diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt | 6 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt | 10 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt | 16 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/torture.txt | 13 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/trace.txt | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt | 19 |
6 files changed, 48 insertions, 20 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt index 0c134f8afc6f..bff2d8be1e18 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt @@ -328,6 +328,12 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome! RCU rather than SRCU, because RCU is almost always faster and easier to use than is SRCU. + If you need to enter your read-side critical section in a + hardirq or exception handler, and then exit that same read-side + critical section in the task that was interrupted, then you need + to srcu_read_lock_raw() and srcu_read_unlock_raw(), which avoid + the lockdep checking that would otherwise this practice illegal. + Also unlike other forms of RCU, explicit initialization and cleanup is required via init_srcu_struct() and cleanup_srcu_struct(). These are passed a "struct srcu_struct" diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt b/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt index 31852705b586..bf778332a28f 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt @@ -38,11 +38,11 @@ o How can the updater tell when a grace period has completed Preemptible variants of RCU (CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU) get the same effect, but require that the readers manipulate CPU-local - counters. These counters allow limited types of blocking - within RCU read-side critical sections. SRCU also uses - CPU-local counters, and permits general blocking within - RCU read-side critical sections. These two variants of - RCU detect grace periods by sampling these counters. + counters. These counters allow limited types of blocking within + RCU read-side critical sections. SRCU also uses CPU-local + counters, and permits general blocking within RCU read-side + critical sections. These variants of RCU detect grace periods + by sampling these counters. o If I am running on a uniprocessor kernel, which can only do one thing at a time, why should I wait for a grace period? diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt index 4e959208f736..083d88cbc089 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/stallwarn.txt @@ -101,6 +101,11 @@ o A CPU-bound real-time task in a CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT kernel that CONFIG_TREE_PREEMPT_RCU case, you might see stall-warning messages. +o A hardware or software issue shuts off the scheduler-clock + interrupt on a CPU that is not in dyntick-idle mode. This + problem really has happened, and seems to be most likely to + result in RCU CPU stall warnings for CONFIG_NO_HZ=n kernels. + o A bug in the RCU implementation. o A hardware failure. This is quite unlikely, but has occurred @@ -109,12 +114,11 @@ o A hardware failure. This is quite unlikely, but has occurred This resulted in a series of RCU CPU stall warnings, eventually leading the realization that the CPU had failed. -The RCU, RCU-sched, and RCU-bh implementations have CPU stall -warning. SRCU does not have its own CPU stall warnings, but its -calls to synchronize_sched() will result in RCU-sched detecting -RCU-sched-related CPU stalls. Please note that RCU only detects -CPU stalls when there is a grace period in progress. No grace period, -no CPU stall warnings. +The RCU, RCU-sched, and RCU-bh implementations have CPU stall warning. +SRCU does not have its own CPU stall warnings, but its calls to +synchronize_sched() will result in RCU-sched detecting RCU-sched-related +CPU stalls. Please note that RCU only detects CPU stalls when there is +a grace period in progress. No grace period, no CPU stall warnings. To diagnose the cause of the stall, inspect the stack traces. The offending function will usually be near the top of the stack. diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/torture.txt b/Documentation/RCU/torture.txt index 783d6c134d3f..d67068d0d2b9 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/torture.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/torture.txt @@ -61,11 +61,24 @@ nreaders This is the number of RCU reading threads supported. To properly exercise RCU implementations with preemptible read-side critical sections. +onoff_interval + The number of seconds between each attempt to execute a + randomly selected CPU-hotplug operation. Defaults to + zero, which disables CPU hotplugging. In HOTPLUG_CPU=n + kernels, rcutorture will silently refuse to do any + CPU-hotplug operations regardless of what value is + specified for onoff_interval. + shuffle_interval The number of seconds to keep the test threads affinitied to a particular subset of the CPUs, defaults to 3 seconds. Used in conjunction with test_no_idle_hz. +shutdown_secs The number of seconds to run the test before terminating + the test and powering off the system. The default is + zero, which disables test termination and system shutdown. + This capability is useful for automated testing. + stat_interval The number of seconds between output of torture statistics (via printk()). Regardless of the interval, statistics are printed when the module is unloaded. diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt b/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt index aaf65f6c6cd7..49587abfc2f7 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt @@ -105,14 +105,10 @@ o "dt" is the current value of the dyntick counter that is incremented or one greater than the interrupt-nesting depth otherwise. The number after the second "/" is the NMI nesting depth. - This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels. - o "df" is the number of times that some other CPU has forced a quiescent state on behalf of this CPU due to this CPU being in dynticks-idle state. - This field is displayed only for CONFIG_NO_HZ kernels. - o "of" is the number of times that some other CPU has forced a quiescent state on behalf of this CPU due to this CPU being offline. In a perfect world, this might never happen, but it diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt b/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt index 6ef692667e2f..6bbe8dcdc3da 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/whatisRCU.txt @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ to start learning about RCU: 1. What is RCU, Fundamentally? http://lwn.net/Articles/262464/ 2. What is RCU? Part 2: Usage http://lwn.net/Articles/263130/ 3. RCU part 3: the RCU API http://lwn.net/Articles/264090/ +4. The RCU API, 2010 Edition http://lwn.net/Articles/418853/ What is RCU? @@ -834,6 +835,8 @@ SRCU: Critical sections Grace period Barrier srcu_read_lock synchronize_srcu N/A srcu_read_unlock synchronize_srcu_expedited + srcu_read_lock_raw + srcu_read_unlock_raw srcu_dereference SRCU: Initialization/cleanup @@ -855,27 +858,33 @@ list can be helpful: a. Will readers need to block? If so, you need SRCU. -b. What about the -rt patchset? If readers would need to block +b. Is it necessary to start a read-side critical section in a + hardirq handler or exception handler, and then to complete + this read-side critical section in the task that was + interrupted? If so, you need SRCU's srcu_read_lock_raw() and + srcu_read_unlock_raw() primitives. + +c. What about the -rt patchset? If readers would need to block in an non-rt kernel, you need SRCU. If readers would block in a -rt kernel, but not in a non-rt kernel, SRCU is not necessary. -c. Do you need to treat NMI handlers, hardirq handlers, +d. Do you need to treat NMI handlers, hardirq handlers, and code segments with preemption disabled (whether via preempt_disable(), local_irq_save(), local_bh_disable(), or some other mechanism) as if they were explicit RCU readers? If so, you need RCU-sched. -d. Do you need RCU grace periods to complete even in the face +e. Do you need RCU grace periods to complete even in the face of softirq monopolization of one or more of the CPUs? For example, is your code subject to network-based denial-of-service attacks? If so, you need RCU-bh. -e. Is your workload too update-intensive for normal use of +f. Is your workload too update-intensive for normal use of RCU, but inappropriate for other synchronization mechanisms? If so, consider SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU. But please be careful! -f. Otherwise, use RCU. +g. Otherwise, use RCU. Of course, this all assumes that you have determined that RCU is in fact the right tool for your job. |
