lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2016]   [Dec]   [10]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
From
Date
SubjectRe: [PATCH v2] llist: Clarify comments about when locking is needed
On Sat, Dec 10, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Mathieu Desnoyers
<mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com> wrote:
> ----- On Dec 10, 2016, at 7:03 PM, Joel Fernandes joelaf@google.com wrote:
>
>> llist.h comments are a bit confusing about when locking is needed versus when
>> it isn't. Clarify these comments a bit more by being a bit more descriptive
>> about why locking is needed for llist_del_first.
>
> As I stated in my earlier review, please remove a couple of "a bit"
> from the changelog.
>

I'm sorry I missed that. I will update it correctly in the next rev.

Regards,
Joel



> Thanks,
>
> Mathieu
>
>>
>> Cc: Huang Ying <ying.huang@intel.com>
>> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
>> Cc: Will Deacon <will.deacon@arm.com>
>> Cc: Paul McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
>> Acked-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
>> Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <joelaf@google.com>
>> ---
>> v2 changes:
>> Minor changes to comment and commit message based on Mathieu's suggestions
>> (https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/12/10/39)
>>
>> include/linux/llist.h | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++----------------
>> 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/include/linux/llist.h b/include/linux/llist.h
>> index fd4ca0b..31822bb 100644
>> --- a/include/linux/llist.h
>> +++ b/include/linux/llist.h
>> @@ -3,28 +3,33 @@
>> /*
>> * Lock-less NULL terminated single linked list
>> *
>> - * If there are multiple producers and multiple consumers, llist_add
>> - * can be used in producers and llist_del_all can be used in
>> - * consumers. They can work simultaneously without lock. But
>> - * llist_del_first can not be used here. Because llist_del_first
>> - * depends on list->first->next does not changed if list->first is not
>> - * changed during its operation, but llist_del_first, llist_add,
>> - * llist_add (or llist_del_all, llist_add, llist_add) sequence in
>> - * another consumer may violate that.
>> - *
>> - * If there are multiple producers and one consumer, llist_add can be
>> - * used in producers and llist_del_all or llist_del_first can be used
>> - * in the consumer.
>> - *
>> - * This can be summarized as follow:
>> + * Cases where locking is not needed:
>> + * If there are multiple producers and multiple consumers, llist_add can be
>> + * used in producers and llist_del_all can be used in consumers simultaneously
>> + * without locking. Also a single consumer can use llist_del_first while
>> + * multiple producers simultaneously use llist_add, without any locking.
>> + *
>> + * Cases where locking is needed:
>> + * If we have multiple consumers with llist_del_first used in one consumer, and
>> + * llist_del_first or llist_del_all used in other consumers, then a lock is
>> + * needed. This is because llist_del_first depends on list->first->next not
>> + * changing, but without lock protection, there's no way to be sure about that
>> + * if a preemption happens in the middle of the delete operation and on being
>> + * preempted back, the list->first is the same as before causing the cmpxchg in
>> + * llist_del_first to succeed. For example, while a llist_del_first operation
>> + * is in progress in one consumer, then a llist_del_first, llist_add,
>> + * llist_add (or llist_del_all, llist_add, llist_add) sequence in another
>> + * consumer may cause violations.
>> + *
>> + * This can be summarized as follows:
>> *
>> * | add | del_first | del_all
>> * add | - | - | -
>> * del_first | | L | L
>> * del_all | | | -
>> *
>> - * Where "-" stands for no lock is needed, while "L" stands for lock
>> - * is needed.
>> + * Where, a particular row's operation can happen concurrently with a column's
>> + * operation, with "-" being no lock needed, while "L" being lock is needed.
>> *
>> * The list entries deleted via llist_del_all can be traversed with
>> * traversing function such as llist_for_each etc. But the list
>> --
>> 2.8.0.rc3.226.g39d4020
>
> --
> Mathieu Desnoyers
> EfficiOS Inc.
> http://www.efficios.com

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2016-12-10 19:21    [W:0.057 / U:0.088 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site