From f0a0e6f282c72247e7c8ec17c68d528c1bb4d49e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Paul E. McKenney" Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:47:01 -0700 Subject: rcu: Clarify memory-ordering properties of grace-period primitives This commit explicitly states the memory-ordering properties of the RCU grace-period primitives. Although these properties were in some sense implied by the fundmental property of RCU ("a grace period must wait for all pre-existing RCU read-side critical sections to complete"), stating it explicitly will be a great labor-saving device. Reported-by: Oleg Nesterov Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney Reviewed-by: Oleg Nesterov --- kernel/rcutree_plugin.h | 8 ++++++++ 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+) (limited to 'kernel/rcutree_plugin.h') diff --git a/kernel/rcutree_plugin.h b/kernel/rcutree_plugin.h index f92115488187..57e0ef8ed721 100644 --- a/kernel/rcutree_plugin.h +++ b/kernel/rcutree_plugin.h @@ -670,6 +670,9 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(kfree_call_rcu); * concurrently with new RCU read-side critical sections that began while * synchronize_rcu() was waiting. RCU read-side critical sections are * delimited by rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock(), and may be nested. + * + * See the description of synchronize_sched() for more detailed information + * on memory ordering guarantees. */ void synchronize_rcu(void) { @@ -875,6 +878,11 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(synchronize_rcu_expedited); /** * rcu_barrier - Wait until all in-flight call_rcu() callbacks complete. + * + * Note that this primitive does not necessarily wait for an RCU grace period + * to complete. For example, if there are no RCU callbacks queued anywhere + * in the system, then rcu_barrier() is within its rights to return + * immediately, without waiting for anything, much less an RCU grace period. */ void rcu_barrier(void) { -- cgit v1.2.3