Merge tag 'v3.13-rc4' into core/locking

Merge Linux 3.13-rc4, to refresh this rather old tree with the latest fixes.

Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 15 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/time/tick-common.c b/kernel/time/tick-common.c
index 64522ecdfe0e..162b03ab0ad2 100644
--- a/kernel/time/tick-common.c
+++ b/kernel/time/tick-common.c
@@ -33,6 +33,21 @@ DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct tick_device, tick_cpu_device);
  */
 ktime_t tick_next_period;
 ktime_t tick_period;
+
+/*
+ * tick_do_timer_cpu is a timer core internal variable which holds the CPU NR
+ * which is responsible for calling do_timer(), i.e. the timekeeping stuff. This
+ * variable has two functions:
+ *
+ * 1) Prevent a thundering herd issue of a gazillion of CPUs trying to grab the
+ *    timekeeping lock all at once. Only the CPU which is assigned to do the
+ *    update is handling it.
+ *
+ * 2) Hand off the duty in the NOHZ idle case by setting the value to
+ *    TICK_DO_TIMER_NONE, i.e. a non existing CPU. So the next cpu which looks
+ *    at it will take over and keep the time keeping alive.  The handover
+ *    procedure also covers cpu hotplug.
+ */
 int tick_do_timer_cpu __read_mostly = TICK_DO_TIMER_BOOT;
 
 /*