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authorPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2015-10-07 15:35:35 -0700
committerPaul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>2015-12-05 12:32:19 -0800
commit01d3ad3834891f19a2620a105415feac93296eeb (patch)
tree10c1daae0351f2dee3d4c049021733b0614a18b1
parent701e80312fd10270f9c44371e5a229d37a9ae172 (diff)
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documentation: Cover requirements controlling stall warnings
This commit adds verbiage on boot and sysfs parameters that can be used to control RCU CPU stall warnings, both to change the timeout and to suppress these warnings entirely. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html25
-rw-r--r--Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.htmlx25
2 files changed, 48 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
index 871f627b7713..cc5b587c0ec5 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
@@ -1618,12 +1618,35 @@ guard against mishaps and misuse:
supplied the needed
<a href="https://lkml.kernel.org/g/20100319013024.GA28456@Krystal">patch</a>.
<li> An infinite loop in an RCU read-side critical section will
- eventually trigger an RCU CPU stall warning splat.
+ eventually trigger an RCU CPU stall warning splat, with
+ the duration of &ldquo;eventually&rdquo; being controlled by the
+ <tt>RCU_CPU_STALL_TIMEOUT</tt> <tt>Kconfig</tt> option, or,
+ alternatively, by the
+ <tt>rcupdate.rcu_cpu_stall_timeout</tt> boot/sysfs
+ parameter.
However, RCU is not obligated to produce this splat
unless there is a grace period waiting on that particular
RCU read-side critical section.
+ <p>
+ Some extreme workloads might intentionally delay
+ RCU grace periods, and systems running those workloads can
+ be booted with <tt>rcupdate.rcu_cpu_stall_suppress</tt>
+ to suppress the splats.
+ This kernel parameter may also be set via <tt>sysfs</tt>.
+ Furthermore, RCU CPU stall warnings are counter-productive
+ during sysrq dumps and during panics.
+ RCU therefore supplies the <tt>rcu_sysrq_start()</tt> and
+ <tt>rcu_sysrq_end()</tt> API members to be called before
+ and after long sysrq dumps.
+ RCU also supplies the <tt>rcu_panic()</tt> notifier that is
+ automatically invoked at the beginning of a panic to suppress
+ further RCU CPU stall warnings.
+
+ <p>
This requirement made itself known in the early 1990s, pretty
much the first time that it was necessary to debug a CPU stall.
+ That said, the initial implementation in DYNIX/ptx was quite
+ generic in comparison with that of Linux.
<li> Although it would be very good to detect pointers leaking out
of RCU read-side critical sections, there is currently no
good way of doing this.
diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.htmlx b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.htmlx
index a544db4646c6..23524d75a3c3 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.htmlx
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.htmlx
@@ -1777,12 +1777,35 @@ guard against mishaps and misuse:
supplied the needed
<a href="https://lkml.kernel.org/g/20100319013024.GA28456@Krystal">patch</a>.
<li> An infinite loop in an RCU read-side critical section will
- eventually trigger an RCU CPU stall warning splat.
+ eventually trigger an RCU CPU stall warning splat, with
+ the duration of &ldquo;eventually&rdquo; being controlled by the
+ <tt>RCU_CPU_STALL_TIMEOUT</tt> <tt>Kconfig</tt> option, or,
+ alternatively, by the
+ <tt>rcupdate.rcu_cpu_stall_timeout</tt> boot/sysfs
+ parameter.
However, RCU is not obligated to produce this splat
unless there is a grace period waiting on that particular
RCU read-side critical section.
+ <p>
+ Some extreme workloads might intentionally delay
+ RCU grace periods, and systems running those workloads can
+ be booted with <tt>rcupdate.rcu_cpu_stall_suppress</tt>
+ to suppress the splats.
+ This kernel parameter may also be set via <tt>sysfs</tt>.
+ Furthermore, RCU CPU stall warnings are counter-productive
+ during sysrq dumps and during panics.
+ RCU therefore supplies the <tt>rcu_sysrq_start()</tt> and
+ <tt>rcu_sysrq_end()</tt> API members to be called before
+ and after long sysrq dumps.
+ RCU also supplies the <tt>rcu_panic()</tt> notifier that is
+ automatically invoked at the beginning of a panic to suppress
+ further RCU CPU stall warnings.
+
+ <p>
This requirement made itself known in the early 1990s, pretty
much the first time that it was necessary to debug a CPU stall.
+ That said, the initial implementation in DYNIX/ptx was quite
+ generic in comparison with that of Linux.
<li> Although it would be very good to detect pointers leaking out
of RCU read-side critical sections, there is currently no
good way of doing this.