lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2005]   [Nov]   [12]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: [Lse-tech] Subject: [RFC][PATCH] Fix for unsafe notifier chain mechanism
On Sat, Nov 12, 2005 at 10:35:07AM -0500, Alan Stern wrote:
> On Fri, 11 Nov 2005, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
>
> > > > > + down_write(&nh->rwsem);
> > > > > + nl = &nh->head;
> > > > > + while ((*nl) != NULL) {
> > > > > + if (n->priority > (*nl)->priority)
> > > > > + break;
> > > > > + nl = &((*nl)->next);
> > > > > + }
> > > > > + rcu_assign_pointer(n->next, *nl);
> > > >
> > > > The above can simply be "n->next = *nl;". The reason is that this change
> > > > of state is not visible to RCU readers until after the following statement,
> > > > and it therefore need not be an RCU-reader-safe assignment. You only need
> > > > to use rcu_assign_pointer() when the results of the assignment are
> > > > immediately visible to RCU readers.
> > >
> > > Correct, the rcu call isn't really needed. It doesn't hurt perceptibly,
> > > though, and part of the RCU documentation states:
> > >
> > > * ... More importantly, this
> > > * call documents which pointers will be dereferenced by RCU read-side
> > > * code.
> > >
> > > For that reason, I felt it was worth putting it in.
> >
> > But the following statement does a much better job of documenting the
> > pointer that is to be RCU-dereferenced. Duplicate documentation can
> > be just as confusing as no documentation.
>
> It's not really duplicate documentation since _both_ pointers are to be
> RCU-dereferenced. But maybe you mean that only the second pointer can be
> RCU-dereferenced at the time the write occurs? I don't think that's what
> the documentation comment intended.

I am the guy who wrote that documentation ocmment. ;-)

Thanx, Paul
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-11-12 20:30    [W:0.076 / U:0.268 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site