On Mon, 2023-06-19 at 18:06 -0700, Dave Hansen wrote: > On 6/19/23 17:56, Huang, Kai wrote: > > Any comments to below? > > Nothing that I haven't already said in this thread: > > > Just use a normal old atomic_t or set_bit()/test_bit(). They have > > built-in memory barriers are are less likely to get botched. > > I kinda made a point of literally suggesting "atomic_t or > set_bit()/test_bit()". I even told you why: "built-in memory barriers". > > Guess what READ/WRITE_ONCE() *don't* have. Memory barriers. > Hi Dave, Sorry to bring this up again. I thought more on this topic, and I think using atotmic_t is only necessary if we add it right after setting up tdmr->pamt_* in tdmr_set_up_pamt(), because there we need both compiler barrier and CPU memory barrier to make sure memory order (as Kirill commented in the first reply). However, if we add a new variable like below ... +static bool tdx_private_mem_begin; + /* * Wrapper of __seamcall() to convert SEAMCALL leaf function error code * to kernel error code. @seamcall_ret and @out contain the SEAMCALL @@ -1123,6 +1125,8 @@ static int init_tdx_module(void) */ wbinvd_on_all_cpus(); + tdx_private_mem_begin = true; ... then we don't need any more explicit barrier, because: 1) it's not possible for compiler to optimize the order between setting tdmr->pamt_* and tdx_private_mem_begin; 2) no CPU memory barrier is needed as WBINVD is a serializing instruction so the wbinvd_on_all_cpus() above has already implied memory barrier. Does this make sense?