Re: [PATCH] doc: Reword the description of -mrelax-cmpxchg-loop [PR 107676]

[Jonathan Wakely <jwakely@redhat.com>]

On Tue, 15 Nov 2022 at 13:34, Alexander Monakov <amonakov@ispras.ru> wrote:
>
> On Tue, 15 Nov 2022, Jonathan Wakely via Gcc-patches wrote:
>
> > > @item -mrelax-cmpxchg-loop
> > > @opindex mrelax-cmpxchg-loop
> > >-Relax cmpxchg loop by emitting an early load and compare before cmpxchg,
> > >-execute pause if load value is not expected. This reduces excessive
> > >-cachline bouncing when and works for all atomic logic fetch builtins
> > >-that generates compare and swap loop.
> > >+For compare and swap loops that emitted by some __atomic_* builtins
> >
> > s/that emitted/that are emitted/
> >
> > >+(e.g. __atomic_fetch_(or|and|xor|nand) and their __atomic_*_fetch
> > >+counterparts), emit an atomic load before cmpxchg instruction. If the
> >
> > s/before cmpxchg/before the cmpxchg/
> >
> > >+loaded value is not equal to expected, execute a pause instead of
> >
> > s/not equal to expected/not equal to the expected/
> >
> > >+directly run the cmpxchg instruction. This might reduce excessive
> >
> > s/directly run/directly running/
>
> This results in "... execute a pause instead of directly running the
> cmpxchg instruction", which needs further TLC because:
>
> * 'a pause' should be 'the PAUSE instruction';
> * 'directly running [an instruction]' does not seem correct in context.
>
> The option also applies to __sync builtins, not just __atomic.
>
>
> How about the following:
>
> When emitting a compare-and-swap loop for @ref{__sync Builtins}
> and @ref{__atomic Builtins} lacking a native instruction, optimize
> for the highly contended case by issuing an atomic load before the
> @code{CMPXCHG} instruction, and invoke the @code{PAUSE} instruction
> when restarting the loop.

That's much better, thanks. My only remaining quibble would be that
"invoking" an instruction seems only marginally better than running
one. Emitting? Issuing? Using? Adding?