diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html | 50 |
1 files changed, 24 insertions, 26 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html index 701b5c53607f..43c4e2f05f40 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html +++ b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html @@ -2398,30 +2398,9 @@ when invoked from a CPU-hotplug notifier. <p> RCU depends on the scheduler, and the scheduler uses RCU to protect some of its data structures. -This means the scheduler is forbidden from acquiring -the runqueue locks and the priority-inheritance locks -in the middle of an outermost RCU read-side critical section unless either -(1) it releases them before exiting that same -RCU read-side critical section, or -(2) interrupts are disabled across -that entire RCU read-side critical section. -This same prohibition also applies (recursively!) to any lock that is acquired -while holding any lock to which this prohibition applies. -Adhering to this rule prevents preemptible RCU from invoking -<tt>rcu_read_unlock_special()</tt> while either runqueue or -priority-inheritance locks are held, thus avoiding deadlock. - -<p> -Prior to v4.4, it was only necessary to disable preemption across -RCU read-side critical sections that acquired scheduler locks. -In v4.4, expedited grace periods started using IPIs, and these -IPIs could force a <tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt> to take the slowpath. -Therefore, this expedited-grace-period change required disabling of -interrupts, not just preemption. - -<p> -For RCU's part, the preemptible-RCU <tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt> -implementation must be written carefully to avoid similar deadlocks. +The preemptible-RCU <tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt> +implementation must therefore be written carefully to avoid deadlocks +involving the scheduler's runqueue and priority-inheritance locks. In particular, <tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt> must tolerate an interrupt where the interrupt handler invokes both <tt>rcu_read_lock()</tt> and <tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt>. @@ -2430,7 +2409,7 @@ negative nesting levels to avoid destructive recursion via interrupt handler's use of RCU. <p> -This pair of mutual scheduler-RCU requirements came as a +This scheduler-RCU requirement came as a <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/453002/">complete surprise</a>. <p> @@ -2441,9 +2420,28 @@ when running context-switch-heavy workloads when built with <tt>CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y</tt> <a href="http://www.rdrop.com/users/paulmck/scalability/paper/BareMetal.2015.01.15b.pdf">did come as a surprise [PDF]</a>. RCU has made good progress towards meeting this requirement, even -for context-switch-have <tt>CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y</tt> workloads, +for context-switch-heavy <tt>CONFIG_NO_HZ_FULL=y</tt> workloads, but there is room for further improvement. +<p> +In the past, it was forbidden to disable interrupts across an +<tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt> unless that interrupt-disabled region +of code also included the matching <tt>rcu_read_lock()</tt>. +Violating this restriction could result in deadlocks involving the +scheduler's runqueue and priority-inheritance spinlocks. +This restriction was lifted when interrupt-disabled calls to +<tt>rcu_read_unlock()</tt> started deferring the reporting of +the resulting RCU-preempt quiescent state until the end of that +interrupts-disabled region. +This deferred reporting means that the scheduler's runqueue and +priority-inheritance locks cannot be held while reporting an RCU-preempt +quiescent state, which lifts the earlier restriction, at least from +a deadlock perspective. +Unfortunately, real-time systems using RCU priority boosting may +need this restriction to remain in effect because deferred +quiescent-state reporting also defers deboosting, which in turn +degrades real-time latencies. + <h3><a name="Tracing and RCU">Tracing and RCU</a></h3> <p> |
