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SubjectRe: [RFC] time: xtime_lock is held too long
Hi Eric,

> > Defeating seqlock power? My thoughts are that seqlocks are nice
> > lightweight reader/writer locks that avoid writer starvation. You seem
> > to be trying to redefine or extend them to be something else which is
> > more subtle.
> >
>
> All I am trying to explain is that a seqlock is a compound of two
> things : One spinlock to synchronize writers among themselves, one
> seqcount to synchronize readers with a writer.
>
> But the API provides only a compound one. Writer uses the whole locking,
> while it would be nice to be able to separate the two steps. Note that
> because write_seqlock() and write_sequnlock() are inlined, this would
> not increase text size.

The separate writer and reader idea also came up in the input
subsystem about a year ago, to adress the one-writer-many-readers
situation. The patch went a few rounds on lkml
(https://lkml.org/lkml/2010/6/20/87), but the final version included
below got dropped because of an unrelated problem with the (evdev)
usecase. Perhaps it is useful in this setting?

Cheers,
Henrik

From bd26d8972130978deb9056a7a6da30b5c049914f Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Henrik Rydberg <rydberg@euromail.se>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 01:59:16 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Introduce mrbuf, a multi-reader buffer mechanism

In spite of the many lock patterns and fifo helpers in the kernel, the
case of a single writer feeding many readers via a circular event
buffer seems to be uncovered. This patch adds mrbuf, a mechanism
for handling multiple concurrent read positions in a shared circular
buffer. Under normal operation, given adequate buffer size, the
operation is lock-less.
---
include/linux/mrbuf.h | 228 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 228 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 include/linux/mrbuf.h

diff --git a/include/linux/mrbuf.h b/include/linux/mrbuf.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..86ab656
--- /dev/null
+++ b/include/linux/mrbuf.h
@@ -0,0 +1,228 @@
+#ifndef _MRBUF_H
+#define _MRBUF_H
+/*
+ * Multi-reader buffer lock for single writer, concurrent readers
+ *
+ * Copyright (c) 2010 Henrik Rydberg
+ *
+ * The mrbuf is a mechanism for handling multiple concurrent read
+ * positions in a shared circular buffer. The mrbuf does not handle
+ * the actual buffer, which can therefore be of any type.
+ *
+ * The writer does not block, but overwrites older events as the
+ * buffer gets full. Writing is performed in two stages; writing the
+ * data and telling the readers about it (syncing).
+ *
+ * The readers all read from the same shared buffer, but at individual
+ * positions. Reading from the position currently being written to
+ * will cause the reader to retry until the read is coherent. During
+ * normal operation, with sufficient buffer size, the mechanism is
+ * practically lock-less.
+ *
+ * The mrbuf is particularly suitable for input event buffers, where
+ * the single writer must not be starved, and where there are several
+ * threads reading the same data.
+ *
+ * Multi-reader buffer locks are similar to seqlocks, but while
+ * seqlocks have a finite retry frequency, mrbufs virtually never
+ * retry. Like seqlocks, mrbufs are not very cache friendly, and
+ * require the buffer to be valid in all threads.
+ *
+ * Multiple writers and re-entrant readers require additional locking.
+ *
+ * Event queue writer example. Readers are synchronized individually.
+ *
+ * mrbuf_write_lock(&writer);
+ *
+ * buffer[mrbuf_write_at(&writer)] = event_to_write;
+ *
+ * mrbuf_write_unlock(&writer);
+ *
+ * for (i = 0; i < NUM_READERS; i++)
+ * mrbuf_write_sync(&writer, &client[i]->reader);
+ *
+ * Event queue reader example, reading all available events.
+ *
+ * while (!mrbuf_read_empty(&reader)) {
+ * do {
+ * mrbuf_read_try(&reader, &writer);
+ * event_to_read = buffer[mrbuf_read_at(&reader, &writer)];
+ * } while (mrbuf_read_retry(&reader, &writer));
+ * }
+ *
+ */
+
+/**
+ * struct mrbuf_writer - mrbuf writer
+ * @page: the bits of the circular buffer (page = size - 1)
+ * @head: the current writer head
+ * @next: the head to take effect after the lock
+ *
+ * The buffer size must be a power of two, such that page is the set
+ * of bits in which the buffer positions live.
+ *
+ */
+struct mrbuf_writer {
+ unsigned int page;
+ unsigned int head;
+ unsigned int next;
+};
+
+/**
+ * struct mrbuf_reader - mrbuf reader
+ * @last: the last write head seen beforing trying
+ * @head: the current reader head
+ * @tail: the current reader tail
+ */
+struct mrbuf_reader {
+ unsigned int last;
+ unsigned int head;
+ unsigned int tail;
+};
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_write_init - initialize writer
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer to initialize
+ * @size: the size of the buffer (must be power of two)
+ */
+static inline void mrbuf_write_init(struct mrbuf_writer *bw, unsigned int size)
+{
+ bw->page = size - 1;
+ bw->head = 0;
+ bw->next = 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_write_lock - lock to write one event
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer to lock
+ *
+ * This method prepares to write one event. The write lock does not
+ * sleep and is thus suitable for use in atomic contexts.
+ *
+ */
+static inline void mrbuf_write_lock(struct mrbuf_writer *bw)
+{
+ ++bw->next;
+ smp_wmb();
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_write_at - return position to write to
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer keeping track of the write position
+ *
+ * Returns the buffer position to write to. Must be called from within
+ * the write lock.
+ *
+ */
+static inline unsigned int mrbuf_write_at(const struct mrbuf_writer *bw)
+{
+ return bw->head & bw->page;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_write_unlock - unlock writing
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer to unlock
+ */
+static inline void mrbuf_write_unlock(struct mrbuf_writer *bw)
+{
+ smp_wmb();
+ ++bw->head;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_write_sync - synchronize reader with current writer
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer to sync with
+ * @br: the mrbuf_reader to sync
+ *
+ * Synchronize the reader head with the writer head, effectively
+ * telling the reader thread that there is new data to read.
+ *
+ */
+static inline void mrbuf_write_sync(const struct mrbuf_writer *bw,
+ struct mrbuf_reader *br)
+{
+ br->head = bw->head;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_read_init - initialize reader
+ * @br: the mrbuf_reader to initialize
+ * @head: the initial reader head
+ * @tail: the initial reader tail
+ *
+ * This function must be called while mrbuf_write_sync() and
+ * mrbuf_read_empty() are out of reach, since the reader state is updated
+ * without coherence guarantees.
+ */
+static inline void mrbuf_read_init(struct mrbuf_reader *br,
+ unsigned int head, unsigned int tail)
+{
+ br->head = head;
+ br->tail = tail;
+ smp_wmb();
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_read_empty - true if reader is empty
+ * @br: the mrbuf_reader to check
+ */
+static inline bool mrbuf_read_empty(const struct mrbuf_reader *br)
+{
+ return br->head == br->tail;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_read_try - try to read data
+ * @br: the mrbuf_reader to try to read from
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer keeping track of the write position
+ *
+ * Prepare to read from buffer. The reader must be non-empty before
+ * trying to read from it. If the reader has fallen behind, it catches
+ * up by jumping to the last page being written to.
+ *
+ */
+static inline void mrbuf_read_try(struct mrbuf_reader *br,
+ const struct mrbuf_writer *bw)
+{
+ br->last = bw->head;
+ smp_rmb();
+ br->tail += (br->head - 1 - br->tail) & ~bw->page;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_read_at - return position to read from
+ * @br: the mrbuf_reader keeping track of the read position
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer keeping track of the buffer size
+ *
+ * Returns the buffer position to read from. Must be called from
+ * within the read try block.
+ *
+ */
+static inline unsigned int mrbuf_read_at(const struct mrbuf_reader *br,
+ const struct mrbuf_writer *bw)
+{
+ return br->tail & bw->page;
+}
+
+/**
+ * mrbuf_read_retry - try to finish read
+ * @br: the mrbuf_reader to try to finish
+ * @bw: the mrbuf_writer keeping track of the write position
+ *
+ * Try to finish the read. Returns false if successful. Otherwise, the
+ * read was incoherent and one must mrbuf_read_try() again. During
+ * normal operation, with adequate buffer size, this method will
+ * always return false.
+ *
+ */
+static inline bool __must_check mrbuf_read_retry(struct mrbuf_reader *br,
+ const struct mrbuf_writer *bw)
+{
+ smp_rmb();
+ if (unlikely(((br->tail - br->last) & bw->page) < bw->next - br->last))
+ return true;
+ ++br->tail;
+ return false;
+}
+
+#endif /* _MRBUF_H */
--
1.6.3.3


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