kernel/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements, branch linux-5.1.y

doc: CPU-hotplug notifiers cannot invoke synchronize_srcu() or srcu_barrier()

2019-01-25T23:34:18Z

SRCU's synchronize_srcu() may not be invoked from CPU-hotplug notifiers, due to the fact that SRCU grace periods make use of timers and the possibility of timers being temporarily stranded on the outgoing CPU. This stranding of timers means that timers posted to the outgoing CPU will not fire until late in the CPU-hotplug process. The problem is that if a notifier is waiting on an SRCU grace period, that grace period is waiting on a timer, and that timer is stranded on the outgoing CPU, then the notifier will never be awakened, in other words, deadlock has occurred. This same situation of course also prohibits srcu_barrier() from being invoked from CPU-hotplug notifiers. This commit therefore updates the requirements to include this restriction. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

doc: RCU scheduler spinlock rcu_read_unlock() restriction remains

2018-11-12T16:56:25Z

Given RCU flavor consolidation, when rcu_read_unlock() is invoked with interrupts disabled, the reporting of the corresponding quiescent state is deferred until interrupts are re-enabled. There was therefore some hope that this would allow dropping the restriction against holding scheduler spinlocks across an rcu_read_unlock() without disabling interrupts across the entire corresponding RCU read-side critical section. Unfortunately, the need to quickly provide a quiescent state to expedited grace periods sometimes requires a call to raise_softirq() during rcu_read_unlock() execution. Because raise_softirq() can sometimes acquire the scheduler spinlocks, the restriction must remain in effect. This commit therefore updates the RCU requirements documentation accordingly. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

doc: Make listing in RCU perf/scale requirements use rcu_assign_pointer()

2018-11-12T16:56:25Z

The code listing under this section has a quick quiz that says line 19 uses rcu_access_pointer, but the code listing itself instead uses rcu_dereference(). This commit therefore makes the code listing match the quick quiz. Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

doc: Remove obsolete (non-)requirement about disabling preemption

2018-11-12T16:56:25Z

The Requirements.html document says "Disabling Preemption Does Not Block Grace Periods". However this is no longer true with the RCU consolidation. This commit therefore removes the obsolete (non-)requirement entirely. Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

doc: Set down forward-progress requirements

2018-11-09T05:44:41Z

This commit adds a section to the requirements documentation setting down requirements for grace-period and callback-invocation forward progress. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

Merge branches 'doc.2018.08.30a', 'dynticks.2018.08.30b', 'srcu.2018.08.30b' and 'torture.2018.08.29a' into HEAD

2018-08-30T23:12:53Z

doc.2018.08.30a: Documentation updates dynticks.2018.08.30b: RCU flavor consolidation updates and cleanups srcu.2018.08.30b: SRCU updates torture.2018.08.29a: Torture-test updates

rcu: Defer reporting RCU-preempt quiescent states when disabled

2018-08-30T23:02:34Z

This commit defers reporting of RCU-preempt quiescent states at rcu_read_unlock_special() time when any of interrupts, softirq, or preemption are disabled. These deferred quiescent states are reported at a later RCU_SOFTIRQ, context switch, idle entry, or CPU-hotplug offline operation. Of course, if another RCU read-side critical section has started in the meantime, the reporting of the quiescent state will be further deferred. This also means that disabling preemption, interrupts, and/or softirqs will act as an RCU-preempt read-side critical section. This is enforced by checking preempt_count() as needed. Some special cases must be handled on an ad-hoc basis, for example, context switch is a quiescent state even though both the scheduler and do_exit() disable preemption. In these cases, additional calls to rcu_preempt_deferred_qs() override the preemption disabling. Similar logic overrides disabled interrupts in rcu_preempt_check_callbacks() because in this case the quiescent state happened just before the corresponding scheduling-clock interrupt. In theory, this change lifts a long-standing restriction that required that if interrupts were disabled across a call to rcu_read_unlock() that the matching rcu_read_lock() also be contained within that interrupts-disabled region of code. Because the reporting of the corresponding RCU-preempt quiescent state is now deferred until after interrupts have been enabled, it is no longer possible for this situation to result in deadlocks involving the scheduler's runqueue and priority-inheritance locks. This may allow some code simplification that might reduce interrupt latency a bit. Unfortunately, in practice this would also defer deboosting a low-priority task that had been subjected to RCU priority boosting, so real-time-response considerations might well force this restriction to remain in place. Because RCU-preempt grace periods are now blocked not only by RCU read-side critical sections, but also by disabling of interrupts, preemption, and softirqs, it will be possible to eliminate RCU-bh and RCU-sched in favor of RCU-preempt in CONFIG_PREEMPT=y kernels. This may require some additional plumbing to provide the network denial-of-service guarantees that have been traditionally provided by RCU-bh. Once these are in place, CONFIG_PREEMPT=n kernels will be able to fold RCU-bh into RCU-sched. This would mean that all kernels would have but one flavor of RCU, which would open the door to significant code cleanup. Moving to a single flavor of RCU would also have the beneficial effect of reducing the NOCB kthreads by at least a factor of two. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney [ paulmck: Apply rcu_read_unlock_special() preempt_count() feedback from Joel Fernandes. ] [ paulmck: Adjust rcu_eqs_enter() call to rcu_preempt_deferred_qs() in response to bug reports from kbuild test robot. ] [ paulmck: Fix bug located by kbuild test robot involving recursion via rcu_preempt_deferred_qs(). ]

doc: Update removal of RCU-bh/sched update machinery

2018-08-30T17:59:48Z

The RCU-bh update API is now defined in terms of that of RCU-bh and RCU-sched, so this commit updates the documentation accordingly. In addition, although RCU-sched persists in !PREEMPT kernels, in the PREEMPT case its update API is now defined in terms of that of RCU-preempt, so this commit also updates the documentation accordingly. While in the area, this commit removes the documentation for the now-obsolete synchronize_rcu_mult() and clarifies the Tasks RCU documentation. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

doc: Fix broken RCU-requirements link to LKML archive

2018-08-29T15:54:30Z

Two of the Requirements.html LKML links are broken. This patch changes them to use the archive from lore.kernel.org, which works fine. Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney

doc: Add design documentation on interruption of NMI handlers

2018-08-29T15:54:14Z

Make Requirements.html talk about how NMI handlers can take what appear to RCU to be normal interrupts. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney