* therefore increment the cpu number by one.
  */
 
-static inline u32 encode_tail(int cpu, int idx)
+static inline __pure u32 encode_tail(int cpu, int idx)
 {
        u32 tail;
 
        return tail;
 }
 
-static inline struct mcs_spinlock *decode_tail(u32 tail)
+static inline __pure struct mcs_spinlock *decode_tail(u32 tail)
 {
        int cpu = (tail >> _Q_TAIL_CPU_OFFSET) - 1;
        int idx = (tail &  _Q_TAIL_IDX_MASK) >> _Q_TAIL_IDX_OFFSET;
         * pending stuff.
         *
         * p,*,* -> n,*,*
+        *
+        * RELEASE, such that the stores to @node must be complete.
         */
        old = xchg_tail(lock, tail);
        next = NULL;
         */
        if (old & _Q_TAIL_MASK) {
                prev = decode_tail(old);
+               /*
+                * The above xchg_tail() is also a load of @lock which generates,
+                * through decode_tail(), a pointer.
+                *
+                * The address dependency matches the RELEASE of xchg_tail()
+                * such that the access to @prev must happen after.
+                */
+               smp_read_barrier_depends();
+
                WRITE_ONCE(prev->next, node);
 
                pv_wait_node(node, prev);