Re: [PATCH] block: Annotate a racy read in blk_do_io_stat()

[Bart Van Assche <bvanassche@acm.org>]

On 5/10/24 07:19, Breno Leitao wrote:
> diff --git a/block/blk.h b/block/blk.h
> index d9f584984bc4..57a1d73a0718 100644
> --- a/block/blk.h
> +++ b/block/blk.h
> @@ -353,7 +353,8 @@ int blk_dev_init(void);
>    */
>   static inline bool blk_do_io_stat(struct request *rq)
>   {
> -	return (rq->rq_flags & RQF_IO_STAT) && !blk_rq_is_passthrough(rq);
> +	/* Disk stats reading isn’t critical, let it race */
> +	return (data_race(rq->rq_flags) & RQF_IO_STAT) && !blk_rq_is_passthrough(rq);
>   }
>   
>   void update_io_ticks(struct block_device *part, unsigned long now, bool end);

Why to annotate this race with data_race() instead of READ_ONCE()? Are
there any cases in which it is better to use data_race() than
READ_ONCE()?

Thanks,

Bart.