<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux-toradex.git/include/linux/syscalls.h, branch v4.13-rc4</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel for Apalis and Colibri modules</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>take compat_sys_old_getrlimit() to native syscall</title>
<updated>2017-05-27T19:38:06+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Al Viro</name>
<email>viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk</email>
</author>
<published>2017-05-27T02:04:29+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=613763a1f056211522bac77ff39f25706e678fdd'/>
<id>613763a1f056211522bac77ff39f25706e678fdd</id>
<content type='text'>
... and sanitize the ifdefs in there

Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
... and sanitize the ifdefs in there

Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>statx: Add a system call to make enhanced file info available</title>
<updated>2017-03-03T01:51:15+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>David Howells</name>
<email>dhowells@redhat.com</email>
</author>
<published>2017-01-31T16:46:22+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=a528d35e8bfcc521d7cb70aaf03e1bd296c8493f'/>
<id>a528d35e8bfcc521d7cb70aaf03e1bd296c8493f</id>
<content type='text'>
Add a system call to make extended file information available, including
file creation and some attribute flags where available through the
underlying filesystem.

The getattr inode operation is altered to take two additional arguments: a
u32 request_mask and an unsigned int flags that indicate the
synchronisation mode.  This change is propagated to the vfs_getattr*()
function.

Functions like vfs_stat() are now inline wrappers around new functions
vfs_statx() and vfs_statx_fd() to reduce stack usage.

========
OVERVIEW
========

The idea was initially proposed as a set of xattrs that could be retrieved
with getxattr(), but the general preference proved to be for a new syscall
with an extended stat structure.

A number of requests were gathered for features to be included.  The
following have been included:

 (1) Make the fields a consistent size on all arches and make them large.

 (2) Spare space, request flags and information flags are provided for
     future expansion.

 (3) Better support for the y2038 problem [Arnd Bergmann] (tv_sec is an
     __s64).

 (4) Creation time: The SMB protocol carries the creation time, which could
     be exported by Samba, which will in turn help CIFS make use of
     FS-Cache as that can be used for coherency data (stx_btime).

     This is also specified in NFSv4 as a recommended attribute and could
     be exported by NFSD [Steve French].

 (5) Lightweight stat: Ask for just those details of interest, and allow a
     netfs (such as NFS) to approximate anything not of interest, possibly
     without going to the server [Trond Myklebust, Ulrich Drepper, Andreas
     Dilger] (AT_STATX_DONT_SYNC).

 (6) Heavyweight stat: Force a netfs to go to the server, even if it thinks
     its cached attributes are up to date [Trond Myklebust]
     (AT_STATX_FORCE_SYNC).

And the following have been left out for future extension:

 (7) Data version number: Could be used by userspace NFS servers [Aneesh
     Kumar].

     Can also be used to modify fill_post_wcc() in NFSD which retrieves
     i_version directly, but has just called vfs_getattr().  It could get
     it from the kstat struct if it used vfs_xgetattr() instead.

     (There's disagreement on the exact semantics of a single field, since
     not all filesystems do this the same way).

 (8) BSD stat compatibility: Including more fields from the BSD stat such
     as creation time (st_btime) and inode generation number (st_gen)
     [Jeremy Allison, Bernd Schubert].

 (9) Inode generation number: Useful for FUSE and userspace NFS servers
     [Bernd Schubert].

     (This was asked for but later deemed unnecessary with the
     open-by-handle capability available and caused disagreement as to
     whether it's a security hole or not).

(10) Extra coherency data may be useful in making backups [Andreas Dilger].

     (No particular data were offered, but things like last backup
     timestamp, the data version number and the DOS archive bit would come
     into this category).

(11) Allow the filesystem to indicate what it can/cannot provide: A
     filesystem can now say it doesn't support a standard stat feature if
     that isn't available, so if, for instance, inode numbers or UIDs don't
     exist or are fabricated locally...

     (This requires a separate system call - I have an fsinfo() call idea
     for this).

(12) Store a 16-byte volume ID in the superblock that can be returned in
     struct xstat [Steve French].

     (Deferred to fsinfo).

(13) Include granularity fields in the time data to indicate the
     granularity of each of the times (NFSv4 time_delta) [Steve French].

     (Deferred to fsinfo).

(14) FS_IOC_GETFLAGS value.  These could be translated to BSD's st_flags.
     Note that the Linux IOC flags are a mess and filesystems such as Ext4
     define flags that aren't in linux/fs.h, so translation in the kernel
     may be a necessity (or, possibly, we provide the filesystem type too).

     (Some attributes are made available in stx_attributes, but the general
     feeling was that the IOC flags were to ext[234]-specific and shouldn't
     be exposed through statx this way).

(15) Mask of features available on file (eg: ACLs, seclabel) [Brad Boyer,
     Michael Kerrisk].

     (Deferred, probably to fsinfo.  Finding out if there's an ACL or
     seclabal might require extra filesystem operations).

(16) Femtosecond-resolution timestamps [Dave Chinner].

     (A __reserved field has been left in the statx_timestamp struct for
     this - if there proves to be a need).

(17) A set multiple attributes syscall to go with this.

===============
NEW SYSTEM CALL
===============

The new system call is:

	int ret = statx(int dfd,
			const char *filename,
			unsigned int flags,
			unsigned int mask,
			struct statx *buffer);

The dfd, filename and flags parameters indicate the file to query, in a
similar way to fstatat().  There is no equivalent of lstat() as that can be
emulated with statx() by passing AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW in flags.  There is
also no equivalent of fstat() as that can be emulated by passing a NULL
filename to statx() with the fd of interest in dfd.

Whether or not statx() synchronises the attributes with the backing store
can be controlled by OR'ing a value into the flags argument (this typically
only affects network filesystems):

 (1) AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT tells statx() to behave as stat() does in this
     respect.

 (2) AT_STATX_FORCE_SYNC will require a network filesystem to synchronise
     its attributes with the server - which might require data writeback to
     occur to get the timestamps correct.

 (3) AT_STATX_DONT_SYNC will suppress synchronisation with the server in a
     network filesystem.  The resulting values should be considered
     approximate.

mask is a bitmask indicating the fields in struct statx that are of
interest to the caller.  The user should set this to STATX_BASIC_STATS to
get the basic set returned by stat().  It should be noted that asking for
more information may entail extra I/O operations.

buffer points to the destination for the data.  This must be 256 bytes in
size.

======================
MAIN ATTRIBUTES RECORD
======================

The following structures are defined in which to return the main attribute
set:

	struct statx_timestamp {
		__s64	tv_sec;
		__s32	tv_nsec;
		__s32	__reserved;
	};

	struct statx {
		__u32	stx_mask;
		__u32	stx_blksize;
		__u64	stx_attributes;
		__u32	stx_nlink;
		__u32	stx_uid;
		__u32	stx_gid;
		__u16	stx_mode;
		__u16	__spare0[1];
		__u64	stx_ino;
		__u64	stx_size;
		__u64	stx_blocks;
		__u64	__spare1[1];
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_atime;
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_btime;
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_ctime;
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_mtime;
		__u32	stx_rdev_major;
		__u32	stx_rdev_minor;
		__u32	stx_dev_major;
		__u32	stx_dev_minor;
		__u64	__spare2[14];
	};

The defined bits in request_mask and stx_mask are:

	STATX_TYPE		Want/got stx_mode &amp; S_IFMT
	STATX_MODE		Want/got stx_mode &amp; ~S_IFMT
	STATX_NLINK		Want/got stx_nlink
	STATX_UID		Want/got stx_uid
	STATX_GID		Want/got stx_gid
	STATX_ATIME		Want/got stx_atime{,_ns}
	STATX_MTIME		Want/got stx_mtime{,_ns}
	STATX_CTIME		Want/got stx_ctime{,_ns}
	STATX_INO		Want/got stx_ino
	STATX_SIZE		Want/got stx_size
	STATX_BLOCKS		Want/got stx_blocks
	STATX_BASIC_STATS	[The stuff in the normal stat struct]
	STATX_BTIME		Want/got stx_btime{,_ns}
	STATX_ALL		[All currently available stuff]

stx_btime is the file creation time, stx_mask is a bitmask indicating the
data provided and __spares*[] are where as-yet undefined fields can be
placed.

Time fields are structures with separate seconds and nanoseconds fields
plus a reserved field in case we want to add even finer resolution.  Note
that times will be negative if before 1970; in such a case, the nanosecond
fields will also be negative if not zero.

The bits defined in the stx_attributes field convey information about a
file, how it is accessed, where it is and what it does.  The following
attributes map to FS_*_FL flags and are the same numerical value:

	STATX_ATTR_COMPRESSED		File is compressed by the fs
	STATX_ATTR_IMMUTABLE		File is marked immutable
	STATX_ATTR_APPEND		File is append-only
	STATX_ATTR_NODUMP		File is not to be dumped
	STATX_ATTR_ENCRYPTED		File requires key to decrypt in fs

Within the kernel, the supported flags are listed by:

	KSTAT_ATTR_FS_IOC_FLAGS

[Are any other IOC flags of sufficient general interest to be exposed
through this interface?]

New flags include:

	STATX_ATTR_AUTOMOUNT		Object is an automount trigger

These are for the use of GUI tools that might want to mark files specially,
depending on what they are.

Fields in struct statx come in a number of classes:

 (0) stx_dev_*, stx_blksize.

     These are local system information and are always available.

 (1) stx_mode, stx_nlinks, stx_uid, stx_gid, stx_[amc]time, stx_ino,
     stx_size, stx_blocks.

     These will be returned whether the caller asks for them or not.  The
     corresponding bits in stx_mask will be set to indicate whether they
     actually have valid values.

     If the caller didn't ask for them, then they may be approximated.  For
     example, NFS won't waste any time updating them from the server,
     unless as a byproduct of updating something requested.

     If the values don't actually exist for the underlying object (such as
     UID or GID on a DOS file), then the bit won't be set in the stx_mask,
     even if the caller asked for the value.  In such a case, the returned
     value will be a fabrication.

     Note that there are instances where the type might not be valid, for
     instance Windows reparse points.

 (2) stx_rdev_*.

     This will be set only if stx_mode indicates we're looking at a
     blockdev or a chardev, otherwise will be 0.

 (3) stx_btime.

     Similar to (1), except this will be set to 0 if it doesn't exist.

=======
TESTING
=======

The following test program can be used to test the statx system call:

	samples/statx/test-statx.c

Just compile and run, passing it paths to the files you want to examine.
The file is built automatically if CONFIG_SAMPLES is enabled.

Here's some example output.  Firstly, an NFS directory that crosses to
another FSID.  Note that the AUTOMOUNT attribute is set because transiting
this directory will cause d_automount to be invoked by the VFS.

	[root@andromeda ~]# /tmp/test-statx -A /warthog/data
	statx(/warthog/data) = 0
	results=7ff
	  Size: 4096            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 1048576  directory
	Device: 00:26           Inode: 1703937     Links: 125
	Access: (3777/drwxrwxrwx)  Uid:     0   Gid:  4041
	Access: 2016-11-24 09:02:12.219699527+0000
	Modify: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000
	Change: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000
	Attributes: 0000000000001000 (-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ---m---- --------)

Secondly, the result of automounting on that directory.

	[root@andromeda ~]# /tmp/test-statx /warthog/data
	statx(/warthog/data) = 0
	results=7ff
	  Size: 4096            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 1048576  directory
	Device: 00:27           Inode: 2           Links: 125
	Access: (3777/drwxrwxrwx)  Uid:     0   Gid:  4041
	Access: 2016-11-24 09:02:12.219699527+0000
	Modify: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000
	Change: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000

Signed-off-by: David Howells &lt;dhowells@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Add a system call to make extended file information available, including
file creation and some attribute flags where available through the
underlying filesystem.

The getattr inode operation is altered to take two additional arguments: a
u32 request_mask and an unsigned int flags that indicate the
synchronisation mode.  This change is propagated to the vfs_getattr*()
function.

Functions like vfs_stat() are now inline wrappers around new functions
vfs_statx() and vfs_statx_fd() to reduce stack usage.

========
OVERVIEW
========

The idea was initially proposed as a set of xattrs that could be retrieved
with getxattr(), but the general preference proved to be for a new syscall
with an extended stat structure.

A number of requests were gathered for features to be included.  The
following have been included:

 (1) Make the fields a consistent size on all arches and make them large.

 (2) Spare space, request flags and information flags are provided for
     future expansion.

 (3) Better support for the y2038 problem [Arnd Bergmann] (tv_sec is an
     __s64).

 (4) Creation time: The SMB protocol carries the creation time, which could
     be exported by Samba, which will in turn help CIFS make use of
     FS-Cache as that can be used for coherency data (stx_btime).

     This is also specified in NFSv4 as a recommended attribute and could
     be exported by NFSD [Steve French].

 (5) Lightweight stat: Ask for just those details of interest, and allow a
     netfs (such as NFS) to approximate anything not of interest, possibly
     without going to the server [Trond Myklebust, Ulrich Drepper, Andreas
     Dilger] (AT_STATX_DONT_SYNC).

 (6) Heavyweight stat: Force a netfs to go to the server, even if it thinks
     its cached attributes are up to date [Trond Myklebust]
     (AT_STATX_FORCE_SYNC).

And the following have been left out for future extension:

 (7) Data version number: Could be used by userspace NFS servers [Aneesh
     Kumar].

     Can also be used to modify fill_post_wcc() in NFSD which retrieves
     i_version directly, but has just called vfs_getattr().  It could get
     it from the kstat struct if it used vfs_xgetattr() instead.

     (There's disagreement on the exact semantics of a single field, since
     not all filesystems do this the same way).

 (8) BSD stat compatibility: Including more fields from the BSD stat such
     as creation time (st_btime) and inode generation number (st_gen)
     [Jeremy Allison, Bernd Schubert].

 (9) Inode generation number: Useful for FUSE and userspace NFS servers
     [Bernd Schubert].

     (This was asked for but later deemed unnecessary with the
     open-by-handle capability available and caused disagreement as to
     whether it's a security hole or not).

(10) Extra coherency data may be useful in making backups [Andreas Dilger].

     (No particular data were offered, but things like last backup
     timestamp, the data version number and the DOS archive bit would come
     into this category).

(11) Allow the filesystem to indicate what it can/cannot provide: A
     filesystem can now say it doesn't support a standard stat feature if
     that isn't available, so if, for instance, inode numbers or UIDs don't
     exist or are fabricated locally...

     (This requires a separate system call - I have an fsinfo() call idea
     for this).

(12) Store a 16-byte volume ID in the superblock that can be returned in
     struct xstat [Steve French].

     (Deferred to fsinfo).

(13) Include granularity fields in the time data to indicate the
     granularity of each of the times (NFSv4 time_delta) [Steve French].

     (Deferred to fsinfo).

(14) FS_IOC_GETFLAGS value.  These could be translated to BSD's st_flags.
     Note that the Linux IOC flags are a mess and filesystems such as Ext4
     define flags that aren't in linux/fs.h, so translation in the kernel
     may be a necessity (or, possibly, we provide the filesystem type too).

     (Some attributes are made available in stx_attributes, but the general
     feeling was that the IOC flags were to ext[234]-specific and shouldn't
     be exposed through statx this way).

(15) Mask of features available on file (eg: ACLs, seclabel) [Brad Boyer,
     Michael Kerrisk].

     (Deferred, probably to fsinfo.  Finding out if there's an ACL or
     seclabal might require extra filesystem operations).

(16) Femtosecond-resolution timestamps [Dave Chinner].

     (A __reserved field has been left in the statx_timestamp struct for
     this - if there proves to be a need).

(17) A set multiple attributes syscall to go with this.

===============
NEW SYSTEM CALL
===============

The new system call is:

	int ret = statx(int dfd,
			const char *filename,
			unsigned int flags,
			unsigned int mask,
			struct statx *buffer);

The dfd, filename and flags parameters indicate the file to query, in a
similar way to fstatat().  There is no equivalent of lstat() as that can be
emulated with statx() by passing AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW in flags.  There is
also no equivalent of fstat() as that can be emulated by passing a NULL
filename to statx() with the fd of interest in dfd.

Whether or not statx() synchronises the attributes with the backing store
can be controlled by OR'ing a value into the flags argument (this typically
only affects network filesystems):

 (1) AT_STATX_SYNC_AS_STAT tells statx() to behave as stat() does in this
     respect.

 (2) AT_STATX_FORCE_SYNC will require a network filesystem to synchronise
     its attributes with the server - which might require data writeback to
     occur to get the timestamps correct.

 (3) AT_STATX_DONT_SYNC will suppress synchronisation with the server in a
     network filesystem.  The resulting values should be considered
     approximate.

mask is a bitmask indicating the fields in struct statx that are of
interest to the caller.  The user should set this to STATX_BASIC_STATS to
get the basic set returned by stat().  It should be noted that asking for
more information may entail extra I/O operations.

buffer points to the destination for the data.  This must be 256 bytes in
size.

======================
MAIN ATTRIBUTES RECORD
======================

The following structures are defined in which to return the main attribute
set:

	struct statx_timestamp {
		__s64	tv_sec;
		__s32	tv_nsec;
		__s32	__reserved;
	};

	struct statx {
		__u32	stx_mask;
		__u32	stx_blksize;
		__u64	stx_attributes;
		__u32	stx_nlink;
		__u32	stx_uid;
		__u32	stx_gid;
		__u16	stx_mode;
		__u16	__spare0[1];
		__u64	stx_ino;
		__u64	stx_size;
		__u64	stx_blocks;
		__u64	__spare1[1];
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_atime;
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_btime;
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_ctime;
		struct statx_timestamp	stx_mtime;
		__u32	stx_rdev_major;
		__u32	stx_rdev_minor;
		__u32	stx_dev_major;
		__u32	stx_dev_minor;
		__u64	__spare2[14];
	};

The defined bits in request_mask and stx_mask are:

	STATX_TYPE		Want/got stx_mode &amp; S_IFMT
	STATX_MODE		Want/got stx_mode &amp; ~S_IFMT
	STATX_NLINK		Want/got stx_nlink
	STATX_UID		Want/got stx_uid
	STATX_GID		Want/got stx_gid
	STATX_ATIME		Want/got stx_atime{,_ns}
	STATX_MTIME		Want/got stx_mtime{,_ns}
	STATX_CTIME		Want/got stx_ctime{,_ns}
	STATX_INO		Want/got stx_ino
	STATX_SIZE		Want/got stx_size
	STATX_BLOCKS		Want/got stx_blocks
	STATX_BASIC_STATS	[The stuff in the normal stat struct]
	STATX_BTIME		Want/got stx_btime{,_ns}
	STATX_ALL		[All currently available stuff]

stx_btime is the file creation time, stx_mask is a bitmask indicating the
data provided and __spares*[] are where as-yet undefined fields can be
placed.

Time fields are structures with separate seconds and nanoseconds fields
plus a reserved field in case we want to add even finer resolution.  Note
that times will be negative if before 1970; in such a case, the nanosecond
fields will also be negative if not zero.

The bits defined in the stx_attributes field convey information about a
file, how it is accessed, where it is and what it does.  The following
attributes map to FS_*_FL flags and are the same numerical value:

	STATX_ATTR_COMPRESSED		File is compressed by the fs
	STATX_ATTR_IMMUTABLE		File is marked immutable
	STATX_ATTR_APPEND		File is append-only
	STATX_ATTR_NODUMP		File is not to be dumped
	STATX_ATTR_ENCRYPTED		File requires key to decrypt in fs

Within the kernel, the supported flags are listed by:

	KSTAT_ATTR_FS_IOC_FLAGS

[Are any other IOC flags of sufficient general interest to be exposed
through this interface?]

New flags include:

	STATX_ATTR_AUTOMOUNT		Object is an automount trigger

These are for the use of GUI tools that might want to mark files specially,
depending on what they are.

Fields in struct statx come in a number of classes:

 (0) stx_dev_*, stx_blksize.

     These are local system information and are always available.

 (1) stx_mode, stx_nlinks, stx_uid, stx_gid, stx_[amc]time, stx_ino,
     stx_size, stx_blocks.

     These will be returned whether the caller asks for them or not.  The
     corresponding bits in stx_mask will be set to indicate whether they
     actually have valid values.

     If the caller didn't ask for them, then they may be approximated.  For
     example, NFS won't waste any time updating them from the server,
     unless as a byproduct of updating something requested.

     If the values don't actually exist for the underlying object (such as
     UID or GID on a DOS file), then the bit won't be set in the stx_mask,
     even if the caller asked for the value.  In such a case, the returned
     value will be a fabrication.

     Note that there are instances where the type might not be valid, for
     instance Windows reparse points.

 (2) stx_rdev_*.

     This will be set only if stx_mode indicates we're looking at a
     blockdev or a chardev, otherwise will be 0.

 (3) stx_btime.

     Similar to (1), except this will be set to 0 if it doesn't exist.

=======
TESTING
=======

The following test program can be used to test the statx system call:

	samples/statx/test-statx.c

Just compile and run, passing it paths to the files you want to examine.
The file is built automatically if CONFIG_SAMPLES is enabled.

Here's some example output.  Firstly, an NFS directory that crosses to
another FSID.  Note that the AUTOMOUNT attribute is set because transiting
this directory will cause d_automount to be invoked by the VFS.

	[root@andromeda ~]# /tmp/test-statx -A /warthog/data
	statx(/warthog/data) = 0
	results=7ff
	  Size: 4096            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 1048576  directory
	Device: 00:26           Inode: 1703937     Links: 125
	Access: (3777/drwxrwxrwx)  Uid:     0   Gid:  4041
	Access: 2016-11-24 09:02:12.219699527+0000
	Modify: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000
	Change: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000
	Attributes: 0000000000001000 (-------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- ---m---- --------)

Secondly, the result of automounting on that directory.

	[root@andromeda ~]# /tmp/test-statx /warthog/data
	statx(/warthog/data) = 0
	results=7ff
	  Size: 4096            Blocks: 8          IO Block: 1048576  directory
	Device: 00:27           Inode: 2           Links: 125
	Access: (3777/drwxrwxrwx)  Uid:     0   Gid:  4041
	Access: 2016-11-24 09:02:12.219699527+0000
	Modify: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000
	Change: 2016-11-17 10:44:36.225653653+0000

Signed-off-by: David Howells &lt;dhowells@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>generic syscalls: kill cruft from removed pkey syscalls</title>
<updated>2016-10-17T16:50:56+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Dave Hansen</name>
<email>dave.hansen@intel.com</email>
</author>
<published>2016-10-17T15:18:15+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=71757904efadefdf5505712f675218ce59483c5d'/>
<id>71757904efadefdf5505712f675218ce59483c5d</id>
<content type='text'>
pkey_set() and pkey_get() were syscalls present in older versions
of the protection keys patches.  They were fully excised from the
x86 code, but some cruft was left in the generic syscall code.  The
C++ comments were intended to help to make it more glaring to me to
fix them before actually submitting them.  That technique worked,
but later than I would have liked.

I test-compiled this for arm64.

Fixes: a60f7b69d92c0 ("generic syscalls: Wire up memory protection keys syscalls")
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Cc: Thomas Gleixner &lt;tglx@linutronix.de&gt;
Cc: x86@kernel.org
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Cc: mgorman@techsingularity.net
Cc: linux-api@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: luto@kernel.org
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
pkey_set() and pkey_get() were syscalls present in older versions
of the protection keys patches.  They were fully excised from the
x86 code, but some cruft was left in the generic syscall code.  The
C++ comments were intended to help to make it more glaring to me to
fix them before actually submitting them.  That technique worked,
but later than I would have liked.

I test-compiled this for arm64.

Fixes: a60f7b69d92c0 ("generic syscalls: Wire up memory protection keys syscalls")
Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Cc: Thomas Gleixner &lt;tglx@linutronix.de&gt;
Cc: x86@kernel.org
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Cc: mgorman@techsingularity.net
Cc: linux-api@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: luto@kernel.org
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>generic syscalls: Wire up memory protection keys syscalls</title>
<updated>2016-09-09T11:02:27+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Dave Hansen</name>
<email>dave.hansen@linux.intel.com</email>
</author>
<published>2016-07-29T16:30:18+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=a60f7b69d92c0142c80a30d669a76b617b7f6879'/>
<id>a60f7b69d92c0142c80a30d669a76b617b7f6879</id>
<content type='text'>
These new syscalls are implemented as generic code, so enable them for
architectures like arm64 which use the generic syscall table.

According to Arnd:

  Even if the support is x86 specific for the forseeable future, it may be
  good to reserve the number just in case.  The other architecture specific
  syscall lists are usually left to the individual arch maintainers, most a
  lot of the newer architectures share this table.

Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Dave Hansen &lt;dave@sr71.net&gt;
Cc: mgorman@techsingularity.net
Cc: linux-api@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: luto@kernel.org
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Cc: torvalds@linux-foundation.org
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20160729163018.505A6875@viggo.jf.intel.com
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner &lt;tglx@linutronix.de&gt;

</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
These new syscalls are implemented as generic code, so enable them for
architectures like arm64 which use the generic syscall table.

According to Arnd:

  Even if the support is x86 specific for the forseeable future, it may be
  good to reserve the number just in case.  The other architecture specific
  syscall lists are usually left to the individual arch maintainers, most a
  lot of the newer architectures share this table.

Signed-off-by: Dave Hansen &lt;dave.hansen@linux.intel.com&gt;
Acked-by: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Cc: linux-arch@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Dave Hansen &lt;dave@sr71.net&gt;
Cc: mgorman@techsingularity.net
Cc: linux-api@vger.kernel.org
Cc: linux-mm@kvack.org
Cc: luto@kernel.org
Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org
Cc: torvalds@linux-foundation.org
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20160729163018.505A6875@viggo.jf.intel.com
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner &lt;tglx@linutronix.de&gt;

</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>include/linux/syscalls.h: use pid_t instead of int</title>
<updated>2016-05-21T00:58:30+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>René Nyffenegger</name>
<email>mail@renenyffenegger.ch</email>
</author>
<published>2016-05-21T00:00:30+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=2eeed7e98d6a1341b1574893a95ce5b8379140f2'/>
<id>2eeed7e98d6a1341b1574893a95ce5b8379140f2</id>
<content type='text'>
In include/linux/syscalls.h, the four functions sys_kill, sys_tgkill,
sys_tkill and sys_rt_sigqueueinfo are declared with "int pid" and "int
tgid".

However, in kernel/signal.c, the corresponding definitions use the more
appropriate "pid_t" (which is a typedef'd int).

This patch changes "int" to "pid_t" in the declarations of sys_kill,
sys_tgkill, sys_tkill and sys_rt_sigqueueinfo in &lt;linux/syscalls.h&gt; in
order to harmonize the function declarations with their respective
definitions.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/57302FDA.7020205@renenyffenegger.ch
Signed-off-by: René Nyffenegger &lt;mail@renenyffenegger.ch&gt;
Cc: Andy Lutomirski &lt;luto@amacapital.net&gt;
Cc: Josh Triplett &lt;josh@joshtriplett.org&gt;
Cc: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
Cc: "Steven Rostedt (Red Hat)" &lt;rostedt@goodmis.org&gt;
Cc: Zach Brown &lt;zab@redhat.com&gt;
Cc: Milosz Tanski &lt;milosz@adfin.com&gt;
Cc: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
In include/linux/syscalls.h, the four functions sys_kill, sys_tgkill,
sys_tkill and sys_rt_sigqueueinfo are declared with "int pid" and "int
tgid".

However, in kernel/signal.c, the corresponding definitions use the more
appropriate "pid_t" (which is a typedef'd int).

This patch changes "int" to "pid_t" in the declarations of sys_kill,
sys_tgkill, sys_tkill and sys_rt_sigqueueinfo in &lt;linux/syscalls.h&gt; in
order to harmonize the function declarations with their respective
definitions.

Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/57302FDA.7020205@renenyffenegger.ch
Signed-off-by: René Nyffenegger &lt;mail@renenyffenegger.ch&gt;
Cc: Andy Lutomirski &lt;luto@amacapital.net&gt;
Cc: Josh Triplett &lt;josh@joshtriplett.org&gt;
Cc: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
Cc: "Steven Rostedt (Red Hat)" &lt;rostedt@goodmis.org&gt;
Cc: Zach Brown &lt;zab@redhat.com&gt;
Cc: Milosz Tanski &lt;milosz@adfin.com&gt;
Cc: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: vfs: Define new syscalls preadv2,pwritev2</title>
<updated>2016-03-04T17:20:10+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Milosz Tanski</name>
<email>milosz@adfin.com</email>
</author>
<published>2016-03-03T15:03:59+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=f17d8b35452cab31a70d224964cd583fb2845449'/>
<id>f17d8b35452cab31a70d224964cd583fb2845449</id>
<content type='text'>
New syscalls that take an flag argument.   No flags are added yet in this
patch.

Signed-off-by: Milosz Tanski &lt;milosz@adfin.com&gt;
[hch: rebased on top of my kiocb changes]
Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Stephen Bates &lt;stephen.bates@pmcs.com&gt;
Tested-by: Stephen Bates &lt;stephen.bates@pmcs.com&gt;
Acked-by: Jeff Moyer &lt;jmoyer@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
New syscalls that take an flag argument.   No flags are added yet in this
patch.

Signed-off-by: Milosz Tanski &lt;milosz@adfin.com&gt;
[hch: rebased on top of my kiocb changes]
Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Reviewed-by: Stephen Bates &lt;stephen.bates@pmcs.com&gt;
Tested-by: Stephen Bates &lt;stephen.bates@pmcs.com&gt;
Acked-by: Jeff Moyer &lt;jmoyer@redhat.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: add copy_file_range syscall and vfs helper</title>
<updated>2015-12-01T19:00:53+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Zach Brown</name>
<email>zab@redhat.com</email>
</author>
<published>2015-11-10T21:53:30+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=29732938a6289a15e907da234d6692a2ead71855'/>
<id>29732938a6289a15e907da234d6692a2ead71855</id>
<content type='text'>
Add a copy_file_range() system call for offloading copies between
regular files.

This gives an interface to underlying layers of the storage stack which
can copy without reading and writing all the data.  There are a few
candidates that should support copy offloading in the nearer term:

- btrfs shares extent references with its clone ioctl
- NFS has patches to add a COPY command which copies on the server
- SCSI has a family of XCOPY commands which copy in the device

This system call avoids the complexity of also accelerating the creation
of the destination file by operating on an existing destination file
descriptor, not a path.

Currently the high level vfs entry point limits copy offloading to files
on the same mount and super (and not in the same file).  This can be
relaxed if we get implementations which can copy between file systems
safely.

Signed-off-by: Zach Brown &lt;zab@redhat.com&gt;
[Anna Schumaker: Change -EINVAL to -EBADF during file verification,
                 Change flags parameter from int to unsigned int,
                 Add function to include/linux/syscalls.h,
                 Check copy len after file open mode,
                 Don't forbid ranges inside the same file,
                 Use rw_verify_area() to veriy ranges,
                 Use file_out rather than file_in,
                 Add COPY_FR_REFLINK flag]
Signed-off-by: Anna Schumaker &lt;Anna.Schumaker@Netapp.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Add a copy_file_range() system call for offloading copies between
regular files.

This gives an interface to underlying layers of the storage stack which
can copy without reading and writing all the data.  There are a few
candidates that should support copy offloading in the nearer term:

- btrfs shares extent references with its clone ioctl
- NFS has patches to add a COPY command which copies on the server
- SCSI has a family of XCOPY commands which copy in the device

This system call avoids the complexity of also accelerating the creation
of the destination file by operating on an existing destination file
descriptor, not a path.

Currently the high level vfs entry point limits copy offloading to files
on the same mount and super (and not in the same file).  This can be
relaxed if we get implementations which can copy between file systems
safely.

Signed-off-by: Zach Brown &lt;zab@redhat.com&gt;
[Anna Schumaker: Change -EINVAL to -EBADF during file verification,
                 Change flags parameter from int to unsigned int,
                 Add function to include/linux/syscalls.h,
                 Check copy len after file open mode,
                 Don't forbid ranges inside the same file,
                 Use rw_verify_area() to veriy ranges,
                 Use file_out rather than file_in,
                 Add COPY_FR_REFLINK flag]
Signed-off-by: Anna Schumaker &lt;Anna.Schumaker@Netapp.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig &lt;hch@lst.de&gt;
Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>arm64: fix building without CONFIG_UID16</title>
<updated>2015-11-25T15:49:13+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Arnd Bergmann</name>
<email>arnd@arndb.de</email>
</author>
<published>2015-11-20T11:12:21+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=fbc416ff86183e2203cdf975e2881d7c164b0271'/>
<id>fbc416ff86183e2203cdf975e2881d7c164b0271</id>
<content type='text'>
As reported by Michal Simek, building an ARM64 kernel with CONFIG_UID16
disabled currently fails because the system call table still needs to
reference the individual function entry points that are provided by
kernel/sys_ni.c in this case, and the declarations are hidden inside
of #ifdef CONFIG_UID16:

arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h:57:8: error: 'sys_lchown16' undeclared here (not in a function)
 __SYSCALL(__NR_lchown, sys_lchown16)

I believe this problem only exists on ARM64, because older architectures
tend to not need declarations when their system call table is built
in assembly code, while newer architectures tend to not need UID16
support. ARM64 only uses these system calls for compatibility with
32-bit ARM binaries.

This changes the CONFIG_UID16 check into CONFIG_HAVE_UID16, which is
set unconditionally on ARM64 with CONFIG_COMPAT, so we see the
declarations whenever we need them, but otherwise the behavior is
unchanged.

Fixes: af1839eb4bd4 ("Kconfig: clean up the long arch list for the UID16 config option")
Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Acked-by: Will Deacon &lt;will.deacon@arm.com&gt;
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas &lt;catalin.marinas@arm.com&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
As reported by Michal Simek, building an ARM64 kernel with CONFIG_UID16
disabled currently fails because the system call table still needs to
reference the individual function entry points that are provided by
kernel/sys_ni.c in this case, and the declarations are hidden inside
of #ifdef CONFIG_UID16:

arch/arm64/include/asm/unistd32.h:57:8: error: 'sys_lchown16' undeclared here (not in a function)
 __SYSCALL(__NR_lchown, sys_lchown16)

I believe this problem only exists on ARM64, because older architectures
tend to not need declarations when their system call table is built
in assembly code, while newer architectures tend to not need UID16
support. ARM64 only uses these system calls for compatibility with
32-bit ARM binaries.

This changes the CONFIG_UID16 check into CONFIG_HAVE_UID16, which is
set unconditionally on ARM64 with CONFIG_COMPAT, so we see the
declarations whenever we need them, but otherwise the behavior is
unchanged.

Fixes: af1839eb4bd4 ("Kconfig: clean up the long arch list for the UID16 config option")
Signed-off-by: Arnd Bergmann &lt;arnd@arndb.de&gt;
Acked-by: Will Deacon &lt;will.deacon@arm.com&gt;
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Catalin Marinas &lt;catalin.marinas@arm.com&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>mm: mlock: add new mlock system call</title>
<updated>2015-11-06T03:34:48+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Eric B Munson</name>
<email>emunson@akamai.com</email>
</author>
<published>2015-11-06T02:51:33+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=a8ca5d0ecbdde5cc3d7accacbd69968b0c98764e'/>
<id>a8ca5d0ecbdde5cc3d7accacbd69968b0c98764e</id>
<content type='text'>
With the refactored mlock code, introduce a new system call for mlock.
The new call will allow the user to specify what lock states are being
added.  mlock2 is trivial at the moment, but a follow on patch will add a
new mlock state making it useful.

Signed-off-by: Eric B Munson &lt;emunson@akamai.com&gt;
Acked-by: Michal Hocko &lt;mhocko@suse.com&gt;
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka &lt;vbabka@suse.cz&gt;
Cc: Heiko Carstens &lt;heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com&gt;
Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven &lt;geert@linux-m68k.org&gt;
Cc: Catalin Marinas &lt;catalin.marinas@arm.com&gt;
Cc: Stephen Rothwell &lt;sfr@canb.auug.org.au&gt;
Cc: Guenter Roeck &lt;linux@roeck-us.net&gt;
Cc: Jonathan Corbet &lt;corbet@lwn.net&gt;
Cc: Kirill A. Shutemov &lt;kirill.shutemov@linux.intel.com&gt;
Cc: Michael Kerrisk &lt;mtk.manpages@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Ralf Baechle &lt;ralf@linux-mips.org&gt;
Cc: Shuah Khan &lt;shuahkh@osg.samsung.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
With the refactored mlock code, introduce a new system call for mlock.
The new call will allow the user to specify what lock states are being
added.  mlock2 is trivial at the moment, but a follow on patch will add a
new mlock state making it useful.

Signed-off-by: Eric B Munson &lt;emunson@akamai.com&gt;
Acked-by: Michal Hocko &lt;mhocko@suse.com&gt;
Acked-by: Vlastimil Babka &lt;vbabka@suse.cz&gt;
Cc: Heiko Carstens &lt;heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com&gt;
Cc: Geert Uytterhoeven &lt;geert@linux-m68k.org&gt;
Cc: Catalin Marinas &lt;catalin.marinas@arm.com&gt;
Cc: Stephen Rothwell &lt;sfr@canb.auug.org.au&gt;
Cc: Guenter Roeck &lt;linux@roeck-us.net&gt;
Cc: Jonathan Corbet &lt;corbet@lwn.net&gt;
Cc: Kirill A. Shutemov &lt;kirill.shutemov@linux.intel.com&gt;
Cc: Michael Kerrisk &lt;mtk.manpages@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Ralf Baechle &lt;ralf@linux-mips.org&gt;
Cc: Shuah Khan &lt;shuahkh@osg.samsung.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>sys_membarrier(): system-wide memory barrier (generic, x86)</title>
<updated>2015-09-11T22:21:34+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Mathieu Desnoyers</name>
<email>mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com</email>
</author>
<published>2015-09-11T20:07:39+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=5b25b13ab08f616efd566347d809b4ece54570d1'/>
<id>5b25b13ab08f616efd566347d809b4ece54570d1</id>
<content type='text'>
Here is an implementation of a new system call, sys_membarrier(), which
executes a memory barrier on all threads running on the system.  It is
implemented by calling synchronize_sched().  It can be used to
distribute the cost of user-space memory barriers asymmetrically by
transforming pairs of memory barriers into pairs consisting of
sys_membarrier() and a compiler barrier.  For synchronization primitives
that distinguish between read-side and write-side (e.g.  userspace RCU
[1], rwlocks), the read-side can be accelerated significantly by moving
the bulk of the memory barrier overhead to the write-side.

The existing applications of which I am aware that would be improved by
this system call are as follows:

* Through Userspace RCU library (http://urcu.so)
  - DNS server (Knot DNS) https://www.knot-dns.cz/
  - Network sniffer (http://netsniff-ng.org/)
  - Distributed object storage (https://sheepdog.github.io/sheepdog/)
  - User-space tracing (http://lttng.org)
  - Network storage system (https://www.gluster.org/)
  - Virtual routers (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/DPDK_RCU_0MQ.pdf)
  - Financial software (https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/3/23/189)

Those projects use RCU in userspace to increase read-side speed and
scalability compared to locking.  Especially in the case of RCU used by
libraries, sys_membarrier can speed up the read-side by moving the bulk of
the memory barrier cost to synchronize_rcu().

* Direct users of sys_membarrier
  - core dotnet garbage collector (https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/issues/198)

Microsoft core dotnet GC developers are planning to use the mprotect()
side-effect of issuing memory barriers through IPIs as a way to implement
Windows FlushProcessWriteBuffers() on Linux.  They are referring to
sys_membarrier in their github thread, specifically stating that
sys_membarrier() is what they are looking for.

To explain the benefit of this scheme, let's introduce two example threads:

Thread A (non-frequent, e.g. executing liburcu synchronize_rcu())
Thread B (frequent, e.g. executing liburcu
rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock())

In a scheme where all smp_mb() in thread A are ordering memory accesses
with respect to smp_mb() present in Thread B, we can change each
smp_mb() within Thread A into calls to sys_membarrier() and each
smp_mb() within Thread B into compiler barriers "barrier()".

Before the change, we had, for each smp_mb() pairs:

Thread A                    Thread B
previous mem accesses       previous mem accesses
smp_mb()                    smp_mb()
following mem accesses      following mem accesses

After the change, these pairs become:

Thread A                    Thread B
prev mem accesses           prev mem accesses
sys_membarrier()            barrier()
follow mem accesses         follow mem accesses

As we can see, there are two possible scenarios: either Thread B memory
accesses do not happen concurrently with Thread A accesses (1), or they
do (2).

1) Non-concurrent Thread A vs Thread B accesses:

Thread A                    Thread B
prev mem accesses
sys_membarrier()
follow mem accesses
                            prev mem accesses
                            barrier()
                            follow mem accesses

In this case, thread B accesses will be weakly ordered. This is OK,
because at that point, thread A is not particularly interested in
ordering them with respect to its own accesses.

2) Concurrent Thread A vs Thread B accesses

Thread A                    Thread B
prev mem accesses           prev mem accesses
sys_membarrier()            barrier()
follow mem accesses         follow mem accesses

In this case, thread B accesses, which are ensured to be in program
order thanks to the compiler barrier, will be "upgraded" to full
smp_mb() by synchronize_sched().

* Benchmarks

On Intel Xeon E5405 (8 cores)
(one thread is calling sys_membarrier, the other 7 threads are busy
looping)

1000 non-expedited sys_membarrier calls in 33s =3D 33 milliseconds/call.

* User-space user of this system call: Userspace RCU library

Both the signal-based and the sys_membarrier userspace RCU schemes
permit us to remove the memory barrier from the userspace RCU
rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock() primitives, thus significantly
accelerating them. These memory barriers are replaced by compiler
barriers on the read-side, and all matching memory barriers on the
write-side are turned into an invocation of a memory barrier on all
active threads in the process. By letting the kernel perform this
synchronization rather than dumbly sending a signal to every process
threads (as we currently do), we diminish the number of unnecessary wake
ups and only issue the memory barriers on active threads. Non-running
threads do not need to execute such barrier anyway, because these are
implied by the scheduler context switches.

Results in liburcu:

Operations in 10s, 6 readers, 2 writers:

memory barriers in reader:    1701557485 reads, 2202847 writes
signal-based scheme:          9830061167 reads,    6700 writes
sys_membarrier:               9952759104 reads,     425 writes
sys_membarrier (dyn. check):  7970328887 reads,     425 writes

The dynamic sys_membarrier availability check adds some overhead to
the read-side compared to the signal-based scheme, but besides that,
sys_membarrier slightly outperforms the signal-based scheme. However,
this non-expedited sys_membarrier implementation has a much slower grace
period than signal and memory barrier schemes.

Besides diminishing the number of wake-ups, one major advantage of the
membarrier system call over the signal-based scheme is that it does not
need to reserve a signal. This plays much more nicely with libraries,
and with processes injected into for tracing purposes, for which we
cannot expect that signals will be unused by the application.

An expedited version of this system call can be added later on to speed
up the grace period. Its implementation will likely depend on reading
the cpu_curr()-&gt;mm without holding each CPU's rq lock.

This patch adds the system call to x86 and to asm-generic.

[1] http://urcu.so

membarrier(2) man page:

MEMBARRIER(2)              Linux Programmer's Manual             MEMBARRIER(2)

NAME
       membarrier - issue memory barriers on a set of threads

SYNOPSIS
       #include &lt;linux/membarrier.h&gt;

       int membarrier(int cmd, int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       The cmd argument is one of the following:

       MEMBARRIER_CMD_QUERY
              Query  the  set  of  supported commands. It returns a bitmask of
              supported commands.

       MEMBARRIER_CMD_SHARED
              Execute a memory barrier on all threads running on  the  system.
              Upon  return from system call, the caller thread is ensured that
              all running threads have passed through a state where all memory
              accesses  to  user-space  addresses  match program order between
              entry to and return from the system  call  (non-running  threads
              are de facto in such a state). This covers threads from all pro=E2=80=90
              cesses running on the system.  This command returns 0.

       The flags argument needs to be 0. For future extensions.

       All memory accesses performed  in  program  order  from  each  targeted
       thread is guaranteed to be ordered with respect to sys_membarrier(). If
       we use the semantic "barrier()" to represent a compiler barrier forcing
       memory  accesses  to  be performed in program order across the barrier,
       and smp_mb() to represent explicit memory barriers forcing full  memory
       ordering  across  the barrier, we have the following ordering table for
       each pair of barrier(), sys_membarrier() and smp_mb():

       The pair ordering is detailed as (O: ordered, X: not ordered):

                              barrier()   smp_mb() sys_membarrier()
              barrier()          X           X            O
              smp_mb()           X           O            O
              sys_membarrier()   O           O            O

RETURN VALUE
       On success, these system calls return zero.  On error, -1 is  returned,
       and errno is set appropriately. For a given command, with flags
       argument set to 0, this system call is guaranteed to always return the
       same value until reboot.

ERRORS
       ENOSYS System call is not implemented.

       EINVAL Invalid arguments.

Linux                             2015-04-15                     MEMBARRIER(2)

Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers &lt;mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Paul E. McKenney &lt;paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Triplett &lt;josh@joshtriplett.org&gt;
Cc: KOSAKI Motohiro &lt;kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Cc: Steven Rostedt &lt;rostedt@goodmis.org&gt;
Cc: Nicholas Miell &lt;nmiell@comcast.net&gt;
Cc: Ingo Molnar &lt;mingo@redhat.com&gt;
Cc: Alan Cox &lt;gnomes@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk&gt;
Cc: Lai Jiangshan &lt;laijs@cn.fujitsu.com&gt;
Cc: Stephen Hemminger &lt;stephen@networkplumber.org&gt;
Cc: Thomas Gleixner &lt;tglx@linutronix.de&gt;
Cc: Peter Zijlstra &lt;peterz@infradead.org&gt;
Cc: David Howells &lt;dhowells@redhat.com&gt;
Cc: Pranith Kumar &lt;bobby.prani@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Michael Kerrisk &lt;mtk.manpages@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Shuah Khan &lt;shuahkh@osg.samsung.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Here is an implementation of a new system call, sys_membarrier(), which
executes a memory barrier on all threads running on the system.  It is
implemented by calling synchronize_sched().  It can be used to
distribute the cost of user-space memory barriers asymmetrically by
transforming pairs of memory barriers into pairs consisting of
sys_membarrier() and a compiler barrier.  For synchronization primitives
that distinguish between read-side and write-side (e.g.  userspace RCU
[1], rwlocks), the read-side can be accelerated significantly by moving
the bulk of the memory barrier overhead to the write-side.

The existing applications of which I am aware that would be improved by
this system call are as follows:

* Through Userspace RCU library (http://urcu.so)
  - DNS server (Knot DNS) https://www.knot-dns.cz/
  - Network sniffer (http://netsniff-ng.org/)
  - Distributed object storage (https://sheepdog.github.io/sheepdog/)
  - User-space tracing (http://lttng.org)
  - Network storage system (https://www.gluster.org/)
  - Virtual routers (https://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/DPDK_RCU_0MQ.pdf)
  - Financial software (https://lkml.org/lkml/2015/3/23/189)

Those projects use RCU in userspace to increase read-side speed and
scalability compared to locking.  Especially in the case of RCU used by
libraries, sys_membarrier can speed up the read-side by moving the bulk of
the memory barrier cost to synchronize_rcu().

* Direct users of sys_membarrier
  - core dotnet garbage collector (https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr/issues/198)

Microsoft core dotnet GC developers are planning to use the mprotect()
side-effect of issuing memory barriers through IPIs as a way to implement
Windows FlushProcessWriteBuffers() on Linux.  They are referring to
sys_membarrier in their github thread, specifically stating that
sys_membarrier() is what they are looking for.

To explain the benefit of this scheme, let's introduce two example threads:

Thread A (non-frequent, e.g. executing liburcu synchronize_rcu())
Thread B (frequent, e.g. executing liburcu
rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock())

In a scheme where all smp_mb() in thread A are ordering memory accesses
with respect to smp_mb() present in Thread B, we can change each
smp_mb() within Thread A into calls to sys_membarrier() and each
smp_mb() within Thread B into compiler barriers "barrier()".

Before the change, we had, for each smp_mb() pairs:

Thread A                    Thread B
previous mem accesses       previous mem accesses
smp_mb()                    smp_mb()
following mem accesses      following mem accesses

After the change, these pairs become:

Thread A                    Thread B
prev mem accesses           prev mem accesses
sys_membarrier()            barrier()
follow mem accesses         follow mem accesses

As we can see, there are two possible scenarios: either Thread B memory
accesses do not happen concurrently with Thread A accesses (1), or they
do (2).

1) Non-concurrent Thread A vs Thread B accesses:

Thread A                    Thread B
prev mem accesses
sys_membarrier()
follow mem accesses
                            prev mem accesses
                            barrier()
                            follow mem accesses

In this case, thread B accesses will be weakly ordered. This is OK,
because at that point, thread A is not particularly interested in
ordering them with respect to its own accesses.

2) Concurrent Thread A vs Thread B accesses

Thread A                    Thread B
prev mem accesses           prev mem accesses
sys_membarrier()            barrier()
follow mem accesses         follow mem accesses

In this case, thread B accesses, which are ensured to be in program
order thanks to the compiler barrier, will be "upgraded" to full
smp_mb() by synchronize_sched().

* Benchmarks

On Intel Xeon E5405 (8 cores)
(one thread is calling sys_membarrier, the other 7 threads are busy
looping)

1000 non-expedited sys_membarrier calls in 33s =3D 33 milliseconds/call.

* User-space user of this system call: Userspace RCU library

Both the signal-based and the sys_membarrier userspace RCU schemes
permit us to remove the memory barrier from the userspace RCU
rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock() primitives, thus significantly
accelerating them. These memory barriers are replaced by compiler
barriers on the read-side, and all matching memory barriers on the
write-side are turned into an invocation of a memory barrier on all
active threads in the process. By letting the kernel perform this
synchronization rather than dumbly sending a signal to every process
threads (as we currently do), we diminish the number of unnecessary wake
ups and only issue the memory barriers on active threads. Non-running
threads do not need to execute such barrier anyway, because these are
implied by the scheduler context switches.

Results in liburcu:

Operations in 10s, 6 readers, 2 writers:

memory barriers in reader:    1701557485 reads, 2202847 writes
signal-based scheme:          9830061167 reads,    6700 writes
sys_membarrier:               9952759104 reads,     425 writes
sys_membarrier (dyn. check):  7970328887 reads,     425 writes

The dynamic sys_membarrier availability check adds some overhead to
the read-side compared to the signal-based scheme, but besides that,
sys_membarrier slightly outperforms the signal-based scheme. However,
this non-expedited sys_membarrier implementation has a much slower grace
period than signal and memory barrier schemes.

Besides diminishing the number of wake-ups, one major advantage of the
membarrier system call over the signal-based scheme is that it does not
need to reserve a signal. This plays much more nicely with libraries,
and with processes injected into for tracing purposes, for which we
cannot expect that signals will be unused by the application.

An expedited version of this system call can be added later on to speed
up the grace period. Its implementation will likely depend on reading
the cpu_curr()-&gt;mm without holding each CPU's rq lock.

This patch adds the system call to x86 and to asm-generic.

[1] http://urcu.so

membarrier(2) man page:

MEMBARRIER(2)              Linux Programmer's Manual             MEMBARRIER(2)

NAME
       membarrier - issue memory barriers on a set of threads

SYNOPSIS
       #include &lt;linux/membarrier.h&gt;

       int membarrier(int cmd, int flags);

DESCRIPTION
       The cmd argument is one of the following:

       MEMBARRIER_CMD_QUERY
              Query  the  set  of  supported commands. It returns a bitmask of
              supported commands.

       MEMBARRIER_CMD_SHARED
              Execute a memory barrier on all threads running on  the  system.
              Upon  return from system call, the caller thread is ensured that
              all running threads have passed through a state where all memory
              accesses  to  user-space  addresses  match program order between
              entry to and return from the system  call  (non-running  threads
              are de facto in such a state). This covers threads from all pro=E2=80=90
              cesses running on the system.  This command returns 0.

       The flags argument needs to be 0. For future extensions.

       All memory accesses performed  in  program  order  from  each  targeted
       thread is guaranteed to be ordered with respect to sys_membarrier(). If
       we use the semantic "barrier()" to represent a compiler barrier forcing
       memory  accesses  to  be performed in program order across the barrier,
       and smp_mb() to represent explicit memory barriers forcing full  memory
       ordering  across  the barrier, we have the following ordering table for
       each pair of barrier(), sys_membarrier() and smp_mb():

       The pair ordering is detailed as (O: ordered, X: not ordered):

                              barrier()   smp_mb() sys_membarrier()
              barrier()          X           X            O
              smp_mb()           X           O            O
              sys_membarrier()   O           O            O

RETURN VALUE
       On success, these system calls return zero.  On error, -1 is  returned,
       and errno is set appropriately. For a given command, with flags
       argument set to 0, this system call is guaranteed to always return the
       same value until reboot.

ERRORS
       ENOSYS System call is not implemented.

       EINVAL Invalid arguments.

Linux                             2015-04-15                     MEMBARRIER(2)

Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers &lt;mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Paul E. McKenney &lt;paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com&gt;
Reviewed-by: Josh Triplett &lt;josh@joshtriplett.org&gt;
Cc: KOSAKI Motohiro &lt;kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com&gt;
Cc: Steven Rostedt &lt;rostedt@goodmis.org&gt;
Cc: Nicholas Miell &lt;nmiell@comcast.net&gt;
Cc: Ingo Molnar &lt;mingo@redhat.com&gt;
Cc: Alan Cox &lt;gnomes@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk&gt;
Cc: Lai Jiangshan &lt;laijs@cn.fujitsu.com&gt;
Cc: Stephen Hemminger &lt;stephen@networkplumber.org&gt;
Cc: Thomas Gleixner &lt;tglx@linutronix.de&gt;
Cc: Peter Zijlstra &lt;peterz@infradead.org&gt;
Cc: David Howells &lt;dhowells@redhat.com&gt;
Cc: Pranith Kumar &lt;bobby.prani@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Michael Kerrisk &lt;mtk.manpages@gmail.com&gt;
Cc: Shuah Khan &lt;shuahkh@osg.samsung.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton &lt;akpm@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
