Commit Graph

18 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Paul E. McKenney ed2bec07fd documentation: Record reason for rcu_head two-byte alignment
There is an assertion in __call_rcu() that checks only the bottom
bit of the rcu_head pointer, rather than the bottom two (as might be
expected for 32-bit systems) or the bottom three (as might be expected
for 64-bit systems).  This choice might be a bit surprising in these days
of ubiquitous 32-bit and 64-bit systems.  This commit therefore records
the reason for this odd alignment check, namely that m68k guarantees
only two-byte alignment despite being a 32-bit architectures.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-08-22 09:25:33 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney c79dac758d documentation: Add RCU_NONIDLE() restrictions to requirements
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-06-14 16:00:59 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 5c1458478c documentation: Add documentation for RCU's major data structures
This commit adds documentation for RCU's major data structures,
including rcu_state, rcu_node, rcu_data, rcu_dynticks, and rcu_head.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-04-19 14:48:12 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 0c7d10e4b9 documentation: Emphasize the call_rcu() is illegal from idle
Although call_rcu()'s fastpath works just fine on an idle CPU,
some branches of the slowpath invoke the scheduler, which uses
RCU.  Therefore, this commit emphasizes the fact that call_rcu()
must not be invoked from an idle CPU.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:23 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 5413e24c94 documentation: Sharpen up the no-readers quick quiz
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:23 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 6146f8df48 documentation: Get rid of duplicate .htmlx file
This commit uses colors to obscure the quick-quiz answers, thus getting
rid of the .htmlx file.  Use your mouse to select the answer in order
to see the text.  Alternatively, use your favorite scripting language
to remove all occurences of "<font color="ffffff">" from the file.

Reported-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:22 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 11a65df573 documentation: Remove unnecessary images from requirements
This commit removes a cutesy cartoon and also a diagram that can
just as easily be represented by text.

Reported-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:21 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 514f1eb5f4 documentation: Document illegality of call_rcu() from offline CPUs
There is already a blanket statement about no member of RCU's API
being legal from an offline CPU, but add an explicit note where it
states that it is illegal to invoke call_rcu() from an NMI handler.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:21 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney d8936c0b7e documentation: Explain why rcu_read_lock() needs no barrier()
This commit adds a Quick Quiz whose answer explains why the compiler
code reordering enabled by CONFIG_PREEMPT=n's empty rcu_read_lock()
and rcu_read_unlock() functions does not hinder RCU's ability to figure
out which RCU read-side critical sections have completed and not.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:20 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney f43b62542e documentation: Add synchronize_rcu_mult() to the requirements
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:20 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney 41abcf321d documentation: Add real-time requirements from CPU-bound workloads
This commit records RCU's responsibility to avoid degrading latencies
of CPUs running tight loops within properly configured workloads,
both in kernel and in userspace.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2016-03-31 13:33:19 -07:00
Paul E. McKenney c64c4b0f9a documentation: Update RCU requirements based on expedited changes
Because RCU-sched expedited grace periods now use IPIs and interact
with rcu_read_unlock(), it is no longer sufficient to disable preemption
across RCU read-side critical sections that acquire and hold scheduler
locks.  It is now necessary to instead disable interrupts.  This commit
documents this change.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2015-12-05 12:34:32 -08:00
Paul E. McKenney 4b689330b1 documentation: Clarify RCU memory barriers and requirements
The RCU requirements do not make it absolutely clear that the
memory-barrier requirements are not intended to replace the fundamental
requirement that all pre-existing RCU readers complete before a grace
period completes.  This commit therefore pulls the memory-barrier
requirements into a separate section and explicitly calls out the
relationship between the memory-barrier requirements and the fundamental
requirement.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2015-12-05 12:33:37 -08:00
Paul E. McKenney a4b575627e documentation: Expand on scheduler/RCU deadlock requirements
This commit adds a second option for avoiding scheduler/RCU deadlocks,
namely that preemption be disabled across the entire RCU read-side
critical section in question.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2015-12-05 12:33:26 -08:00
Paul E. McKenney 0825458b1d documentation: Composability analogies
This commit expands on RCU's composability by comparing it to that of
transactional memory and of locking.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2015-12-05 12:33:11 -08:00
Paul E. McKenney 01d3ad3834 documentation: Cover requirements controlling stall warnings
This commit adds verbiage on boot and sysfs parameters that can be
used to control RCU CPU stall warnings, both to change the timeout
and to suppress these warnings entirely.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2015-12-05 12:32:19 -08:00
Paul E. McKenney 701e80312f Documentation: Record bottom-bit-zero guarantee for ->next
This commit records RCU's guarantee that the bottom bit of the rcu_head
structure's ->next field will remain zero for callbacks posted via
call_rcu(), but not necessarily for <tt>kfree_rcu()</tt> or some
possible future call_rcu_lazy() variant that might one day be created
for energy-efficiency purposese.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
[ paulmck: Updates URLs as suggested by Josh Triplett. ]
2015-12-05 12:31:47 -08:00
Paul E. McKenney 649e4368ff documentation: Record RCU requirements
This commit adds RCU requirements as published in a 2015 LWN series.
Bringing these requirements in-tree allows them to be updated as changes
are discovered.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
[ paulmck: Updates to charset and URLs as suggested by Josh Triplett. ]
2015-12-05 12:19:07 -08:00