[PATCH] srcu-3: RCU variant permitting read-side blocking
Updated patch adding a variant of RCU that permits sleeping in read-side
critical sections. SRCU is as follows:
o Each use of SRCU creates its own srcu_struct, and each
srcu_struct has its own set of grace periods. This is
critical, as it prevents one subsystem with a blocking
reader from holding up SRCU grace periods for other
subsystems.
o The SRCU primitives (srcu_read_lock(), srcu_read_unlock(),
and synchronize_srcu()) all take a pointer to a srcu_struct.
o The SRCU primitives must be called from process context.
o srcu_read_lock() returns an int that must be passed to
the matching srcu_read_unlock(). Realtime RCU avoids the
need for this by storing the state in the task struct,
but SRCU needs to allow a given code path to pass through
multiple SRCU domains -- storing state in the task struct
would therefore require either arbitrary space in the
task struct or arbitrary limits on SRCU nesting. So I
kicked the state-storage problem up to the caller.
Of course, it is not permitted to call synchronize_srcu()
while in an SRCU read-side critical section.
o There is no call_srcu(). It would not be hard to implement
one, but it seems like too easy a way to OOM the system.
(Hey, we have enough trouble with call_rcu(), which does
-not- permit readers to sleep!!!) So, if you want it,
please tell me why...
[josht@us.ibm.com: sparse notation]
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@us.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Josh Triplett <josh@freedesktop.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt b/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt
index 02e27bf..f84407c 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt
@@ -45,7 +45,8 @@
Search for "rcu_read_lock", "rcu_read_unlock", "call_rcu",
"rcu_read_lock_bh", "rcu_read_unlock_bh", "call_rcu_bh",
- "synchronize_rcu", and "synchronize_net".
+ "srcu_read_lock", "srcu_read_unlock", "synchronize_rcu",
+ "synchronize_net", and "synchronize_srcu".
o What guidelines should I follow when writing code that uses RCU?
