Merge branch 'master' into for-linus

Conflicts:
	include/linux/percpu.h
	mm/percpu.c

1 files changed, 39 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
index 790d1a81237..0c134f8afc6 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
@@ -218,13 +218,22 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
 	include:
 
 	a.	Keeping a count of the number of data-structure elements
-		used by the RCU-protected data structure, including those
-		waiting for a grace period to elapse.  Enforce a limit
-		on this number, stalling updates as needed to allow
-		previously deferred frees to complete.
-
-		Alternatively, limit only the number awaiting deferred
-		free rather than the total number of elements.
+		used by the RCU-protected data structure, including
+		those waiting for a grace period to elapse.  Enforce a
+		limit on this number, stalling updates as needed to allow
+		previously deferred frees to complete.	Alternatively,
+		limit only the number awaiting deferred free rather than
+		the total number of elements.
+
+		One way to stall the updates is to acquire the update-side
+		mutex.	(Don't try this with a spinlock -- other CPUs
+		spinning on the lock could prevent the grace period
+		from ever ending.)  Another way to stall the updates
+		is for the updates to use a wrapper function around
+		the memory allocator, so that this wrapper function
+		simulates OOM when there is too much memory awaiting an
+		RCU grace period.  There are of course many other
+		variations on this theme.
 
 	b.	Limiting update rate.  For example, if updates occur only
 		once per hour, then no explicit rate limiting is required,
@@ -365,3 +374,26 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
 	and the compiler to freely reorder code into and out of RCU
 	read-side critical sections.  It is the responsibility of the
 	RCU update-side primitives to deal with this.
+
+17.	Use CONFIG_PROVE_RCU, CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD, and
+	the __rcu sparse checks to validate your RCU code.  These
+	can help find problems as follows:
+
+	CONFIG_PROVE_RCU: check that accesses to RCU-protected data
+		structures are carried out under the proper RCU
+		read-side critical section, while holding the right
+		combination of locks, or whatever other conditions
+		are appropriate.
+
+	CONFIG_DEBUG_OBJECTS_RCU_HEAD: check that you don't pass the
+		same object to call_rcu() (or friends) before an RCU
+		grace period has elapsed since the last time that you
+		passed that same object to call_rcu() (or friends).
+
+	__rcu sparse checks: tag the pointer to the RCU-protected data
+		structure with __rcu, and sparse will warn you if you
+		access that pointer without the services of one of the
+		variants of rcu_dereference().
+
+	These debugging aids can help you find problems that are
+	otherwise extremely difficult to spot.