seqlock: Add a new locking reader type

The sequence lock (seqlock) was originally designed for the cases where
the readers do not need to block the writers by making the readers retry
the read operation when the data change.

Since then, the use cases have been expanded to include situations where
a thread does not need to change the data (effectively a reader) at all
but have to take the writer lock because it can't tolerate changes to
the protected structure.  Some examples are the d_path() function and
the getcwd() syscall in fs/dcache.c where the functions take the writer
lock on rename_lock even though they don't need to change anything in
the protected data structure at all.  This is inefficient as a reader is
now blocking other sequence number reading readers from moving forward
by pretending to be a writer.

This patch tries to eliminate this inefficiency by introducing a new
type of locking reader to the seqlock locking mechanism.  This new
locking reader will try to take an exclusive lock preventing other
writers and locking readers from going forward.  However, it won't
affect the progress of the other sequence number reading readers as the
sequence number won't be changed.

Signed-off-by: Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@hp.com>
Cc: Alexander Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 63 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/seqlock.h b/include/linux/seqlock.h
index 18299057402..21a209336e7 100644
--- a/include/linux/seqlock.h
+++ b/include/linux/seqlock.h
@@ -3,15 +3,21 @@
 /*
  * Reader/writer consistent mechanism without starving writers. This type of
  * lock for data where the reader wants a consistent set of information
- * and is willing to retry if the information changes.  Readers never
- * block but they may have to retry if a writer is in
- * progress. Writers do not wait for readers. 
+ * and is willing to retry if the information changes. There are two types
+ * of readers:
+ * 1. Sequence readers which never block a writer but they may have to retry
+ *    if a writer is in progress by detecting change in sequence number.
+ *    Writers do not wait for a sequence reader.
+ * 2. Locking readers which will wait if a writer or another locking reader
+ *    is in progress. A locking reader in progress will also block a writer
+ *    from going forward. Unlike the regular rwlock, the read lock here is
+ *    exclusive so that only one locking reader can get it.
  *
- * This is not as cache friendly as brlock. Also, this will not work
+ * This is not as cache friendly as brlock. Also, this may not work well
  * for data that contains pointers, because any writer could
  * invalidate a pointer that a reader was following.
  *
- * Expected reader usage:
+ * Expected non-blocking reader usage:
  * 	do {
  *	    seq = read_seqbegin(&foo);
  * 	...
@@ -268,4 +274,56 @@ write_sequnlock_irqrestore(seqlock_t *sl, unsigned long flags)
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&sl->lock, flags);
 }
 
+/*
+ * A locking reader exclusively locks out other writers and locking readers,
+ * but doesn't update the sequence number. Acts like a normal spin_lock/unlock.
+ * Don't need preempt_disable() because that is in the spin_lock already.
+ */
+static inline void read_seqlock_excl(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	spin_lock(&sl->lock);
+}
+
+static inline void read_sequnlock_excl(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	spin_unlock(&sl->lock);
+}
+
+static inline void read_seqlock_excl_bh(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	spin_lock_bh(&sl->lock);
+}
+
+static inline void read_sequnlock_excl_bh(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	spin_unlock_bh(&sl->lock);
+}
+
+static inline void read_seqlock_excl_irq(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	spin_lock_irq(&sl->lock);
+}
+
+static inline void read_sequnlock_excl_irq(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	spin_unlock_irq(&sl->lock);
+}
+
+static inline unsigned long __read_seqlock_excl_irqsave(seqlock_t *sl)
+{
+	unsigned long flags;
+
+	spin_lock_irqsave(&sl->lock, flags);
+	return flags;
+}
+
+#define read_seqlock_excl_irqsave(lock, flags)				\
+	do { flags = __read_seqlock_excl_irqsave(lock); } while (0)
+
+static inline void
+read_sequnlock_excl_irqrestore(seqlock_t *sl, unsigned long flags)
+{
+	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&sl->lock, flags);
+}
+
 #endif /* __LINUX_SEQLOCK_H */