linux/tools
Josh Poimboeuf be261ffce6 x86: Remove X86_FEATURE_MFENCE_RDTSC
AMD and Intel both have serializing lfence (X86_FEATURE_LFENCE_RDTSC).
They've both had it for a long time, and AMD has had it enabled in Linux
since Spectre v1 was announced.

Back then, there was a proposal to remove the serializing mfence feature
bit (X86_FEATURE_MFENCE_RDTSC), since both AMD and Intel have
serializing lfence.  At the time, it was (ahem) speculated that some
hypervisors might not yet support its removal, so it remained for the
time being.

Now a year-and-a-half later, it should be safe to remove.

I asked Andrew Cooper about whether it's still needed:

  So if you're virtualised, you've got no choice in the matter.  lfence
  is either dispatch-serialising or not on AMD, and you won't be able to
  change it.

  Furthermore, you can't accurately tell what state the bit is in, because
  the MSR might not be virtualised at all, or may not reflect the true
  state in hardware.  Worse still, attempting to set the bit may not be
  successful even if there isn't a fault for doing so.

  Xen sets the DE_CFG bit unconditionally, as does Linux by the looks of
  things (see MSR_F10H_DECFG_LFENCE_SERIALIZE_BIT).  ISTR other hypervisor
  vendors saying the same, but I don't have any information to hand.

  If you are running under a hypervisor which has been updated, then
  lfence will almost certainly be dispatch-serialising in practice, and
  you'll almost certainly see the bit already set in DE_CFG.  If you're
  running under a hypervisor which hasn't been patched since Spectre,
  you've already lost in many more ways.

  I'd argue that X86_FEATURE_MFENCE_RDTSC is not worth keeping.

So remove it.  This will reduce some code rot, and also make it easier
to hook barrier_nospec() up to a cmdline disable for performance
raisins, without having to need an alternative_3() macro.

Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/d990aa51e40063acb9888e8c1b688e41355a9588.1562255067.git.jpoimboe@redhat.com
2019-07-22 12:00:51 +02:00
..
accounting
arch x86: Remove X86_FEATURE_MFENCE_RDTSC 2019-07-22 12:00:51 +02:00
bpf tools: bpftool: add raw_tracepoint_writable prog type to header 2019-07-12 15:14:42 +02:00
build tools build: Check if gettid() is available before providing helper 2019-07-07 17:53:09 -03:00
cgroup
crypto
debugging tools: add a kernel-chktaint to tools/debugging 2019-01-08 16:29:52 -07:00
firewire treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 156 2019-05-30 11:26:35 -07:00
firmware Driver Core and debugfs changes for 5.3-rc1 2019-07-12 12:24:03 -07:00
gpio Bulk GPIO changes for the v5.3 kernel cycle: 2019-07-09 09:07:00 -07:00
hv treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 280 2019-06-05 17:36:36 +02:00
iio Second set of IIO device support, features, cleanups and minor fixes for 5.3. 2019-07-01 10:58:13 +02:00
include Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net 2019-07-19 10:06:06 -07:00
io_uring tools/io_uring: sync with liburing 2019-05-23 10:25:26 -06:00
kvm/kvm_stat treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 499 2019-06-19 17:09:53 +02:00
laptop treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 505 2019-06-19 17:11:22 +02:00
leds
lib Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net 2019-07-19 10:06:06 -07:00
memory-model tools/memory-model: Improve data-race detection 2019-06-24 09:08:54 -07:00
nfsd
objtool objtool: Support conditional retpolines 2019-07-18 21:01:10 +02:00
pci pci-v5.3-changes 2019-07-15 20:44:49 -07:00
pcmcia treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 247 2019-06-19 17:09:08 +02:00
perf Merge branch 'perf-urgent-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2019-07-20 11:06:12 -07:00
power kbuild: create *.mod with full directory path and remove MODVERDIR 2019-07-18 02:19:31 +09:00
scripts
spi treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 178 2019-05-30 11:29:19 -07:00
testing New feature to add support for NTB virtual MSI interrupts, the ability 2019-07-21 09:46:59 -07:00
thermal/tmon treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 89 2019-05-24 17:37:52 +02:00
time treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 282 2019-06-05 17:36:37 +02:00
usb treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 157 2019-05-30 11:26:37 -07:00
virtio treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 482 2019-06-19 17:09:52 +02:00
vm tools/vm/slabinfo: add sorting info to help menu 2019-07-12 11:05:46 -07:00
wmi treewide: Replace GPLv2 boilerplate/reference with SPDX - rule 500 2019-06-19 17:09:55 +02:00
Makefile tools/power/x86: A tool to validate Intel Speed Select commands 2019-07-03 15:37:09 +03:00