On Tue, Sep 24, 2019 at 05:24:58PM -0600, Yu Zhao wrote: > We don't want to expose a non-hugetlb page to the fast gup running > on a remote CPU before all local non-atomic ops on the page flags > are visible first. > > For an anon page that isn't in swap cache, we need to make sure all > prior non-atomic ops, especially __SetPageSwapBacked() in > page_add_new_anon_rmap(), are ordered before set_pte_at() to prevent > the following race: > > CPU 1 CPU1 > set_pte_at() get_user_pages_fast() > page_add_new_anon_rmap() gup_pte_range() > __SetPageSwapBacked() SetPageReferenced() > > This demonstrates a non-fatal scenario. Though haven't been directly > observed, the fatal ones can exist, e.g., PG_lock set by fast gup > caller and then overwritten by __SetPageSwapBacked(). > > For an anon page that is already in swap cache or a file page, we > don't need smp_wmb() before set_pte_at() because adding to swap or > file cach serves as a valid write barrier. Using non-atomic ops > thereafter is a bug, obviously. > > smp_wmb() is added following 11 of total 12 page_add_new_anon_rmap() > call sites, with the only exception being > do_huge_pmd_wp_page_fallback() because of an existing smp_wmb(). > I'm thinking this patch make stuff rather fragile.. Should we instead stick the barrier in set_p*d_at() instead? Or rather, make that store a store-release?