[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/checklist.txt b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
index 1d50cf0..f4dffad 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.txt
@@ -221,3 +221,41 @@
disable irq on a given acquisition of that lock will result in
deadlock as soon as the RCU callback happens to interrupt that
acquisition's critical section.
+
+13. SRCU (srcu_read_lock(), srcu_read_unlock(), and synchronize_srcu())
+ may only be invoked from process context. Unlike other forms of
+ RCU, it -is- permissible to block in an SRCU read-side critical
+ section (demarked by srcu_read_lock() and srcu_read_unlock()),
+ hence the "SRCU": "sleepable RCU". Please note that if you
+ don't need to sleep in read-side critical sections, you should
+ be using RCU rather than SRCU, because RCU is almost always
+ faster and easier to use than is SRCU.
+
+ Also unlike other forms of RCU, explicit initialization
+ and cleanup is required via init_srcu_struct() and
+ cleanup_srcu_struct(). These are passed a "struct srcu_struct"
+ that defines the scope of a given SRCU domain. Once initialized,
+ the srcu_struct is passed to srcu_read_lock(), srcu_read_unlock()
+ and synchronize_srcu(). A given synchronize_srcu() waits only
+ for SRCU read-side critical sections governed by srcu_read_lock()
+ and srcu_read_unlock() calls that have been passd the same
+ srcu_struct. This property is what makes sleeping read-side
+ critical sections tolerable -- a given subsystem delays only
+ its own updates, not those of other subsystems using SRCU.
+ Therefore, SRCU is less prone to OOM the system than RCU would
+ be if RCU's read-side critical sections were permitted to
+ sleep.
+
+ The ability to sleep in read-side critical sections does not
+ come for free. First, corresponding srcu_read_lock() and
+ srcu_read_unlock() calls must be passed the same srcu_struct.
+ Second, grace-period-detection overhead is amortized only
+ over those updates sharing a given srcu_struct, rather than
+ being globally amortized as they are for other forms of RCU.
+ Therefore, SRCU should be used in preference to rw_semaphore
+ only in extremely read-intensive situations, or in situations
+ requiring SRCU's read-side deadlock immunity or low read-side
+ realtime latency.
+
+ Note that, rcu_assign_pointer() and rcu_dereference() relate to
+ SRCU just as they do to other forms of RCU.