Re: RCU: Number of grace-periods

["Dmitriy V'jukov" <dvyukov@gmail.com>]

Paul E. McKenney <paulmck <at> linux.vnet.ibm.com> writes:
> 
> Interesting thought -- but please keep in mind that acquire/release fences
> still allow subsequent stores to be reordered to precede earlier loads.
> This means that the first loads in the RCU critical section could be
> reordered to precede the final store of the rcu_read_lock() primitive.


Hmmm... Yes, I've missed this moment. I think you are right. The critical
synchronizing action of the __rcu_read_lock() is the store to the
__get_cpu_var(rcu_flipctr) (not a load!). So some code from the critical section
can hoist above the store to the __get_cpu_var(rcu_flipctr).
However the good question is how many grace-periods is required if code can
hoist above read_lock(), but can't sink below read_unlock()?
Good work for Relacy :) Nope, I've not yet tried to apply it...


--
Best regards,
Dmitriy V'jukov