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authorPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2012-10-23 13:47:01 -0700
committerPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2012-11-13 14:08:23 -0800
commitf0a0e6f282c72247e7c8ec17c68d528c1bb4d49e (patch)
tree22b66fc8ac9b95586866ddb447dcc8712d441c14 /kernel/rcutree.c
parent67afeed2cab0e59712b4ebf1aef9a2e555a188ce (diff)
downloadlwn-f0a0e6f282c72247e7c8ec17c68d528c1bb4d49e.tar.gz
lwn-f0a0e6f282c72247e7c8ec17c68d528c1bb4d49e.zip
rcu: Clarify memory-ordering properties of grace-period primitives
This commit explicitly states the memory-ordering properties of the RCU grace-period primitives. Although these properties were in some sense implied by the fundmental property of RCU ("a grace period must wait for all pre-existing RCU read-side critical sections to complete"), stating it explicitly will be a great labor-saving device. Reported-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> Reviewed-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'kernel/rcutree.c')
-rw-r--r--kernel/rcutree.c29
1 files changed, 25 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/kernel/rcutree.c b/kernel/rcutree.c
index e4c2192b47c8..15a2beec320f 100644
--- a/kernel/rcutree.c
+++ b/kernel/rcutree.c
@@ -2228,10 +2228,28 @@ static inline int rcu_blocking_is_gp(void)
* rcu_read_lock_sched().
*
* This means that all preempt_disable code sequences, including NMI and
- * hardware-interrupt handlers, in progress on entry will have completed
- * before this primitive returns. However, this does not guarantee that
- * softirq handlers will have completed, since in some kernels, these
- * handlers can run in process context, and can block.
+ * non-threaded hardware-interrupt handlers, in progress on entry will
+ * have completed before this primitive returns. However, this does not
+ * guarantee that softirq handlers will have completed, since in some
+ * kernels, these handlers can run in process context, and can block.
+ *
+ * Note that this guarantee implies further memory-ordering guarantees.
+ * On systems with more than one CPU, when synchronize_sched() returns,
+ * each CPU is guaranteed to have executed a full memory barrier since the
+ * end of its last RCU-sched read-side critical section whose beginning
+ * preceded the call to synchronize_sched(). In addition, each CPU having
+ * an RCU read-side critical section that extends beyond the return from
+ * synchronize_sched() is guaranteed to have executed a full memory barrier
+ * after the beginning of synchronize_sched() and before the beginning of
+ * that RCU read-side critical section. Note that these guarantees include
+ * CPUs that are offline, idle, or executing in user mode, as well as CPUs
+ * that are executing in the kernel.
+ *
+ * Furthermore, if CPU A invoked synchronize_sched(), which returned
+ * to its caller on CPU B, then both CPU A and CPU B are guaranteed
+ * to have executed a full memory barrier during the execution of
+ * synchronize_sched() -- even if CPU A and CPU B are the same CPU (but
+ * again only if the system has more than one CPU).
*
* This primitive provides the guarantees made by the (now removed)
* synchronize_kernel() API. In contrast, synchronize_rcu() only
@@ -2259,6 +2277,9 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(synchronize_sched);
* read-side critical sections have completed. RCU read-side critical
* sections are delimited by rcu_read_lock_bh() and rcu_read_unlock_bh(),
* and may be nested.
+ *
+ * See the description of synchronize_sched() for more detailed information
+ * on memory ordering guarantees.
*/
void synchronize_rcu_bh(void)
{