diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst b/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst index 4675b04e8829..6068266dd303 100644 --- a/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst +++ b/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst @@ -171,6 +171,24 @@ If only struct page data (as opposed to the actual memory contents that a page is tracking) is affected, then normal GUP calls are sufficient, and neither flag needs to be set. +CASE 5: Pinning in order to write to the data within the page +------------------------------------------------------------- +Even though neither DMA nor Direct IO is involved, just a simple case of "pin, +write to a page's data, unpin" can cause a problem. Case 5 may be considered a +superset of Case 1, plus Case 2, plus anything that invokes that pattern. In +other words, if the code is neither Case 1 nor Case 2, it may still require +FOLL_PIN, for patterns like this: + +Correct (uses FOLL_PIN calls): + pin_user_pages() + write to the data within the pages + unpin_user_pages() + +INCORRECT (uses FOLL_GET calls): + get_user_pages() + write to the data within the pages + put_page() + page_maybe_dma_pinned(): the whole point of pinning ===================================================