On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxx> wrote: > [ Cc:-ed workqueue/locking/suspend-race-condition experts. ] Heh. I am not expert, but I looked at the code. The obvious suspicious thing to see is the use of unpaired barriers? Maybe like this: 47 static void set_state(enum stopmachine_state newstate) 48 { 49 /* Reset ack counter. */ 50 atomic_set(&thread_ack, num_threads); 51 smp_wmb(); + /* force ordering between thread_ack/state */ 52 state = newstate; 53 } 54 55 /* Last one to ack a state moves to the next state. */ 56 static void ack_state(void) 57 { 58 if (atomic_dec_and_test(&thread_ack)) Maybe + /* force ordering between thread_ack/state */ + smp_rmb(); here? 59 set_state(state + 1); 60 } 61 Or maybe I am wrong. But Documentation/memory-barriers.txt is rather explicit on this point. Vegard -- "The animistic metaphor of the bug that maliciously sneaked in while the programmer was not looking is intellectually dishonest as it disguises that the error is the programmer's own creation." -- E. W. Dijkstra, EWD1036 -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kernel-testers" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html