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authorPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2009-06-25 12:08:18 -0400
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>2009-07-03 04:02:29 -0400
commit240ebbf81f149b11a31e060ebe5ee51a3c775360 (patch)
treed8aa6601bd789991588e467bf734d40df36e1317 /Documentation/RCU/UP.txt
parent0acc512cb1a29636df5e982c7d845edafe77c2d0 (diff)
rcu: Add synchronize_sched_expedited() rcutorture doc + updates
This patch updates the rcutorture documentation to include updated output format. It also brings the RCU documentation up to date. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org Cc: torvalds@linux-foundation.org Cc: davem@davemloft.net Cc: dada1@cosmosbay.com Cc: zbr@ioremap.net Cc: jeff.chua.linux@gmail.com Cc: paulus@samba.org Cc: laijs@cn.fujitsu.com Cc: jengelh@medozas.de Cc: r000n@r000n.net Cc: benh@kernel.crashing.org Cc: mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca LKML-Reference: <12459460983193-git-send-email-> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU/UP.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/UP.txt34
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/UP.txt b/Documentation/RCU/UP.txt
index aab4a9ec3931..90ec5341ee98 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/UP.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/UP.txt
@@ -2,14 +2,13 @@ RCU on Uniprocessor Systems
2 2
3 3
4A common misconception is that, on UP systems, the call_rcu() primitive 4A common misconception is that, on UP systems, the call_rcu() primitive
5may immediately invoke its function, and that the synchronize_rcu() 5may immediately invoke its function. The basis of this misconception
6primitive may return immediately. The basis of this misconception
7is that since there is only one CPU, it should not be necessary to 6is that since there is only one CPU, it should not be necessary to
8wait for anything else to get done, since there are no other CPUs for 7wait for anything else to get done, since there are no other CPUs for
9anything else to be happening on. Although this approach will -sort- -of- 8anything else to be happening on. Although this approach will -sort- -of-
10work a surprising amount of the time, it is a very bad idea in general. 9work a surprising amount of the time, it is a very bad idea in general.
11This document presents three examples that demonstrate exactly how bad an 10This document presents three examples that demonstrate exactly how bad
12idea this is. 11an idea this is.
13 12
14 13
15Example 1: softirq Suicide 14Example 1: softirq Suicide
@@ -82,11 +81,18 @@ Quick Quiz #2: What locking restriction must RCU callbacks respect?
82 81
83Summary 82Summary
84 83
85Permitting call_rcu() to immediately invoke its arguments or permitting 84Permitting call_rcu() to immediately invoke its arguments breaks RCU,
86synchronize_rcu() to immediately return breaks RCU, even on a UP system. 85even on a UP system. So do not do it! Even on a UP system, the RCU
87So do not do it! Even on a UP system, the RCU infrastructure -must- 86infrastructure -must- respect grace periods, and -must- invoke callbacks
88respect grace periods, and -must- invoke callbacks from a known environment 87from a known environment in which no locks are held.
89in which no locks are held. 88
89It -is- safe for synchronize_sched() and synchronize_rcu_bh() to return
90immediately on an UP system. It is also safe for synchronize_rcu()
91to return immediately on UP systems, except when running preemptable
92RCU.
93
94Quick Quiz #3: Why can't synchronize_rcu() return immediately on
95 UP systems running preemptable RCU?
90 96
91 97
92Answer to Quick Quiz #1: 98Answer to Quick Quiz #1:
@@ -117,3 +123,13 @@ Answer to Quick Quiz #2:
117 callbacks acquire locks directly. However, a great many RCU 123 callbacks acquire locks directly. However, a great many RCU
118 callbacks do acquire locks -indirectly-, for example, via 124 callbacks do acquire locks -indirectly-, for example, via
119 the kfree() primitive. 125 the kfree() primitive.
126
127Answer to Quick Quiz #3:
128 Why can't synchronize_rcu() return immediately on UP systems
129 running preemptable RCU?
130
131 Because some other task might have been preempted in the middle
132 of an RCU read-side critical section. If synchronize_rcu()
133 simply immediately returned, it would prematurely signal the
134 end of the grace period, which would come as a nasty shock to
135 that other thread when it started running again.