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authorIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>2016-11-23 10:04:28 +0100
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>2016-11-23 10:04:28 +0100
commitaf91a81131aee3e233a977632a23b839857a327b (patch)
tree9b46f8a8ad9e5df08dab110d5e8aac1544ef36fa /Documentation
parent23400ac997062647f2b63c82030d189671b1effe (diff)
parent6190aaafd06cd3db77f1d7343bd097f6bd526727 (diff)
Merge branch 'for-mingo' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulmck/linux-rcu into core/rcu
Pull RCU updates from Paul E. McKenney: - Documentation updates, yet again just simple changes. - Miscellaneous fixes, including a change to call_rcu()'s rcu_head alignment check. - Security-motivated list consistency checks, which are disabled by default behind DEBUG_LIST. - Torture-test updates. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html25
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt2
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&nbsp;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 &ldquo;When <tt>rcu_read_lock()</tt>
+ doesn't generate any code, why does it matter how it relates
+ to a grace period?&rdquo;
+ 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&nbsp;62 and&nbsp;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>&nbsp;</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