From: Philipp Stanner <phasta@kernel.org>
To: "Danilo Krummrich" <dakr@kernel.org>,
"Maarten Lankhorst" <maarten.lankhorst@linux.intel.com>,
"David Airlie" <airlied@gmail.com>,
"Simona Vetter" <simona@ffwll.ch>,
"Sumit Semwal" <sumit.semwal@linaro.org>,
"Christian König" <christian.koenig@amd.com>,
"Tvrtko Ursulin" <tvrtko.ursulin@igalia.com>,
"Boris Brezillon" <boris.brezillon@collabora.com>,
"Paul E . McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>
Cc: dri-devel@lists.freedesktop.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Philipp Stanner <phasta@kernel.org>
Subject: [RFC PATCH] dma-buf/dma_fence: Make races for dma_fence_is_signaled() less likely
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:42:52 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260612104251.2264707-2-phasta@kernel.org> (raw)
dma_fence_is_signaled() returns whether a fence has been signaled
already. That function contains a fast path opportunistic check which is
not guarded by the lock and, according to Christian, cannot be guarded
by the lock without causing a massive performance regression.
This now means that dma_fence_is_signaled() can return true WHILE the
fence callbacks are still being executed. This is razy and has lead to
at least one bug solved in:
commit c8a5d5ea3ba6 ("nouveau: fix client work fence deletion race")
Make this race impossible, by simply setting the bit only once the
callbacks are actually completed.
Signed-off-by: Philipp Stanner <phasta@kernel.org>
---
drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c | 18 ++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c b/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
index c7ea1e75d38a..2416cc86ce93 100644
--- a/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
+++ b/drivers/dma-buf/dma-fence.c
@@ -359,8 +359,19 @@ void dma_fence_signal_timestamp_locked(struct dma_fence *fence,
dma_fence_assert_held(fence);
- if (unlikely(test_and_set_bit(DMA_FENCE_FLAG_SIGNALED_BIT,
- &fence->flags)))
+ /*
+ * First test the bit, so we don't signal an already signaled fence again.
+ * The lock protects against multiple parties setting the bit. The bit
+ * is then set at the end of the function.
+ *
+ * The background is that there is a fast path check in
+ * dma_fence_is_signaled() which does not use lock protection and can
+ * return true *while* the fence callbacks are still executing.
+ *
+ * This fast path check supposedly cannot be guarded by the lock because
+ * of significant performance regressions.
+ */
+ if (unlikely(test_bit(DMA_FENCE_FLAG_SIGNALED_BIT, &fence->flags)))
return;
trace_dma_fence_signaled(fence);
@@ -384,6 +395,9 @@ void dma_fence_signal_timestamp_locked(struct dma_fence *fence,
INIT_LIST_HEAD(&cur->node);
cur->func(fence, cur);
}
+
+ // TODO: we need some barrier here, don't we?
+ set_bit(DMA_FENCE_FLAG_SIGNALED_BIT, &fence->flags);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(dma_fence_signal_timestamp_locked);
--
2.54.0
next reply other threads:[~2026-06-12 10:43 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2026-06-12 10:42 Philipp Stanner [this message]
2026-06-15 9:53 ` Christian König
2026-06-15 10:04 ` Philipp Stanner
2026-06-15 10:09 ` Christian König
2026-06-15 10:36 ` Philipp Stanner
2026-06-15 9:56 ` Gary Guo
2026-06-15 14:16 ` Philipp Stanner
2026-06-15 11:11 ` Tvrtko Ursulin
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