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Re: Race condition in libkern's OSAtomicDequeue()



Colin Hirsch writes:

[...]

 > 
 > I have now found an implementation using LL/SC for the PPC in the Darwin
 > kernel, however what disconcerts me is the fact that the erronous CAS
 > based solution is still part of the kernel source(!), and that AFAIK x86

I wouldn't call it "erronous", it is just that it assumes that certain
protocol guaranteeing that no ABA ever happens is followed by its
clients.

 > does not have LL/SC instructions [and a whole bunch of other read-modify-
 > write instructions can be made atomic with a lock prefix] - I posted a bug

LL/SC cannot be emulated through x86 lock prefix, if that's what you are
talking about.

 > report with Apple so that they remove this algorithm and, in particular
 > don't use it for their x86 implementation.
 > 
 > >  - data-type clients have to guarantee that ABA never happens. E.g.,
 > >    elements removed from queue are never put back, or only put back
 > >    sufficiently late. There is a whole cottage industry built around these
 > >    techniques. :-)
 > 
 > Now that I read this - perhaps the functions are only used for moving data
 > from one thread to another, however I would expect some data structure that
 > behaves like a queue, rather than a stack...

Usual practice to avoid ABA is to implement some sort of garbage
collection based on RCU (read-copy-update).

 > 
 > Regards, Colin

Nikita.
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References: 
 >Race condition in libkern's OSAtomicDequeue() (From: Colin Hirsch <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Race condition in libkern's OSAtomicDequeue() (From: Kevin Van Vechten <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Race condition in libkern's OSAtomicDequeue() (From: Nikita Danilov <email@hidden>)
 >Re: Race condition in libkern's OSAtomicDequeue() (From: Colin Hirsch <email@hidden>)



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