Re: [Qemu-block] [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 0/4] Tweaks around virtio-blk start/stop

[Paolo Bonzini]

On 22/03/2016 12:59, Cornelia Huck wrote:
>> > They can be fixed with just an extra object_ref/object_unref.
>> > 
>> > I didn't understand that Tu Bo also needed the BH fix, and with that
>> > information it makes sense.  Passing the assign value ensures that
>> > ioeventfd remains always assigned.  With the CPU threads out of the
>> > picture, the BH becomes enough to make everything thread-safe.
> Yes, this makes sense.
> 
> Might we still have a hole somewhere in dataplane teardown? Probably
> not, from reading the code, even if it runs in cpu thread context.

The bug arises when the main thread sets started = true, a CPU thread
comes along while the ioeventfd is reset, and as soon as the BQL is
released by the main thread the CPU thread thinks it is a dataplane
thread.  This does horrible things to non-reentrant code.  For stop we
should be safe because the CPU thread is the one that sets started = false.

IOW, we should be safe as long as the ioeventfd is never unassigned
(your fix) _and_ we ensure serialization between threads that touch
dataplane_started (Fam's fix).

Paolo