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authorDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2010-02-28 19:23:06 -0800
committerDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2010-02-28 19:23:06 -0800
commit47871889c601d8199c51a4086f77eebd77c29b0b (patch)
tree40cdcac3bff0ee40cc33dcca61d0577cdf965f77 /Documentation
parentc16cc0b464b8876cfd57ce1c1dbcb6f9a6a0bce3 (diff)
parent30ff056c42c665b9ea535d8515890857ae382540 (diff)
Merge branch 'master' of /home/davem/src/GIT/linux-2.6/
Conflicts: drivers/firmware/iscsi_ibft.c
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-power79
-rw-r--r--Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-power13
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/v4l/io.xml3
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-qbuf.xml40
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-querybuf.xml7
-rw-r--r--Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-reqbufs.xml36
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX10
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/RTFP.txt61
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt208
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/lockdep.txt67
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt48
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt58
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/torture.txt12
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt16
-rw-r--r--Documentation/cachetlb.txt24
-rw-r--r--Documentation/dontdiff1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/dvb/get_dvb_firmware23
-rw-r--r--Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt26
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/dentry-locking.txt3
-rw-r--r--Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt35
-rw-r--r--Documentation/lguest/lguest.c1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/pcmcia/locking.txt118
-rw-r--r--Documentation/powerpc/dts-bindings/fsl/mpc5121-psc.txt70
-rw-r--r--Documentation/powerpc/dts-bindings/fsl/spi.txt7
-rw-r--r--Documentation/powerpc/ptrace.txt134
-rw-r--r--Documentation/s390/CommonIO6
-rw-r--r--Documentation/s390/driver-model.txt4
-rw-r--r--Documentation/scsi/ChangeLog.megaraid_sas16
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/ftrace-design.txt5
-rw-r--r--Documentation/trace/kprobetrace.txt57
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.cx238851
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.saa71341
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/CARDLIST.tuner1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/README.tlg230047
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/gspca.txt25
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/v4l2-framework.txt106
-rw-r--r--Documentation/video4linux/videobuf360
-rw-r--r--Documentation/x86/x86_64/boot-options.txt20
38 files changed, 1398 insertions, 351 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-power b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-power
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6123c523bfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-power
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+What: /sys/devices/.../power/
+Date: January 2009
+Contact: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
+Description:
+ The /sys/devices/.../power directory contains attributes
+ allowing the user space to check and modify some power
+ management related properties of given device.
+
+What: /sys/devices/.../power/wakeup
+Date: January 2009
+Contact: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
+Description:
+ The /sys/devices/.../power/wakeup attribute allows the user
+ space to check if the device is enabled to wake up the system
+ from sleep states, such as the memory sleep state (suspend to
+ RAM) and hibernation (suspend to disk), and to enable or disable
+ it to do that as desired.
+
+ Some devices support "wakeup" events, which are hardware signals
+ used to activate the system from a sleep state. Such devices
+ have one of the following two values for the sysfs power/wakeup
+ file:
+
+ + "enabled\n" to issue the events;
+ + "disabled\n" not to do so;
+
+ In that cases the user space can change the setting represented
+ by the contents of this file by writing either "enabled", or
+ "disabled" to it.
+
+ For the devices that are not capable of generating system wakeup
+ events this file contains "\n". In that cases the user space
+ cannot modify the contents of this file and the device cannot be
+ enabled to wake up the system.
+
+What: /sys/devices/.../power/control
+Date: January 2009
+Contact: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
+Description:
+ The /sys/devices/.../power/control attribute allows the user
+ space to control the run-time power management of the device.
+
+ All devices have one of the following two values for the
+ power/control file:
+
+ + "auto\n" to allow the device to be power managed at run time;
+ + "on\n" to prevent the device from being power managed;
+
+ The default for all devices is "auto", which means that they may
+ be subject to automatic power management, depending on their
+ drivers. Changing this attribute to "on" prevents the driver
+ from power managing the device at run time. Doing that while
+ the device is suspended causes it to be woken up.
+
+What: /sys/devices/.../power/async
+Date: January 2009
+Contact: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
+Description:
+ The /sys/devices/.../async attribute allows the user space to
+ enable or diasble the device's suspend and resume callbacks to
+ be executed asynchronously (ie. in separate threads, in parallel
+ with the main suspend/resume thread) during system-wide power
+ transitions (eg. suspend to RAM, hibernation).
+
+ All devices have one of the following two values for the
+ power/async file:
+
+ + "enabled\n" to permit the asynchronous suspend/resume;
+ + "disabled\n" to forbid it;
+
+ The value of this attribute may be changed by writing either
+ "enabled", or "disabled" to it.
+
+ It generally is unsafe to permit the asynchronous suspend/resume
+ of a device unless it is certain that all of the PM dependencies
+ of the device are known to the PM core. However, for some
+ devices this attribute is set to "enabled" by bus type code or
+ device drivers and in that cases it should be safe to leave the
+ default value.
diff --git a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-power b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-power
index dcff4d0623a..d6a801f45b4 100644
--- a/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-power
+++ b/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-power
@@ -101,3 +101,16 @@ Description:
CAUTION: Using it will cause your machine's real-time (CMOS)
clock to be set to a random invalid time after a resume.
+
+What: /sys/power/pm_async
+Date: January 2009
+Contact: Rafael J. Wysocki <rjw@sisk.pl>
+Description:
+ The /sys/power/pm_async file controls the switch allowing the
+ user space to enable or disable asynchronous suspend and resume
+ of devices. If enabled, this feature will cause some device
+ drivers' suspend and resume callbacks to be executed in parallel
+ with each other and with the main suspend thread. It is enabled
+ if this file contains "1", which is the default. It may be
+ disabled by writing "0" to this file, in which case all devices
+ will be suspended and resumed synchronously.
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/io.xml b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/io.xml
index f92f24323b2..e870330cbf7 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/io.xml
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/io.xml
@@ -589,7 +589,8 @@ number of a video input as in &v4l2-input; field
<entry></entry>
<entry>A place holder for future extensions and custom
(driver defined) buffer types
-<constant>V4L2_BUF_TYPE_PRIVATE</constant> and higher.</entry>
+<constant>V4L2_BUF_TYPE_PRIVATE</constant> and higher. Applications
+should set this to 0.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-qbuf.xml b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-qbuf.xml
index 18708177815..b843bd7b389 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-qbuf.xml
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-qbuf.xml
@@ -54,12 +54,10 @@ to enqueue an empty (capturing) or filled (output) buffer in the
driver's incoming queue. The semantics depend on the selected I/O
method.</para>
- <para>To enqueue a <link linkend="mmap">memory mapped</link>
-buffer applications set the <structfield>type</structfield> field of a
-&v4l2-buffer; to the same buffer type as previously &v4l2-format;
-<structfield>type</structfield> and &v4l2-requestbuffers;
-<structfield>type</structfield>, the <structfield>memory</structfield>
-field to <constant>V4L2_MEMORY_MMAP</constant> and the
+ <para>To enqueue a buffer applications set the <structfield>type</structfield>
+field of a &v4l2-buffer; to the same buffer type as was previously used
+with &v4l2-format; <structfield>type</structfield> and &v4l2-requestbuffers;
+<structfield>type</structfield>. Applications must also set the
<structfield>index</structfield> field. Valid index numbers range from
zero to the number of buffers allocated with &VIDIOC-REQBUFS;
(&v4l2-requestbuffers; <structfield>count</structfield>) minus one. The
@@ -70,8 +68,19 @@ intended for output (<structfield>type</structfield> is
<constant>V4L2_BUF_TYPE_VBI_OUTPUT</constant>) applications must also
initialize the <structfield>bytesused</structfield>,
<structfield>field</structfield> and
-<structfield>timestamp</structfield> fields. See <xref
- linkend="buffer" /> for details. When
+<structfield>timestamp</structfield> fields, see <xref
+linkend="buffer" /> for details.
+Applications must also set <structfield>flags</structfield> to 0. If a driver
+supports capturing from specific video inputs and you want to specify a video
+input, then <structfield>flags</structfield> should be set to
+<constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_INPUT</constant> and the field
+<structfield>input</structfield> must be initialized to the desired input.
+The <structfield>reserved</structfield> field must be set to 0.
+</para>
+
+ <para>To enqueue a <link linkend="mmap">memory mapped</link>
+buffer applications set the <structfield>memory</structfield>
+field to <constant>V4L2_MEMORY_MMAP</constant>. When
<constant>VIDIOC_QBUF</constant> is called with a pointer to this
structure the driver sets the
<constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_MAPPED</constant> and
@@ -81,14 +90,10 @@ structure the driver sets the
&EINVAL;.</para>
<para>To enqueue a <link linkend="userp">user pointer</link>
-buffer applications set the <structfield>type</structfield> field of a
-&v4l2-buffer; to the same buffer type as previously &v4l2-format;
-<structfield>type</structfield> and &v4l2-requestbuffers;
-<structfield>type</structfield>, the <structfield>memory</structfield>
-field to <constant>V4L2_MEMORY_USERPTR</constant> and the
+buffer applications set the <structfield>memory</structfield>
+field to <constant>V4L2_MEMORY_USERPTR</constant>, the
<structfield>m.userptr</structfield> field to the address of the
-buffer and <structfield>length</structfield> to its size. When the
-buffer is intended for output additional fields must be set as above.
+buffer and <structfield>length</structfield> to its size.
When <constant>VIDIOC_QBUF</constant> is called with a pointer to this
structure the driver sets the <constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_QUEUED</constant>
flag and clears the <constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_MAPPED</constant> and
@@ -96,13 +101,14 @@ flag and clears the <constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_MAPPED</constant> and
<structfield>flags</structfield> field, or it returns an error code.
This ioctl locks the memory pages of the buffer in physical memory,
they cannot be swapped out to disk. Buffers remain locked until
-dequeued, until the &VIDIOC-STREAMOFF; or &VIDIOC-REQBUFS; ioctl are
+dequeued, until the &VIDIOC-STREAMOFF; or &VIDIOC-REQBUFS; ioctl is
called, or until the device is closed.</para>
<para>Applications call the <constant>VIDIOC_DQBUF</constant>
ioctl to dequeue a filled (capturing) or displayed (output) buffer
from the driver's outgoing queue. They just set the
-<structfield>type</structfield> and <structfield>memory</structfield>
+<structfield>type</structfield>, <structfield>memory</structfield>
+and <structfield>reserved</structfield>
fields of a &v4l2-buffer; as above, when <constant>VIDIOC_DQBUF</constant>
is called with a pointer to this structure the driver fills the
remaining fields or returns an error code.</para>
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-querybuf.xml b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-querybuf.xml
index d834993e619..e649805a490 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-querybuf.xml
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-querybuf.xml
@@ -54,12 +54,13 @@ buffer at any time after buffers have been allocated with the
&VIDIOC-REQBUFS; ioctl.</para>
<para>Applications set the <structfield>type</structfield> field
- of a &v4l2-buffer; to the same buffer type as previously
+ of a &v4l2-buffer; to the same buffer type as was previously used with
&v4l2-format; <structfield>type</structfield> and &v4l2-requestbuffers;
<structfield>type</structfield>, and the <structfield>index</structfield>
field. Valid index numbers range from zero
to the number of buffers allocated with &VIDIOC-REQBUFS;
(&v4l2-requestbuffers; <structfield>count</structfield>) minus one.
+The <structfield>reserved</structfield> field should to set to 0.
After calling <constant>VIDIOC_QUERYBUF</constant> with a pointer to
this structure drivers return an error code or fill the rest of
the structure.</para>
@@ -68,8 +69,8 @@ the structure.</para>
<constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_MAPPED</constant>,
<constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_QUEUED</constant> and
<constant>V4L2_BUF_FLAG_DONE</constant> flags will be valid. The
-<structfield>memory</structfield> field will be set to
-<constant>V4L2_MEMORY_MMAP</constant>, the <structfield>m.offset</structfield>
+<structfield>memory</structfield> field will be set to the current
+I/O method, the <structfield>m.offset</structfield>
contains the offset of the buffer from the start of the device memory,
the <structfield>length</structfield> field its size. The driver may
or may not set the remaining fields and flags, they are meaningless in
diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-reqbufs.xml b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-reqbufs.xml
index bab38084454..1c081637207 100644
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-reqbufs.xml
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/v4l/vidioc-reqbufs.xml
@@ -54,23 +54,23 @@ I/O. Memory mapped buffers are located in device memory and must be
allocated with this ioctl before they can be mapped into the
application's address space. User buffers are allocated by
applications themselves, and this ioctl is merely used to switch the
-driver into user pointer I/O mode.</para>
+driver into user pointer I/O mode and to setup some internal structures.</para>
- <para>To allocate device buffers applications initialize three
-fields of a <structname>v4l2_requestbuffers</structname> structure.
+ <para>To allocate device buffers applications initialize all
+fields of the <structname>v4l2_requestbuffers</structname> structure.
They set the <structfield>type</structfield> field to the respective
stream or buffer type, the <structfield>count</structfield> field to
-the desired number of buffers, and <structfield>memory</structfield>
-must be set to <constant>V4L2_MEMORY_MMAP</constant>. When the ioctl
-is called with a pointer to this structure the driver attempts to
-allocate the requested number of buffers and stores the actual number
+the desired number of buffers, <structfield>memory</structfield>
+must be set to the requested I/O method and the reserved array
+must be zeroed. When the ioctl
+is called with a pointer to this structure the driver will attempt to allocate
+the requested number of buffers and it stores the actual number
allocated in the <structfield>count</structfield> field. It can be
smaller than the number requested, even zero, when the driver runs out
-of free memory. A larger number is possible when the driver requires
-more buffers to function correctly.<footnote>
- <para>For example video output requires at least two buffers,
+of free memory. A larger number is also possible when the driver requires
+more buffers to function correctly. For example video output requires at least two buffers,
one displayed and one filled by the application.</para>
- </footnote> When memory mapping I/O is not supported the ioctl
+ <para>When the I/O method is not supported the ioctl
returns an &EINVAL;.</para>
<para>Applications can call <constant>VIDIOC_REQBUFS</constant>
@@ -81,14 +81,6 @@ in progress, an implicit &VIDIOC-STREAMOFF;. <!-- mhs: I see no
reason why munmap()ping one or even all buffers must imply
streamoff.--></para>
- <para>To negotiate user pointer I/O, applications initialize only
-the <structfield>type</structfield> field and set
-<structfield>memory</structfield> to
-<constant>V4L2_MEMORY_USERPTR</constant>. When the ioctl is called
-with a pointer to this structure the driver prepares for user pointer
-I/O, when this I/O method is not supported the ioctl returns an
-&EINVAL;.</para>
-
<table pgwide="1" frame="none" id="v4l2-requestbuffers">
<title>struct <structname>v4l2_requestbuffers</structname></title>
<tgroup cols="3">
@@ -97,9 +89,7 @@ I/O, when this I/O method is not supported the ioctl returns an
<row>
<entry>__u32</entry>
<entry><structfield>count</structfield></entry>
- <entry>The number of buffers requested or granted. This
-field is only used when <structfield>memory</structfield> is set to
-<constant>V4L2_MEMORY_MMAP</constant>.</entry>
+ <entry>The number of buffers requested or granted.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>&v4l2-buf-type;</entry>
@@ -120,7 +110,7 @@ as the &v4l2-format; <structfield>type</structfield> field. See <xref
<entry><structfield>reserved</structfield>[2]</entry>
<entry>A place holder for future extensions and custom
(driver defined) buffer types <constant>V4L2_BUF_TYPE_PRIVATE</constant> and
-higher.</entry>
+higher. This array should be zeroed by applications.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX b/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX
index 9bb62f7b89c..71b6f500ddb 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX
@@ -6,16 +6,22 @@ checklist.txt
- Review Checklist for RCU Patches
listRCU.txt
- Using RCU to Protect Read-Mostly Linked Lists
+lockdep.txt
+ - RCU and lockdep checking
NMI-RCU.txt
- Using RCU to Protect Dynamic NMI Handlers
+rcubarrier.txt
+ - RCU and Unloadable Modules
+rculist_nulls.txt
+ - RCU list primitives for use with SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU
rcuref.txt
- Reference-count design for elements of lists/arrays protected by RCU
rcu.txt
- RCU Concepts
-rcubarrier.txt
- - Unloading modules that use RCU callbacks
RTFP.txt
- List of RCU papers (bibliography) going back to 1980.
+stallwarn.txt
+ - RCU CPU stall warnings (CONFIG_RCU_CPU_STALL_DETECTOR)
torture.txt
- RCU Torture Test Operation (CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST)
trace.txt
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/RTFP.txt b/Documentation/RCU/RTFP.txt
index d2b85237c76..5aea459e3dd 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/RTFP.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/RTFP.txt
@@ -25,10 +25,10 @@ to be referencing the data structure. However, this mechanism was not
optimized for modern computer systems, which is not surprising given
that these overheads were not so expensive in the mid-80s. Nonetheless,
passive serialization appears to be the first deferred-destruction
-mechanism to be used in production. Furthermore, the relevant patent has
-lapsed, so this approach may be used in non-GPL software, if desired.
-(In contrast, use of RCU is permitted only in software licensed under
-GPL. Sorry!!!)
+mechanism to be used in production. Furthermore, the relevant patent
+has lapsed, so this approach may be used in non-GPL software, if desired.
+(In contrast, implementation of RCU is permitted only in software licensed
+under either GPL or LGPL. Sorry!!!)
In 1990, Pugh [Pugh90] noted that explicitly tracking which threads
were reading a given data structure permitted deferred free to operate
@@ -150,6 +150,18 @@ preemptible RCU [PaulEMcKenney2007PreemptibleRCU], and the three-part
LWN "What is RCU?" series [PaulEMcKenney2007WhatIsRCUFundamentally,
PaulEMcKenney2008WhatIsRCUUsage, and PaulEMcKenney2008WhatIsRCUAPI].
+2008 saw a journal paper on real-time RCU [DinakarGuniguntala2008IBMSysJ],
+a history of how Linux changed RCU more than RCU changed Linux
+[PaulEMcKenney2008RCUOSR], and a design overview of hierarchical RCU
+[PaulEMcKenney2008HierarchicalRCU].
+
+2009 introduced user-level RCU algorithms [PaulEMcKenney2009MaliciousURCU],
+which Mathieu Desnoyers is now maintaining [MathieuDesnoyers2009URCU]
+[MathieuDesnoyersPhD]. TINY_RCU [PaulEMcKenney2009BloatWatchRCU] made
+its appearance, as did expedited RCU [PaulEMcKenney2009expeditedRCU].
+The problem of resizeable RCU-protected hash tables may now be on a path
+to a solution [JoshTriplett2009RPHash].
+
Bibtex Entries
@article{Kung80
@@ -730,6 +742,11 @@ Revised:
"
}
+#
+# "What is RCU?" LWN series.
+#
+########################################################################
+
@article{DinakarGuniguntala2008IBMSysJ
,author="D. Guniguntala and P. E. McKenney and J. Triplett and J. Walpole"
,title="The read-copy-update mechanism for supporting real-time applications on shared-memory multiprocessor systems with {Linux}"
@@ -820,3 +837,39 @@ Revised:
Uniprocessor assumptions allow simplified RCU implementation.
"
}
+
+@unpublished{PaulEMcKenney2009expeditedRCU
+,Author="Paul E. McKenney"
+,Title="[{PATCH} -tip 0/3] expedited 'big hammer' {RCU} grace periods"
+,month="June"
+,day="25"
+,year="2009"
+,note="Available:
+\url{http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/6/25/306}
+[Viewed August 16, 2009]"
+,annotation="
+ First posting of expedited RCU to be accepted into -tip.
+"
+}
+
+@unpublished{JoshTriplett2009RPHash
+,Author="Josh Triplett"
+,Title="Scalable concurrent hash tables via relativistic programming"
+,month="September"
+,year="2009"
+,note="Linux Plumbers Conference presentation"
+,annotation="
+ RP fun with hash tables.
+"
+}
+
+@phdthesis{MathieuDesnoyersPhD
+, title = "Low-Impact Operating System Tracing"
+, author = "Mathieu Desnoyers"
+, school = "Ecole Polytechnique de Montr\'{e}al"
+, month = "December"
+, year = 2009
+,note="Available:
+\url{http://www.lttng.org/pub/thesis/desnoyers-dissertation-2009-12.pdf}
+[Viewed December 9, 2009]"
+}
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
index 51525a30e8b..cbc180f9019 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
@@ -8,13 +8,12 @@ would cause. This list is based on experiences reviewing such patches
over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
0. Is RCU being applied to a read-mostly situation? If the data
- structure is updated more than about 10% of the time, then
- you should strongly consider some other approach, unless
- detailed performance measurements show that RCU is nonetheless
- the right tool for the job. Yes, you might think of RCU
- as simply cutting overhead off of the readers and imposing it
- on the writers. That is exactly why normal uses of RCU will
- do much more reading than updating.
+ structure is updated more than about 10% of the time, then you
+ should strongly consider some other approach, unless detailed
+ performance measurements show that RCU is nonetheless the right
+ tool for the job. Yes, RCU does reduce read-side overhead by
+ increasing write-side overhead, which is exactly why normal uses
+ of RCU will do much more reading than updating.
Another exception is where performance is not an issue, and RCU
provides a simpler implementation. An example of this situation
@@ -35,13 +34,13 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
If you choose #b, be prepared to describe how you have handled
memory barriers on weakly ordered machines (pretty much all of
- them -- even x86 allows reads to be reordered), and be prepared
- to explain why this added complexity is worthwhile. If you
- choose #c, be prepared to explain how this single task does not
- become a major bottleneck on big multiprocessor machines (for
- example, if the task is updating information relating to itself
- that other tasks can read, there by definition can be no
- bottleneck).
+ them -- even x86 allows later loads to be reordered to precede
+ earlier stores), and be prepared to explain why this added
+ complexity is worthwhile. If you choose #c, be prepared to
+ explain how this single task does not become a major bottleneck on
+ big multiprocessor machines (for example, if the task is updating
+ information relating to itself that other tasks can read, there
+ by definition can be no bottleneck).
2. Do the RCU read-side critical sections make proper use of
rcu_read_lock() and friends? These primitives are needed
@@ -51,8 +50,10 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
actuarial risk of your kernel.
As a rough rule of thumb, any dereference of an RCU-protected
- pointer must be covered by rcu_read_lock() or rcu_read_lock_bh()
- or by the appropriate update-side lock.
+ pointer must be covered by rcu_read_lock(), rcu_read_lock_bh(),
+ rcu_read_lock_sched(), or by the appropriate update-side lock.
+ Disabling of preemption can serve as rcu_read_lock_sched(), but
+ is less readable.
3. Does the update code tolerate concurrent accesses?
@@ -62,25 +63,27 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
of ways to handle this concurrency, depending on the situation:
a. Use the RCU variants of the list and hlist update
- primitives to add, remove, and replace elements on an
- RCU-protected list. Alternatively, use the RCU-protected
- trees that have been added to the Linux kernel.
+ primitives to add, remove, and replace elements on
+ an RCU-protected list. Alternatively, use the other
+ RCU-protected data structures that have been added to
+ the Linux kernel.
This is almost always the best approach.
b. Proceed as in (a) above, but also maintain per-element
locks (that are acquired by both readers and writers)
that guard per-element state. Of course, fields that
- the readers refrain from accessing can be guarded by the
- update-side lock.
+ the readers refrain from accessing can be guarded by
+ some other lock acquired only by updaters, if desired.
This works quite well, also.
c. Make updates appear atomic to readers. For example,
- pointer updates to properly aligned fields will appear
- atomic, as will individual atomic primitives. Operations
- performed under a lock and sequences of multiple atomic
- primitives will -not- appear to be atomic.
+ pointer updates to properly aligned fields will
+ appear atomic, as will individual atomic primitives.
+ Sequences of perations performed under a lock will -not-
+ appear to be atomic to RCU readers, nor will sequences
+ of multiple atomic primitives.
This can work, but is starting to get a bit tricky.
@@ -98,9 +101,9 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
a new structure containing updated values.
4. Weakly ordered CPUs pose special challenges. Almost all CPUs
- are weakly ordered -- even i386 CPUs allow reads to be reordered.
- RCU code must take all of the following measures to prevent
- memory-corruption problems:
+ are weakly ordered -- even x86 CPUs allow later loads to be
+ reordered to precede earlier stores. RCU code must take all of
+ the following measures to prevent memory-corruption problems:
a. Readers must maintain proper ordering of their memory
accesses. The rcu_dereference() primitive ensures that
@@ -113,14 +116,25 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
The rcu_dereference() primitive is also an excellent
documentation aid, letting the person reading the code
know exactly which pointers are protected by RCU.
-
- The rcu_dereference() primitive is used by the various
- "_rcu()" list-traversal primitives, such as the
- list_for_each_entry_rcu(). Note that it is perfectly
- legal (if redundant) for update-side code to use
- rcu_dereference() and the "_rcu()" list-traversal
- primitives. This is particularly useful in code
- that is common to readers and updaters.
+ Please note that compilers can also reorder code, and
+ they are becoming increasingly aggressive about doing
+ just that. The rcu_dereference() primitive therefore
+ also prevents destructive compiler optimizations.
+
+ The rcu_dereference() primitive is used by the
+ various "_rcu()" list-traversal primitives, such
+ as the list_for_each_entry_rcu(). Note that it is
+ perfectly legal (if redundant) for update-side code to
+ use rcu_dereference() and the "_rcu()" list-traversal
+ primitives. This is particularly useful in code that
+ is common to readers and updaters. However, lockdep
+ will complain if you access rcu_dereference() outside
+ of an RCU read-side critical section. See lockdep.txt
+ to learn what to do about this.
+
+ Of course, neither rcu_dereference() nor the "_rcu()"
+ list-traversal primitives can substitute for a good
+ concurrency design coordinating among multiple updaters.
b. If the list macros are being used, the list_add_tail_rcu()
and li