diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt | 34 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/lockdep.txt | 67 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt | 13 |
4 files changed, 97 insertions, 19 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX b/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX index 0a27ea9621f..71b6f500ddb 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX +++ b/Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX @@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ 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 diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt index 767cf06a427..cbc180f9019 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt @@ -127,10 +127,14 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! 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, neither - rcu_dereference() nor the "_rcu()" list-traversal - primitives can substitute for a good concurrency design - coordinating among multiple updaters. + 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 list_add_rcu() primitives must be used in order @@ -249,7 +253,9 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! must be protected by appropriate update-side locks. RCU read-side critical sections are delimited by rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock(), or by similar primitives such as - rcu_read_lock_bh() and rcu_read_unlock_bh(). + rcu_read_lock_bh() and rcu_read_unlock_bh(), in which case + the matching rcu_dereference() primitive must be used in order + to keep lockdep happy, in this case, rcu_dereference_bh(). The reason that it is permissible to use RCU list-traversal primitives when the update-side lock is held is that doing so @@ -302,15 +308,15 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! not the case, a self-spawning RCU callback would prevent the victim CPU from ever going offline.) -14. SRCU (srcu_read_lock(), srcu_read_unlock(), synchronize_srcu(), - and synchronize_srcu_expedited()) may only be invoked from - process context. Unlike other forms of RCU, it -is- permissible - to block in an SRCU read-side critical section (demarked by - srcu_read_lock() and srcu_read_unlock()), hence the "SRCU": - "sleepable RCU". Please note that if you don't need to sleep - in read-side critical sections, you should be using RCU rather - than SRCU, because RCU is almost always faster and easier to - use than is SRCU. +14. SRCU (srcu_read_lock(), srcu_read_unlock(), srcu_dereference(), + synchronize_srcu(), and synchronize_srcu_expedited()) may only + be invoked from process context. Unlike other forms of RCU, it + -is- permissible to block in an SRCU read-side critical section + (demarked by srcu_read_lock() and srcu_read_unlock()), hence the + "SRCU": "sleepable RCU". Please note that if you don't need + to sleep in read-side critical sections, you should be using + RCU rather than SRCU, because RCU is almost always faster and + easier to use than is SRCU. Also unlike other forms of RCU, explicit initialization and cleanup is required via init_srcu_struct() and diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/lockdep.txt b/Documentation/RCU/lockdep.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..fe24b58627b --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/RCU/lockdep.txt @@ -0,0 +1,67 @@ +RCU and lockdep checking + +All flavors of RCU have lockdep checking available, so that lockdep is +aware of when each task enters and leaves any flavor of RCU read-side +critical section. Each flavor of RCU is tracked separately (but note +that this is not the case in 2.6.32 and earlier). This allows lockdep's +tracking to include RCU state, which can sometimes help when debugging +deadlocks and the like. + +In addition, RCU provides the following primitives that check lockdep's +state: + + rcu_read_lock_held() for normal RCU. + rcu_read_lock_bh_held() for RCU-bh. + rcu_read_lock_sched_held() for RCU-sched. + srcu_read_lock_held() for SRCU. + +These functions are conservative, and will therefore return 1 if they +aren't certain (for example, if CONFIG_DEBUG_LOCK_ALLOC is not set). +This prevents things like WARN_ON(!rcu_read_lock_held()) from giving false +positives when lockdep is disabled. + +In addition, a separate kernel config parameter CONFIG_PROVE_RCU enables +checking of rcu_dereference() primitives: + + rcu_dereference(p): + Check for RCU read-side critical section. + rcu_dereference_bh(p): + Check for RCU-bh read-side critical section. + rcu_dereference_sched(p): + Check for RCU-sched read-side critical section. + srcu_dereference(p, sp): + Check for SRCU read-side critical section. + rcu_dereference_check(p, c): + Use explicit check expression "c". + rcu_dereference_raw(p) + Don't check. (Use sparingly, if at all.) + +The rcu_dereference_check() check expression can be any boolean +expression, but would normally include one of the rcu_read_lock_held() +family of functions and a lockdep expression. However, any boolean +expression can be used. For a moderately ornate example, consider +the following: + + file = rcu_dereference_check(fdt->fd[fd], + rcu_read_lock_held() || + lockdep_is_held(&files->file_lock) || + atomic_read(&files->count) == 1); + +This expression picks up the pointer "fdt->fd[fd]" in an RCU-safe manner, +and, if CONFIG_PROVE_RCU is configured, verifies that this expression +is used in: + +1. An RCU read-side critical section, or +2. with files->file_lock held, or +3. on an unshared files_struct. + +In case (1), the pointer is picked up in an RCU-safe manner for vanilla +RCU read-side critical sections, in case (2) the ->file_lock prevents +any change from taking place, and finally, in case (3) the current task +is the only task accessing the file_struct, again preventing any change +from taking place. + +There are currently only "universal" versions of the rcu_assign_pointer() +and RCU list-/tree-traversal primitives, which do not (yet) check for +being in an RCU read-side critical section. In the future, separate +versions of these primitives might be created. diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt b/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt index 469a58b2e67..1dc00ee9716 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt @@ -323,15 +323,17 @@ used as follows: Defer Protect a. synchronize_rcu() rcu_read_lock() / rcu_read_unlock() - call_rcu() + call_rcu() rcu_dereference() b. call_rcu_bh() rcu_read_lock_bh() / rcu_read_unlock_bh() + rcu_dereference_bh() c. synchronize_sched() rcu_read_lock_sched() / rcu_read_unlock_sched() preempt_disable() / preempt_enable() local_irq_save() / local_irq_restore() hardirq enter / hardirq exit NMI enter / NMI exit + rcu_dereference_sched() These three mechanisms are used as follows: @@ -781,9 +783,8 @@ Linux-kernel source code, but it helps to have a full list of the APIs, since there does not appear to be a way to categorize them in docbook. Here is the list, by category. -RCU pointer/list traversal: +RCU list traversal: - rcu_dereference list_for_each_entry_rcu hlist_for_each_entry_rcu hlist_nulls_for_each_entry_rcu @@ -809,7 +810,7 @@ RCU: Critical sections Grace period Barrier rcu_read_lock synchronize_net rcu_barrier rcu_read_unlock synchronize_rcu - synchronize_rcu_expedited + rcu_dereference synchronize_rcu_expedited call_rcu @@ -817,7 +818,7 @@ bh: Critical sections Grace period Barrier rcu_read_lock_bh call_rcu_bh rcu_barrier_bh rcu_read_unlock_bh synchronize_rcu_bh - synchronize_rcu_bh_expedited + rcu_dereference_bh synchronize_rcu_bh_expedited sched: Critical sections Grace period Barrier @@ -826,12 +827,14 @@ sched: Critical sections Grace period Barrier rcu_read_unlock_sched call_rcu_sched [preempt_disable] synchronize_sched_expedited [and friends] + rcu_dereference_sched SRCU: Critical sections Grace period Barrier srcu_read_lock synchronize_srcu N/A srcu_read_unlock synchronize_srcu_expedited + srcu_dereference SRCU: Initialization/cleanup init_srcu_struct |