Il 26/11/2013 16:03, Gleb Natapov ha scritto: >>>> > >>I understood the proposal was also to eliminate the synchronize_rcu(), >>>> > >>so while new interrupts would see the new routing table, interrupts >>>> > >>already in flight could pick up the old one. >>> > >Isn't that always the case with RCU? (See my answer above: "the vcpus >>> > >already see the new routing table after the rcu_assign_pointer that is >>> > >in kvm_irq_routing_update"). >> > >> > With synchronize_rcu(), you have the additional guarantee that any >> > parallel accesses to the old routing table have completed. Since we >> > also trigger the irq from rcu context, you know that after >> > synchronize_rcu() you won't get any interrupts to the old >> > destination (see kvm_set_irq_inatomic()). > We do not have this guaranty for other vcpus that do not call > synchronize_rcu(). They may still use outdated routing table while a vcpu > or iothread that performed table update sits in synchronize_rcu(). Avi's point is that, after the VCPU resumes execution, you know that no interrupt will be sent to the old destination because kvm_set_msi_inatomic (and ultimately kvm_irq_delivery_to_apic_fast) is also called within the RCU read-side critical section. Without synchronize_rcu you could have VCPU writes to routing table e = entry from IRQ routing table kvm_irq_routing_update(kvm, new); VCPU resumes execution kvm_set_msi_irq(e, &irq); kvm_irq_delivery_to_apic_fast(); where the entry is stale but the VCPU has already resumed execution. If we want to ensure, we need to use a different mechanism for synchronization than the global RCU. QRCU would work; readers are not wait-free but only if there is a concurrent synchronize_qrcu, which should be rare. Paolo -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html