Re: [PATCH 0/24] make atomic_read() behave consistently across all architectures

[Satyam Sharma <satyam@infradead.org>]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2007, Nick Piggin wrote:

> Satyam Sharma wrote:
> 
> > I didn't quite understand what you said here, so I'll tell what I think:
> > 
> > * foo() is a compiler barrier if the definition of foo() is invisible to
> >  the compiler at a callsite.
> > 
> > * foo() is also a compiler barrier if the definition of foo() includes
> >  a barrier, and it is inlined at the callsite.
> > 
> > If the above is wrong, or if there's something else at play as well,
> > do let me know.
> 
> [...]
> If a function is not completely visible to the compiler (so it can't
> determine whether a barrier could be in it or not), then it must always
> assume it will contain a barrier so it always does the right thing.

Yup, that's what I'd said just a few sentences above, as you can see. I
was actually asking for "elaboration" on "how a compiler determines that
function foo() (say foo == schedule), even when it cannot see that it has
a barrier(), as you'd mentioned, is a 'sleeping' function" actually, and
whether compilers have a "notion of sleep to automatically assume a
compiler barrier whenever such a sleeping function foo() is called". But
I think you've already qualified the discussion to this kernel, so okay,
I shouldn't nit-pick anymore.
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