Re: [RFC PATCH v3 12/24] x86/mm: Modify ptep_set_wrprotect and pmdp_set_wrprotect for _PAGE_DIRTY_SW

From: Yu-cheng Yu
Date: Fri Aug 31 2018 - 11:53:03 EST


On Fri, 2018-08-31 at 07:47 -0700, Dave Hansen wrote:
> On 08/31/2018 07:33 AM, Yu-cheng Yu wrote:
> >
> > Please use the form:
> >
> > pte_t new_pte, pte = READ_ONCE(*ptep);
> > do {
> > new_pte = /* ... */;
> > } while (!try_cmpxchg(ptep, &pte, new_pte);
> It's probably also worth doing some testing to see if you can detect
> the
> cost of the cmpxchg.ÂÂIt's definitely more than the old code.
>
> A loop that does mprotect(PROT_READ) followed by
> mprotect(PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE) should do it.

I created the test,

https://github.com/yyu168/cet-smoke-test/blob/quick/quick/mprotect_ben
ch.c

then realized this won't work.

To trigger a race in ptep_set_wrprotect(), we need to fork from one of
three pthread siblings.

Or do we measure only how much this affects fork?
If there is no racing, the effect should be minimal.

Yu-cheng