diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt | 61 |
1 files changed, 59 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt b/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt index 4202ad09313..141d531aa14 100644 --- a/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt +++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt @@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ release_referenced() delete() { { ... write_lock(&list_lock); atomic_dec(&el->rc, relfunc) ... - ... delete_element + ... remove_element } write_unlock(&list_lock); ... if (atomic_dec_and_test(&el->rc)) @@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ release_referenced() delete() { { ... spin_lock(&list_lock); if (atomic_dec_and_test(&el->rc)) ... - call_rcu(&el->head, el_free); delete_element + call_rcu(&el->head, el_free); remove_element ... spin_unlock(&list_lock); } ... if (atomic_dec_and_test(&el->rc)) @@ -64,3 +64,60 @@ Sometimes, a reference to the element needs to be obtained in the update (write) stream. In such cases, atomic_inc_not_zero() might be overkill, since we hold the update-side spinlock. One might instead use atomic_inc() in such cases. + +It is not always convenient to deal with "FAIL" in the +search_and_reference() code path. In such cases, the +atomic_dec_and_test() may be moved from delete() to el_free() +as follows: + +1. 2. +add() search_and_reference() +{ { + alloc_object rcu_read_lock(); + ... search_for_element + atomic_set(&el->rc, 1); atomic_inc(&el->rc); + spin_lock(&list_lock); ... + + add_element rcu_read_unlock(); + ... } + spin_unlock(&list_lock); 4. +} delete() +3. { +release_referenced() spin_lock(&list_lock); +{ ... + ... remove_element + if (atomic_dec_and_test(&el->rc)) spin_unlock(&list_lock); + kfree(el); ... + ... call_rcu(&el->head, el_free); +} ... +5. } +void el_free(struct rcu_head *rhp) +{ + release_referenced(); +} + +The key point is that the initial reference added by add() is not removed +until after a grace period has elapsed following removal. This means that +search_and_reference() cannot find this element, which means that the value +of el->rc cannot increase. Thus, once it reaches zero, there are no +readers that can or ever will be able to reference the element. The +element can therefore safely be freed. This in turn guarantees that if +any reader finds the element, that reader may safely acquire a reference +without checking the value of the reference counter. + +In cases where delete() can sleep, synchronize_rcu() can be called from +delete(), so that el_free() can be subsumed into delete as follows: + +4. +delete() +{ + spin_lock(&list_lock); + ... + remove_element + spin_unlock(&list_lock); + ... + synchronize_rcu(); + if (atomic_dec_and_test(&el->rc)) + kfree(el); + ... +} |