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Date:      Tue, 12 Dec 2000 14:08:24 -0800
From:      Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org>
To:        John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org>
Cc:        Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>, jasone@FreeBSD.org, net@FreeBSD.org, Bosko Milekic <bmilekic@technokratis.com>
Subject:   Re: MEXT_IS_REF broken.
Message-ID:  <3A36A1D8.8297C7B8@elischer.org>
References:  <XFMail.001212083927.jhb@FreeBSD.org>

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John Baldwin wrote:
> 
> On 12-Dec-00 Alfred Perlstein wrote:
> > grr...
> >
> > considering this:
> >
> >#define MEXT_IS_REF(m) ((m)->m_ext.ref_cnt->refcnt > 1)
> >
> >#define MEXT_REM_REF(m) do {                        \
> >     KASSERT((m)->m_ext.ref_cnt->refcnt > 0, ("m_ext refcnt < 0"));  \
> >     atomic_subtract_long(&((m)->m_ext.ref_cnt->refcnt), 1);     \
> > } while(0)
> >
> > this:
> >
> >#define MEXTFREE(m) do {                        \
> >     struct mbuf *_mmm = (m);                    \
> >                                     \
> >     if (MEXT_IS_REF(_mmm))                      \
> >         MEXT_REM_REF(_mmm);                 \
> >
> >
> > is not mpsafe.  we _NEED_ some type that allows atomic dec and test
> > for 0.
> 
> http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/patches/refcount.patch

this is great but if I understand it, there is a hole...
the operations are atomic, but if teh count is 1
and the release and aquire are called at around the same time,
then thre are two possibilities..
the value goes 1 -> 2 -> 1  (this is ok)
the value goes 1 -> 0 -> 1  ( this is NOT ok)
the aquire calls        atomic_add_acq_int(count, 1);

which by my reading of the code last week, compiles down to 
	lock ; addl  (mumble)

if the value that the aquire finds is 0 then it should fail and return 
without incrementing.. the returned value of 0 for the other processor
will cause it to garbage collect the  object in a very sort amount of time
so trying to use it is a bad idea.


Am I missing something here?
Hopefully there si some higher level lock or something that stops
you from trying to reference an object that is having its last reference removed
(otherwise how did you find it?) but never-the less, it's an issue
to look at.



> 
> > thanks,
> > -Alfred
> 
> --
> 
> John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.org> -- http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/
> PGP Key: http://www.baldwin.cx/~john/pgpkey.asc
> "Power Users Use the Power to Serve!"  -  http://www.FreeBSD.org/
> 
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-- 
      __--_|\  Julian Elischer
     /       \ julian@elischer.org
    (   OZ    ) World tour 2000
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