diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html | 25 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt | 2 |
2 files changed, 25 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html index a4d3838130e4..39bcb74ea733 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html +++ b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html @@ -547,7 +547,7 @@ The <tt>rcu_access_pointer()</tt> on line 6 is similar to It could reuse a value formerly fetched from this same pointer. It could also fetch the pointer from <tt>gp</tt> in a byte-at-a-time manner, resulting in <i>load tearing</i>, in turn resulting a bytewise - mash-up of two distince pointer values. + mash-up of two distinct pointer values. It might even use value-speculation optimizations, where it makes a wrong guess, but by the time it gets around to checking the value, an update has changed the pointer to match the wrong guess. @@ -659,6 +659,29 @@ systems with more than one CPU: In other words, a given instance of <tt>synchronize_rcu()</tt> can avoid waiting on a given RCU read-side critical section only if it can prove that <tt>synchronize_rcu()</tt> started first. + + <p> + A related question is “When <tt>rcu_read_lock()</tt> + doesn't generate any code, why does it matter how it relates + to a grace period?” + The answer is that it is not the relationship of + <tt>rcu_read_lock()</tt> itself that is important, but rather + the relationship of the code within the enclosed RCU read-side + critical section to the code preceding and following the + grace period. + If we take this viewpoint, then a given RCU read-side critical + section begins before a given grace period when some access + preceding the grace period observes the effect of some access + within the critical section, in which case none of the accesses + within the critical section may observe the effects of any + access following the grace period. + + <p> + As of late 2016, mathematical models of RCU take this + viewpoint, for example, see slides 62 and 63 + of the + <a href="http://www2.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/scalability/paper/LinuxMM.2016.10.04c.LCE.pdf">2016 LinuxCon EU</a> + presentation. </font></td></tr> <tr><td> </td></tr> </table> diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt b/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt index 204422719197..5cbd8b2395b8 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt @@ -237,7 +237,7 @@ rcu_dereference() The reader uses rcu_dereference() to fetch an RCU-protected pointer, which returns a value that may then be safely - dereferenced. Note that rcu_deference() does not actually + dereferenced. Note that rcu_dereference() does not actually dereference the pointer, instead, it protects the pointer for later dereferencing. It also executes any needed memory-barrier instructions for a given CPU architecture. Currently, only Alpha |