>       /* vpci has gone, return an error. */
>> }
>>
>> Pros:
>> - no per-device vpci lock is needed?
>> - solves overlap code ABBA in modify_bars
>> - readers and writers are NOT serialized
>> - NO need to carefully select read paths, so they are guaranteed not to lead
>>     to lock upgrade use-cases
>>
>> Cons:
>> - ???
> The "pdev->vpci == old_vpci" is fragile: The struct may have got re-
> allocated, and it just so happened that the two pointers are identical.
>
> Same then for the subsequent variant 2.
Yes, it is possible. We can add an ID number to pdev->vpci,
so each new allocated vpci structure has a unique ID which can be used
to compare vpci structures. It can be something like pdev->vpci->id = 
d->vpci_id++;
with id being uint32_t for example
>
> Jan
>
>