rcu: Update docs for rcu_access_pointer and rcu_dereference_protected
Update examples and lists of APIs to include these new
primitives.
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: laijs@cn.fujitsu.com
Cc: dipankar@in.ibm.com
Cc: mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca
Cc: josh@joshtriplett.org
Cc: dvhltc@us.ibm.com
Cc: niv@us.ibm.com
Cc: peterz@infradead.org
Cc: rostedt@goodmis.org
Cc: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
Cc: dhowells@redhat.com
Cc: eric.dumazet@gmail.com
LKML-Reference: <1270852752-25278-3-git-send-email-paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/NMI-RCU.txt b/Documentation/RCU/NMI-RCU.txt
index a6d32e6..a8536cb 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/NMI-RCU.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/NMI-RCU.txt
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@
cpu = smp_processor_id();
++nmi_count(cpu);
- if (!rcu_dereference(nmi_callback)(regs, cpu))
+ if (!rcu_dereference_sched(nmi_callback)(regs, cpu))
default_do_nmi(regs);
nmi_exit();
@@ -47,12 +47,13 @@
default_do_nmi() function to handle a machine-specific NMI. Finally,
preemption is restored.
-Strictly speaking, rcu_dereference() is not needed, since this code runs
-only on i386, which does not need rcu_dereference() anyway. However,
-it is a good documentation aid, particularly for anyone attempting to
-do something similar on Alpha.
+In theory, rcu_dereference_sched() is not needed, since this code runs
+only on i386, which in theory does not need rcu_dereference_sched()
+anyway. However, in practice it is a good documentation aid, particularly
+for anyone attempting to do something similar on Alpha or on systems
+with aggressive optimizing compilers.
-Quick Quiz: Why might the rcu_dereference() be necessary on Alpha,
+Quick Quiz: Why might the rcu_dereference_sched() be necessary on Alpha,
given that the code referenced by the pointer is read-only?
@@ -99,17 +100,21 @@
Answer to Quick Quiz
- Why might the rcu_dereference() be necessary on Alpha, given
+ Why might the rcu_dereference_sched() be necessary on Alpha, given
that the code referenced by the pointer is read-only?
Answer: The caller to set_nmi_callback() might well have
- initialized some data that is to be used by the
- new NMI handler. In this case, the rcu_dereference()
- would be needed, because otherwise a CPU that received
- an NMI just after the new handler was set might see
- the pointer to the new NMI handler, but the old
- pre-initialized version of the handler's data.
+ initialized some data that is to be used by the new NMI
+ handler. In this case, the rcu_dereference_sched() would
+ be needed, because otherwise a CPU that received an NMI
+ just after the new handler was set might see the pointer
+ to the new NMI handler, but the old pre-initialized
+ version of the handler's data.
- More important, the rcu_dereference() makes it clear
- to someone reading the code that the pointer is being
- protected by RCU.
+ This same sad story can happen on other CPUs when using
+ a compiler with aggressive pointer-value speculation
+ optimizations.
+
+ More important, the rcu_dereference_sched() makes it
+ clear to someone reading the code that the pointer is
+ being protected by RCU-sched.