On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 12:20:53 +1100 Herbert Xu <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> This is true if CPU 0 reads the count before reading skb->list. > Without a memory barrier, atomic_read and reading skb->list can > be reordered. Put it another way, reading skb->list could return > a cached value that was read from the main memory prior to the > atomic_read. > > So in order for CPU 0 to always see an up-to-date value of skb->list, > it needs to do an smp_rmb() between the atomic_read and reading > skb->list. You're absolutely right. Ok, so we do need to change kfree_skb(). I believe even with the memory barrier, the atomic_read() optimization is still worth it. atomic ops on sparc64 take a minimum of 40 some odd cycles on UltraSPARC-III and later, whereas the memory barrier will take up a single cycle most of the time. So it'll look something like: if (atomic_read(&skb->users) == 1) smb_rmb(); else if (!atomic_dec_and_test(&skb->users)) return; __kfree_skb(skb); - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/