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Documentation / powerpc / transactional_memory.txt


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:53 EST.

1	Transactional Memory support
2	============================
3	
4	POWER kernel support for this feature is currently limited to supporting
5	its use by user programs.  It is not currently used by the kernel itself.
6	
7	This file aims to sum up how it is supported by Linux and what behaviour you
8	can expect from your user programs.
9	
10	
11	Basic overview
12	==============
13	
14	Hardware Transactional Memory is supported on POWER8 processors, and is a
15	feature that enables a different form of atomic memory access.  Several new
16	instructions are presented to delimit transactions; transactions are
17	guaranteed to either complete atomically or roll back and undo any partial
18	changes.
19	
20	A simple transaction looks like this:
21	
22	begin_move_money:
23	  tbegin
24	  beq   abort_handler
25	
26	  ld    r4, SAVINGS_ACCT(r3)
27	  ld    r5, CURRENT_ACCT(r3)
28	  subi  r5, r5, 1
29	  addi  r4, r4, 1
30	  std   r4, SAVINGS_ACCT(r3)
31	  std   r5, CURRENT_ACCT(r3)
32	
33	  tend
34	
35	  b     continue
36	
37	abort_handler:
38	  ... test for odd failures ...
39	
40	  /* Retry the transaction if it failed because it conflicted with
41	   * someone else: */
42	  b     begin_move_money
43	
44	
45	The 'tbegin' instruction denotes the start point, and 'tend' the end point.
46	Between these points the processor is in 'Transactional' state; any memory
47	references will complete in one go if there are no conflicts with other
48	transactional or non-transactional accesses within the system.  In this
49	example, the transaction completes as though it were normal straight-line code
50	IF no other processor has touched SAVINGS_ACCT(r3) or CURRENT_ACCT(r3); an
51	atomic move of money from the current account to the savings account has been
52	performed.  Even though the normal ld/std instructions are used (note no
53	lwarx/stwcx), either *both* SAVINGS_ACCT(r3) and CURRENT_ACCT(r3) will be
54	updated, or neither will be updated.
55	
56	If, in the meantime, there is a conflict with the locations accessed by the
57	transaction, the transaction will be aborted by the CPU.  Register and memory
58	state will roll back to that at the 'tbegin', and control will continue from
59	'tbegin+4'.  The branch to abort_handler will be taken this second time; the
60	abort handler can check the cause of the failure, and retry.
61	
62	Checkpointed registers include all GPRs, FPRs, VRs/VSRs, LR, CCR/CR, CTR, FPCSR
63	and a few other status/flag regs; see the ISA for details.
64	
65	Causes of transaction aborts
66	============================
67	
68	- Conflicts with cache lines used by other processors
69	- Signals
70	- Context switches
71	- See the ISA for full documentation of everything that will abort transactions.
72	
73	
74	Syscalls
75	========
76	
77	Syscalls made from within an active transaction will not be performed and the
78	transaction will be doomed by the kernel with the failure code TM_CAUSE_SYSCALL
79	| TM_CAUSE_PERSISTENT.
80	
81	Syscalls made from within a suspended transaction are performed as normal and
82	the transaction is not explicitly doomed by the kernel.  However, what the
83	kernel does to perform the syscall may result in the transaction being doomed
84	by the hardware.  The syscall is performed in suspended mode so any side
85	effects will be persistent, independent of transaction success or failure.  No
86	guarantees are provided by the kernel about which syscalls will affect
87	transaction success.
88	
89	Care must be taken when relying on syscalls to abort during active transactions
90	if the calls are made via a library.  Libraries may cache values (which may
91	give the appearance of success) or perform operations that cause transaction
92	failure before entering the kernel (which may produce different failure codes).
93	Examples are glibc's getpid() and lazy symbol resolution.
94	
95	
96	Signals
97	=======
98	
99	Delivery of signals (both sync and async) during transactions provides a second
100	thread state (ucontext/mcontext) to represent the second transactional register
101	state.  Signal delivery 'treclaim's to capture both register states, so signals
102	abort transactions.  The usual ucontext_t passed to the signal handler
103	represents the checkpointed/original register state; the signal appears to have
104	arisen at 'tbegin+4'.
105	
106	If the sighandler ucontext has uc_link set, a second ucontext has been
107	delivered.  For future compatibility the MSR.TS field should be checked to
108	determine the transactional state -- if so, the second ucontext in uc->uc_link
109	represents the active transactional registers at the point of the signal.
110	
111	For 64-bit processes, uc->uc_mcontext.regs->msr is a full 64-bit MSR and its TS
112	field shows the transactional mode.
113	
114	For 32-bit processes, the mcontext's MSR register is only 32 bits; the top 32
115	bits are stored in the MSR of the second ucontext, i.e. in
116	uc->uc_link->uc_mcontext.regs->msr.  The top word contains the transactional
117	state TS.
118	
119	However, basic signal handlers don't need to be aware of transactions
120	and simply returning from the handler will deal with things correctly:
121	
122	Transaction-aware signal handlers can read the transactional register state
123	from the second ucontext.  This will be necessary for crash handlers to
124	determine, for example, the address of the instruction causing the SIGSEGV.
125	
126	Example signal handler:
127	
128	    void crash_handler(int sig, siginfo_t *si, void *uc)
129	    {
130	      ucontext_t *ucp = uc;
131	      ucontext_t *transactional_ucp = ucp->uc_link;
132	
133	      if (ucp_link) {
134	        u64 msr = ucp->uc_mcontext.regs->msr;
135	        /* May have transactional ucontext! */
136	#ifndef __powerpc64__
137	        msr |= ((u64)transactional_ucp->uc_mcontext.regs->msr) << 32;
138	#endif
139	        if (MSR_TM_ACTIVE(msr)) {
140	           /* Yes, we crashed during a transaction.  Oops. */
141	   fprintf(stderr, "Transaction to be restarted at 0x%llx, but "
142	                           "crashy instruction was at 0x%llx\n",
143	                           ucp->uc_mcontext.regs->nip,
144	                           transactional_ucp->uc_mcontext.regs->nip);
145	        }
146	      }
147	
148	      fix_the_problem(ucp->dar);
149	    }
150	
151	When in an active transaction that takes a signal, we need to be careful with
152	the stack.  It's possible that the stack has moved back up after the tbegin.
153	The obvious case here is when the tbegin is called inside a function that
154	returns before a tend.  In this case, the stack is part of the checkpointed
155	transactional memory state.  If we write over this non transactionally or in
156	suspend, we are in trouble because if we get a tm abort, the program counter and
157	stack pointer will be back at the tbegin but our in memory stack won't be valid
158	anymore.
159	
160	To avoid this, when taking a signal in an active transaction, we need to use
161	the stack pointer from the checkpointed state, rather than the speculated
162	state.  This ensures that the signal context (written tm suspended) will be
163	written below the stack required for the rollback.  The transaction is aborted
164	because of the treclaim, so any memory written between the tbegin and the
165	signal will be rolled back anyway.
166	
167	For signals taken in non-TM or suspended mode, we use the
168	normal/non-checkpointed stack pointer.
169	
170	Any transaction initiated inside a sighandler and suspended on return
171	from the sighandler to the kernel will get reclaimed and discarded.
172	
173	Failure cause codes used by kernel
174	==================================
175	
176	These are defined in <asm/reg.h>, and distinguish different reasons why the
177	kernel aborted a transaction:
178	
179	 TM_CAUSE_RESCHED       Thread was rescheduled.
180	 TM_CAUSE_TLBI          Software TLB invalid.
181	 TM_CAUSE_FAC_UNAV      FP/VEC/VSX unavailable trap.
182	 TM_CAUSE_SYSCALL       Syscall from active transaction.
183	 TM_CAUSE_SIGNAL        Signal delivered.
184	 TM_CAUSE_MISC          Currently unused.
185	 TM_CAUSE_ALIGNMENT     Alignment fault.
186	 TM_CAUSE_EMULATE       Emulation that touched memory.
187	
188	These can be checked by the user program's abort handler as TEXASR[0:7].  If
189	bit 7 is set, it indicates that the error is consider persistent.  For example
190	a TM_CAUSE_ALIGNMENT will be persistent while a TM_CAUSE_RESCHED will not.
191	
192	GDB
193	===
194	
195	GDB and ptrace are not currently TM-aware.  If one stops during a transaction,
196	it looks like the transaction has just started (the checkpointed state is
197	presented).  The transaction cannot then be continued and will take the failure
198	handler route.  Furthermore, the transactional 2nd register state will be
199	inaccessible.  GDB can currently be used on programs using TM, but not sensibly
200	in parts within transactions.
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