diff options
| author | Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> | 2013-03-04 17:55:49 -0800 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> | 2013-03-12 14:09:02 -0700 |
| commit | 3f944adb9d1ca912902783e7aede2a5b5c19a605 (patch) | |
| tree | 2ab5039926992d2497f7ba626f2e10c3666ca351 /Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt | |
| parent | 4357fb570b3709c145384065d04b698a30dc722e (diff) | |
rcu: Documentation update
This commit applies a few updates based on a quick review of the RCU
documentations.
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt | 26 |
1 files changed, 16 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt index 31ef8fe07f82..79e789b8b8ea 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt @@ -217,9 +217,14 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! whether the increased speed is worth it. 8. Although synchronize_rcu() is slower than is call_rcu(), it - usually results in simpler code. So, unless update performance - is critically important or the updaters cannot block, - synchronize_rcu() should be used in preference to call_rcu(). + usually results in simpler code. So, unless update performance is + critically important, the updaters cannot block, or the latency of + synchronize_rcu() is visible from userspace, synchronize_rcu() + should be used in preference to call_rcu(). Furthermore, + kfree_rcu() usually results in even simpler code than does + synchronize_rcu() without synchronize_rcu()'s multi-millisecond + latency. So please take advantage of kfree_rcu()'s "fire and + forget" memory-freeing capabilities where it applies. An especially important property of the synchronize_rcu() primitive is that it automatically self-limits: if grace periods @@ -268,7 +273,8 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! e. Periodically invoke synchronize_rcu(), permitting a limited number of updates per grace period. - The same cautions apply to call_rcu_bh() and call_rcu_sched(). + The same cautions apply to call_rcu_bh(), call_rcu_sched(), + call_srcu(), and kfree_rcu(). 9. All RCU list-traversal primitives, which include rcu_dereference(), list_for_each_entry_rcu(), and @@ -296,9 +302,9 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! all currently executing rcu_read_lock()-protected RCU read-side critical sections complete. It does -not- necessarily guarantee that all currently running interrupts, NMIs, preempt_disable() - code, or idle loops will complete. Therefore, if you do not have - rcu_read_lock()-protected read-side critical sections, do -not- - use synchronize_rcu(). + code, or idle loops will complete. Therefore, if your + read-side critical sections are protected by something other + than rcu_read_lock(), do -not- use synchronize_rcu(). Similarly, disabling preemption is not an acceptable substitute for rcu_read_lock(). Code that attempts to use preemption @@ -401,9 +407,9 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! read-side critical sections. It is the responsibility of the RCU update-side primitives to deal with this. -17. Use CONFIG_PROVE_RCU, CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD, and - the __rcu sparse checks to validate your RCU code. These - can help find problems as follows: +17. Use CONFIG_PROVE_RCU, CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD, and the + __rcu sparse checks (enabled by CONFIG_SPARSE_RCU_POINTER) to + validate your RCU code. These can help find problems as follows: CONFIG_PROVE_RCU: check that accesses to RCU-protected data structures are carried out under the proper RCU |