X86_64 monotonic_clock goes backwards From: Dimitri Sivanich I've noticed some erratic behavior while testing the X86_64 version of monotonic_clock(). While spinning in a loop reading monotonic clock values (pinned to a single cpu) I noticed that the difference between subsequent values occasionally went negative (time going backwards). I found that in the following code: this_offset = get_cycles_sync(); /* FIXME: 1000 or 1000000? */ --> offset = (this_offset - last_offset)*1000 / cpu_khz; } return base + offset; the offset sometimes turns out to be 0, even though this_offset > last_offset. The following patch does correct this, and -seems- to be correct. Some reording of code may still be desired. Dimitri Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen --- arch/x86_64/kernel/time.c | 4 ++-- 1 files changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) Index: linux/arch/x86_64/kernel/time.c =================================================================== --- linux.orig/arch/x86_64/kernel/time.c +++ linux/arch/x86_64/kernel/time.c @@ -276,6 +276,7 @@ static void set_rtc_mmss(unsigned long n * Note: This function is required to return accurate * time even in the absence of multiple timer ticks. */ +static inline unsigned long long cycles_2_ns(unsigned long long cyc); unsigned long long monotonic_clock(void) { unsigned long seq; @@ -300,8 +301,7 @@ unsigned long long monotonic_clock(void) base = monotonic_base; } while (read_seqretry(&xtime_lock, seq)); this_offset = get_cycles_sync(); - /* FIXME: 1000 or 1000000? */ - offset = (this_offset - last_offset)*1000 / cpu_khz; + offset = cycles_2_ns(this_offset - last_offset); } return base + offset; }