Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE()

From	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Newsgroups	linux.kernel
Subject	Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE()
Date	2016-11-25 19:50 +0100
Message-ID	<sHtJn-4cx-7@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	(6 earlier) <sHroe-2Rp-5@gated-at.bofh.it> <sHroe-2Rp-7@gated-at.bofh.it> <sHstY-3tw-27@gated-at.bofh.it> <sHsX0-3Dv-3@gated-at.bofh.it> <sHt6G-3WZ-29@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 10:07 AM, Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 25, 2016 at 09:52:50AM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>> READ/WRITE_ONCE() are atomic *WHEN*THAT*IS*POSSIBLE*.
>
>> But sometimes it's not going to be atomic.
>
> That's the problem.

It has never really been much of a problem, and quite frankly, the
solution would never be to add _another_ crazy new function that will
just confuse everybody.

If you have code that depends on atomicity of READ_ONCE() and friends,
then you should add the appropriate built-time assert to *your* code.
Not to some random generic function that others care about and that
others do _not_ have problems with.

So if you have a data structure in virtio that is
architecture-dependent and might not be a word size, you add the

   BUILD_BUG_ON(sizeof(mytype) > sizeof(long));

or whatever. With a big comment saying "this needs to actually fit in
a single register so that we can do atomic accesses".

You do not screw it up for everybody else.

                Linus

Thread

[PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-24 11:30 +0100
  [PATCH 2/3] vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-24 11:30 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 2/3] vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-24 12:20 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 2/3] vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-24 12:40 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 2/3] vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Jason Wang <jasowang@redhat.com> - 2016-11-25 03:50 +0100
  [PATCH 1/3] tools/virtio: fix READ_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-24 11:30 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 1/3] tools/virtio: fix READ_ONCE() Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-24 12:40 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 1/3] tools/virtio: fix READ_ONCE() Jason Wang <jasowang@redhat.com> - 2016-11-25 03:40 +0100
  [PATCH 3/3] tools/virtio: use {READ,WRITE}_ONCE() in uaccess.h Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-24 11:30 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 3/3] tools/virtio: use {READ,WRITE}_ONCE() in uaccess.h Cornelia Huck <cornelia.huck@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-24 12:40 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 3/3] tools/virtio: use {READ,WRITE}_ONCE() in uaccess.h Jason Wang <jasowang@redhat.com> - 2016-11-25 03:50 +0100
  Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com> - 2016-11-24 21:40 +0100
    Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 12:30 +0100
      Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-25 12:40 +0100
        Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 13:30 +0100
          Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2016-11-25 13:50 +0100
            Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2016-11-25 13:50 +0100
              Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com> - 2016-11-25 16:00 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@google.com> - 2016-11-25 16:30 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 17:20 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2016-11-25 17:20 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 17:40 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-25 18:00 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 18:30 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> - 2016-11-25 18:50 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-25 19:50 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@redhat.com> - 2016-11-25 22:10 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Christian Borntraeger <borntraeger@de.ibm.com> - 2016-11-25 22:50 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Dmitry Vyukov <dvyukov@google.com> - 2016-11-25 18:30 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 18:50 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> - 2016-11-25 19:00 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 19:10 +0100
                Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> - 2016-11-25 19:50 +0100
            Re: [PATCH 0/3] virtio/vringh: kill off ACCESS_ONCE() Mark Rutland <mark.rutland@arm.com> - 2016-11-25 15:40 +0100

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