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Date:      Thu, 27 Dec 2012 05:53:22 -0800
From:      Attilio Rao <attilio@freebsd.org>
To:        Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@freebsd.org>
Cc:        svn-src-head@freebsd.org, svn-src-all@freebsd.org, src-committers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: svn commit: r244732 - head/sys/sys
Message-ID:  <CAJ-FndC6Xq4EWcU203E4ucgr=jzOAutBBBkn%2BO1Qs0nL0i_Q3A@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20121227132507.GY80310@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <201212271236.qBRCawuU078203@svn.freebsd.org> <20121227124657.GX80310@FreeBSD.org> <CAJ-FndD9aDfPprwBYC%2B3T1WsfE1b4aZJENRAjo%2BhFEL1NLBKmw@mail.gmail.com> <20121227132507.GY80310@FreeBSD.org>

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On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 5:25 AM, Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@freebsd.org> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 04:55:22AM -0800, Attilio Rao wrote:
> A> On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 4:46 AM, Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@freebsd.org> wrote:
> A> >   Attilio,
> A> >
> A> > On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 12:36:58PM +0000, Attilio Rao wrote:
> A> > A> Author: attilio
> A> > A> Date: Thu Dec 27 12:36:58 2012
> A> > A> New Revision: 244732
> A> > A> URL: http://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/base/244732
> A> > A>
> A> > A> Log:
> A> > A>   br_prod_tail and br_cons_tail members are used as barrier to
> A> > A>   signal bug_ring ownership. However, instructions can be reordered
> A> > A>   around members write leading to stale values for ie. br_prod_bufs.
> A> > A>
> A> > A>   Use correct memory barriers to ensure proper ordering of the
> A> > A>   ownership tokens updates.
> A> > A>
> A> > A>   Sponsored by:      EMC / Isilon storage division
> A> > A>   MFC after: 2 weeks
> A> >
> A> > Have you profiled this?
> A> >
> A> > After this change the buf_ring actually gains its own hand-rolled
> A> > mutex:
> A> >
> A> >         while (atomic_load_acq_32(&br->br_prod_tail) != prod_head)
> A> >                 cpu_spinwait();
> A> >
> A> > The only difference with mutex(9) is that this one isn't monitored
> A> > by WITNESS.
> A>
> A> I think you are not correct. It doesn't disable interrupts (as
> A> spinlock do) and it doesn't sleep.
> A> So your analogy is completely off.
> A>
> A> Also, on x86 atomic_store_rel_*() is a simple write. The only thing
> A> that really changes is the atomic_load_acq_*() that introduces a
> A> locked instruction.
>
> This only thing, the locked instruction, affects performance a lot. I
> suspect strong forwarding degradation after your change. Can you please
> profile that?

Yes but it is a matter of incorrect code vs. slower instruction.
Also, you are not considering that there are much heavier-weight
instructions already (wmb(), rmb(), which I'm going to change soon
into actual barriers btw). I highly doubt you can measure the latency
introduced by atomic_load_acq_*() when mfence and stuff is in place.
The pessimization should only account for a small fraction of the
overall performance.

> A> > The idea behind buf_ring was lockless storing and lockless fetching
> A> > from a ring and now this vanished.
> A> >
> A> > What does your change actually fixes except precise accounting of
> A> > br_prod_bufs that are actually unused and should be better garbage
> A> > collected rather than fixed?
> A>
> A> The write of br_prod_tail must happens as very last thing, also after
> A> the whole buf setup. The only way you can enforce this is with a
> A> memory barrier. I can double-check if we can garbage collect
> A> br_prod_bufs but this should not be enough yet.
>
> Do you have a core file that illustrates that a ring can get into
> inconsistent state?

I don't I got it by code inspection. The br_prod_tail update must
happen as very last thing because it means the buf is "ready-to-go"
and it will be owned.

However, the prior wmb() may be helpful in this case, at least for one
case. I will do a follow up soon. For a longer discussion, I plan to
move this into a real atomic_store_rel_*() soon.

Attilio


-- 
Peace can only be achieved by understanding - A. Einstein



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