Re: Litmus test for question from Al Viro

[Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>]

On Thu, Oct 01, 2020 at 12:15:29PM -0400, Alan Stern wrote:
> > <viro> CPU1:
> > <viro>         to_free = NULL
> > <viro>         spin_lock(&LOCK)
> > <viro>         if (!smp_load_acquire(&V->B))
> > <viro>                 to_free = V
> > <viro>         V->A = 0
> > <viro>         spin_unlock(&LOCK)
> > <viro>         kfree(to_free)
> > <viro>
> > <viro> CPU2:
> > <viro>         to_free = V;
> > <viro>         if (READ_ONCE(V->A)) {
> > <viro>                 spin_lock(&LOCK)
> > <viro>                 if (V->A)
> > <viro>                         to_free = NULL
> > <viro>                 smp_store_release(&V->B, 0);
> > <viro>                 spin_unlock(&LOCK)
> > <viro>         }
> > <viro>         kfree(to_free);
> > <viro> 1) is it guaranteed that V will be freed exactly once and that
> > 	  no accesses to *V will happen after freeing it?
> > <viro> 2) do we need smp_store_release() there?  I.e. will anything
> > 	  break if it's replaced with plain V->B = 0?
> 
> Here are my answers to Al's questions:
> 
> 1) It is guaranteed that V will be freed exactly once.  It is not 
> guaranteed that no accesses to *V will occur after it is freed, because 
> the test contains a data race.  CPU1's plain "V->A = 0" write races with 
> CPU2's READ_ONCE;

What will that READ_ONCE() yield in that case?  If it's non-zero, we should
be fine - we won't get to kfree() until after we are done with the spinlock.
And if it's zero...  What will CPU1 do with *V accesses _after_ it has issued
the store to V->A?

Confused...

> if the plain write were replaced with 
> "WRITE_ONCE(V->A, 0)" then the guarantee would hold.  Equally well, 
> CPU1's smp_load_acquire could be replaced with a plain read while the 
> plain write is replaced with smp_store_release.

Er...  Do you mean the write to ->A on CPU1?