The current informal control dependency definition in explanation.txt is
too broad and, as discussed, needs to be updated.
Consider the following example:
> if(READ_ONCE(x))
> return 42;
>
> WRITE_ONCE(y, 42);
>
> return 21;
The read event determines whether the write event will be executed "at all"
- as per the current definition - but the formal LKMM does not recognize
this as a control dependency.
Introduce a new definition which includes the requirement for the second
memory access event to syntactically lie within the arm of a non-loop
conditional.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20220615114330.2573952-1-paul.heidekrueger@in.tum.de/
Cc: Marco Elver <elver@google.com>
Cc: Charalampos Mainas <charalampos.mainas@gmail.com>
Cc: Pramod Bhatotia <pramod.bhatotia@in.tum.de>
Cc: Soham Chakraborty <s.s.chakraborty@tudelft.nl>
Cc: Martin Fink <martin.fink@in.tum.de>
Co-developed-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Signed-off-by: Alan Stern <stern@rowland.harvard.edu>
Signed-off-by: Paul Heidekrüger <paul.heidekrueger@in.tum.de>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
through a pointer will depend on the value read earlier from that
pointer.
-Finally, a read event and another memory access event are linked by a
-control dependency if the value obtained by the read affects whether
-the second event is executed at all. Simple example:
+Finally, a read event X and a write event Y are linked by a control
+dependency if Y syntactically lies within an arm of an if statement and
+X affects the evaluation of the if condition via a data or address
+dependency (or similarly for a switch statement). Simple example:
int x, y;