RFR: 7143664: Clean up OrderAccess implementations and usage

[Dean Long]

On 1/23/2015 7:16 AM, Erik Österlund wrote:
> Hi Dean and David,
>
> Thanks for reviewing this change.
>
> On 23/01/15 08:12, David Holmes wrote:
>> On 23/01/2015 4:36 PM, Dean Long wrote:
>>>     147 // Ordering a load relative to preceding stores requires a fence,
>>>     148 // which implies a membar #StoreLoad between the store and load under
>>>     149 // sparc-TSO.  A fence is required by x86.  On x86, we use explicitly
>>>     150 // locked add.
>>>     151 //
>>>
>>> It sounds like the above is saying that fence is the same as StoreLoad ...
>> That may be a s/store_fence/fence/ typo. The original text was:
>>
>> // Ordering a load relative to preceding stores requires a store_fence,
>> // which implies a membar #StoreLoad between the store and load under
>> // sparc-TSO.  A fence is required by ia64.  On x86, we use locked xchg.
>>
>> Actually seems like a couple of typos there: ia64 became x86, then we
>> have x86 again.
> I tried to remove ia64 from the comments as it is not in the repository,
> which in this case became a bit redundant. Are we okay if I remove the
> "A fence is required by x86" sentence?
>
> Oh and Dean about membar #StoreLoad on SPARC and locked add on x86...
> are you saying they are not equivalent?

I wasn't trying to say anything abou SPARC or x86, only that "fence" != 
"StoreLoad".

> New version of that paragraph with that sentence removed:
>
> 147 // Ordering a load relative to preceding stores requires a fence,
> 148 // which implies a membar #StoreLoad between the store and load under
> 149 // sparc-TSO. On x86, we use explicitly locked add.

I would replace "fence" with "StoreLoad" above.

>>>     152 // 4. store, load  <= is constrained by => store, fence, load
>>>     153 //
>>>     154 // Use store, fence to make sure all stores done in an 'interesting'
>>>     155 // region are made visible prior to both subsequent loads and stores.
>>>
>>> ... and this is like saying to use fence because StoreStore | StoreLoad
>>> isn't available.
>> Again this seems an issue with store_fence being changed to "store,
>> fence"  which doesn't really make sense.
> The thing is that I removed store_fence (not store_release as it says in
> the bug ID, sorry about that - there obviously is no store_release). So
> I wanted to remove references in the comments to store_fence as well.
> Therefore I changed the example to use store fence load instead of
> store_fence load. Perhaps it's better if I remove that sample all
> together instead?

That works for me.

dl

> Thanks for reviewing my changes!
>
> /Erik
>
>> David
>>
>>>> Furthermore, store_release was declared private and marked as
>>> deprecated.
>>>
>>> I can't find where this was done.
>>>
>>> dl
>>>
>>> On 1/22/2015 5:19 PM, Erik Österlund wrote:
>>>> Hi all,
>>>>
>>>> == Summary of Changes ==
>>>>
>>>> This changeset fixes issues in OrderAccess on multiple levels from the
>>>> memory model semantics to compiler reorderings, to addressing
>>>> maintainability/portability issues which (almost) had to be fixed in
>>>> order to fix the correctness issues. It is the result of discussions
>>>> found in the previous "OrderAccess Refactoring" thread:
>>>> http://openjdk.5641.n7.nabble.com/OrderAccess-Refactoring-td212050.html
>>>>
>>>> Bug ID:
>>>> https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-7143664
>>>> (updated to reflect these related changes)
>>>>
>>>> Webrev:
>>>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~dholmes/7143664/webrev/
>>>>
>>>> Before I describe more I would like to give special thanks to David
>>>> Holmes for long discussions leading up to the currently proposed
>>>> changes. I would also like to thank Jesper Wilhelmsson for helping me
>>>> run my changes through JPRT.
>>>>
>>>> == Motivation ==
>>>>
>>>> This change directly fixes a reported OrderAccess bug due to compiler
>>>> reorderings which is still a vulnerability on almost all TSO platforms:
>>>> https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-806196
>>>>
>>>> And directly fixes confusions like release_store() != release() store()
>>>> due to memory model issues previously described in this bug ID.
>>>>
>>>> At the same time it provides clearer design with separation of concerns
>>>> and generalization/specialization, removing a whole bunch of platform
>>>> specific code which could be generalized. The platform specific files
>>>> now only have a few LoC requirements (~7) to conform to the memory model
>>>> by specifying what the stand alone barriers do. Then optionally
>>>> optimizations to the general approach are possible if platforms support
>>>> it. This also makes it much easier to port to new platforms.
>>>>
>>>> == Memory Model ==
>>>>
>>>> The current definitions of acquire/release semantics are a bit fishy
>>>> leading to problems previously described in the bug ID (release_store()
>>>> != release() store()) and some other correctness issues. It has
>>>> therefore been replaced with a new model. I would like to thank David
>>>> Holmes for the long discussions leading up to the newly proposed model.
>>>>
>>>> The new model is formally defined like this:
>>>>
>>>> // T1: access_shared_data
>>>> // T1: ]release
>>>> // T1: (...)
>>>> // T1: store(X)
>>>> //
>>>> // T2: load(X)
>>>> // T2: (...)
>>>> // T2: acquire[
>>>> // T2: access_shared_data
>>>> //
>>>> // It is guaranteed that if T2: load(X) synchronizes with (observes the
>>>> // value written by) T1: store(X), then the memory accesses before the
>>>> // T1: ]release happen before the memory accesses after the T2: acquire[.
>>>>
>>>> The orderAccess.hpp file and bug ID also has a few additional
>>>> explanations making it more intuitive to the user when to use
>>>> acquire/release and the resemblance to TSO abstract machines. Big thanks
>>>> goes to David Holmes for discussing the memory model with me, which
>>>> helped a lot in deriving it.
>>>>
>>>> Now it holds that release() store() == release_store(), and the other
>>>> correctness issues are fixed as well.
>>>>
>>>> The new model is also closer to C++11 definitions which could give us
>>>> more relaxed compiler reordering constraints in the future when compiler
>>>> support for C++11 is there and ready.
>>>>
>>>> == Reliance on C++ Volatile Semantics ==
>>>>
>>>> The C++ standard section 1.9 "Program Execution" is very vague about
>>>> what the keyword volatile can actually do for us. It gives clear
>>>> constraints in terms of volatile-volatile accesses but says little about
>>>> nonvolatile-volatile accesses. Yet the current implementation heavily
>>>> relies upon volatile to in terms of compiler reordering. But GCC
>>>> explicitly declares that volatiles and non-volatiles may reorder freely
>>>> ( https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Volatiles.html ). The only compiler
>>>> known to explicitly provide the wanted semantics with volatile is MSVC
>>>> 2010 for windows (
>>>> https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/12a04hfd(v=vs.100).aspx ).
>>>> Compilers not giving explicit guarantees, must be considered unsafe and
>>>> revert to conservative behaviour.
>>>>
>>>> This was brought to attention after causing bugs, but was only fixed for
>>>> x86 linux. This is a fundamental issue inherent to all TSO platforms
>>>> except windows, and has to be fixed on all of them.
>>>>
>>>> Several barriers are unsafe to use because they lack compiler reordering
>>>> constraints (e.g. fence and acquire on linux_SPARC). For TSO platforms
>>>> they are typically implemented using dummy loads and stores. This seems
>>>> to be another old volatile reliance that I fixed. These barriers
>>>> sometimes have omitted compiler barriers (which is what we really want).
>>>> This seems to be another example on incorrect reliance on the volatile
>>>> semantics to help us. Therefore dummy loads/stores have been replaced
>>>> with compiler barriers on TSO platforms.
>>>>
>>>> It is also worth noting that compilers like sun studio did previously
>>>> not support inline asm syntax. Therefore, barriers were implemented in
>>>> .il-files. However, using them does not give explicit compiler
>>>> constraints for reordering AFAIK. Therefore, they have been
>>>> reimplemented using inline asm with explicit compiler reordering
>>>> constraints, as even sun (solaris?) studio now supports this.
>>>>
>>>> The windows variants have added a windows-style _ReadWriteBarrier()
>>>> compiler barrier similarly.
>>>>
>>>> == Strange Hardware Reorderings ==
>>>>
>>>> Fixed a weird inconsistency where acquire, loadstore and loadlaod would
>>>> use isync instead of lwsync for PPC on linux_zero, but not in any other
>>>> PPC platform in the repo. I assumed this is wrong and changed it to
>>>> lwsync instead.
>>>>
>>>> == Code Redundancy and Refactoring ==
>>>>
>>>> The OrderAccess code looks like it has been developed over a long period
>>>> of time, with small incremental changes. This seems to have led to a lot
>>>> of code duplication over time. For example, store_fence variants are not
>>>> referenced from anywhere, yet contribute to a lot of the code base and a
>>>> lot of awkwardness (such as being the one only exception not using
>>>> volatiles for some reason). Moreover, store_fence is not used anywhere
>>>> in hotspot because it is not a good fit for either the acquire/release
>>>> semantics or the Java volatile semantics, leaving a big question mark on
>>>> when it should ever be used. I took the liberty of removing it.
>>>>
>>>> Another redundancy issue is that most of the semantics is exactly the
>>>> same for all platforms, yet all that default boilerplate such as how to
>>>> make atomic accesses, where acquire/release is supposed to be placed
>>>> w.r.t. the memory access, what the different barriers should do etc. is
>>>> copied in redundantly for each os_cpu and each type of memory access for
>>>> each os_cpu. This makes it extremely painful 1) to understand what
>>>> actually defines a certain platform compared to the defaults and 2) to
>>>> correct bugs like those discovered here 3) prevent silly mistakes and
>>>> bugs, by simply having a lot less code defining the behaviour of
>>>> OrderAccess that could go wrong.
>>>>
>>>> A new architecture/design for OrderAccess is proposed, using a
>>>> generalization/specialization approach.
>>>>
>>>> A general implementation in /share/ defines how things work and splits
>>>> into different concerns: 1) how to make an atomic memory access, 2)
>>>> where to but barriers w.r.t. the memory access for things like
>>>> load_acquire, release_store and release_store_fence, 3) how these
>>>> barriers are defined.
>>>>
>>>> This allows a clear split between what is required for following the
>>>> specifications, and optimizations, which become much more readable and
>>>> only optimizations need to be reviewed in depth as the defaults can
>>>> always be trusted given correct standalone barriers.
>>>>
>>>> The only thing a platform is required to specify, is what an
>>>> implementation of acquire(), release() and fence() should do. If they
>>>> are implemented properly, everything in OrderAccess is guaranteed to
>>>> work according to specification using the generalized code. This makes
>>>> it very easy to support new ports. ALL the other code in the os_cpu
>>>> files is used /only/ for optimization purposes offered for specific
>>>> configurations.
>>>>
>>>> However, it is highly customizable so that specific platform can perform
>>>> any desired optimizations. For instance this load_acquire on PPC is
>>>> optimized:
>>>>
>>>> template<> inline jbyte  OrderAccess::specialized_load_acquire<jbyte>
>>>> (volatile jbyte*  p) { register jbyte t = load(p);
>>>> inlasm_acquire_reg(t); return t; }
>>>>
>>>> This overrides the whole load_acquire implementation to do something
>>>> custom. Platforms like x86 extensively use this for joined fencing
>>>> variants to optimize.
>>>>
>>>> The default implementation of load_acquire() will make an atomic load()
>>>> followed by acquire() since the semantics is generalized. The
>>>> generalized semantics are defined using inlined postfix/prefix calls
>>>> after/before the atomic access, as defined here:
>>>>
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFenceGeneral<X_ACQUIRE>::postfix()       {
>>>> OrderAccess::acquire(); }
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFenceGeneral<RELEASE_X>::prefix()        {
>>>> OrderAccess::release(); }
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFenceGeneral<RELEASE_X_FENCE>::prefix()  {
>>>> OrderAccess::release(); }
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFenceGeneral<RELEASE_X_FENCE>::postfix() {
>>>> OrderAccess::fence();   }
>>>>
>>>> For platforms that simply wish to override what e.g. acquire means for a
>>>> joined ordered memory access in general, as different to calling stand
>>>> alone acquire(), the semantics can be easily overridden for a platform
>>>> such as windows like on windows:
>>>>
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFence<X_ACQUIRE>::postfix()       { }
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFence<RELEASE_X>::prefix()        { }
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFence<RELEASE_X_FENCE>::prefix()  { }
>>>> template<> inline void ScopedFence<RELEASE_X_FENCE>::postfix() {
>>>> OrderAccess::fence(); }
>>>>
>>>> In this example, since Windows (now) has a compiler barrier for acquire,
>>>> but does not need it for joined accesses since volatile has stronger
>>>> guarantees on windows, this is enough to specialize that for joined
>>>> memory accesses, no extra protection is needed.
>>>>
>>>> == Backward Compatibility and Transitioning ==
>>>>
>>>> Since the newly proposed code is structured differently to before, a
>>>> #define was added for backward compatibility so that external
>>>> repositories not adhering to this new architecture do not break.
>>>> Furthermore, store_release was declared private and marked as
>>>> deprecated. This allows for a smooth transition into the new style of
>>>> OrderAccess. When the full transition is made in all known repos, the
>>>> #define and store_fence may be safely removed, eventually.
>>>>
>>>> == Documentation ==
>>>>
>>>> The documentation seems old and outdated, describing how it works on
>>>> SPARC RMO and IA64, which are nowhere to be found in the repository. It
>>>> also describes things about C++ volatiles which cannot be relied upon.
>>>> The documentation has been cleaned up to match the current state of the
>>>> implementation better, with architectures actually found in the
>>>> repository.
>>>>
>>>> == Testing ==
>>>>
>>>> JPRT. Big thanks to Jesper Wilhelmsson for helping me test these changes.
>>>> Ran some DaCapo benchmarks (I know okay :p) for performance regression
>>>> and there was no perceivable difference.
>>>>
>>>> Looking forward to feedback on this, and hope to get some reviews. :)
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Erik