Re: [PATCH v2 2/3] mm/swapfile: fix possible data races of inuse_pages

From: Muchun Song
Date: Mon Jun 20 2022 - 23:40:12 EST


On Tue, Jun 21, 2022 at 09:14:00AM +0800, Huang, Ying wrote:
> Qian Cai <quic_qiancai@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> > On Mon, Jun 20, 2022 at 10:20:07PM +0800, Muchun Song wrote:
> >> The lock does not protect the read sides. So the write side should be
> >> fixed by WRITTE_ONCE().
> >
> > https://lwn.net/Articles/816854/
> >
> > "Unmarked writes (aligned and up to word size) can be treated as if they had
> > used WRITE_ONCE() by building with
> > CONFIG_KCSAN_ASSUME_PLAIN_WRITES_ATOMIC=y (also selected by default).

All right, CONFIG_KCSAN_ASSUME_PLAIN_WRITES_ATOMIC help us avoid KCSAN
complaining.

> > Experience has shown that compilers are much less likely to destructively
> > optimize in-kernel writes than reads. Some developers might therefore
> > choose to use READ_ONCE() but omit the corresponding WRITE_ONCE(). Other
> > developers might prefer the documentation benefits and long-term peace of
> > mind accruing from explicit use of WRITE_ONCE()..."
>
> Thanks for pointing me to this great article. So although not required
> by KCSAN strictly, WRITE_ONCE() is still good for documentation, etc.
> Just like we have done for swap_info_struct->highest_bit, etc.
>

+1

> Best Regards,
> Huang, Ying
>