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Date:      Tue, 12 Dec 2000 15:18:59 -0800 (PST)
From:      John Baldwin <jhb@FreeBSD.ORG>
To:        Julian Elischer <julian@elischer.org>
Cc:        Bosko Milekic <bmilekic@technokratis.com>, net@FreeBSD.ORG, jasone@FreeBSD.ORG, Alfred Perlstein <bright@wintelcom.net>
Subject:   Re: MEXT_IS_REF broken.
Message-ID:  <XFMail.001212151859.jhb@FreeBSD.org>
In-Reply-To: <3A36A1D8.8297C7B8@elischer.org>

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On 12-Dec-00 Julian Elischer wrote:
> 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?

Yes, I think you are.  A CPU can't magically obtain a reference to something in
order to bump the refcount in the 1 -> 0 -> 1 case.  If you aren't doing things
with the object w/o holding a reference count first, then where will cpu B get
the reference to know to do the refcount_acquire() from?

-- 

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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