Merge branch 'core-rcu-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip

Pull RCU updates from Ingo Molnar:
 "The changes in this cycle are:

   - RCU flavor consolidation cleanups and optmizations

   - Documentation updates

   - Miscellaneous fixes

   - SRCU updates

   - RCU-sync flavor consolidation

   - Torture-test updates

   - Linux-kernel memory-consistency-model updates, most notably the
     addition of plain C-language accesses"

* 'core-rcu-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip: (61 commits)
  tools/memory-model: Improve data-race detection
  tools/memory-model: Change definition of rcu-fence
  tools/memory-model: Expand definition of barrier
  tools/memory-model: Do not use "herd" to refer to "herd7"
  tools/memory-model: Fix comment in MP+poonceonces.litmus
  Documentation: atomic_t.txt: Explain ordering provided by smp_mb__{before,after}_atomic()
  rcu: Don't return a value from rcu_assign_pointer()
  rcu: Force inlining of rcu_read_lock()
  rcu: Fix irritating whitespace error in rcu_assign_pointer()
  rcu: Upgrade sync_exp_work_done() to smp_mb()
  rcutorture: Upper case solves the case of the vanishing NULL pointer
  torture: Suppress propagating trace_printk() warning
  rcutorture: Dump trace buffer for callback pipe drain failures
  torture: Add --trust-make to suppress "make clean"
  torture: Make --cpus override idleness calculations
  torture: Run kernel build in source directory
  torture: Add function graph-tracing cheat sheet
  torture: Capture qemu output
  rcutorture: Tweak kvm options
  rcutorture: Add trivial RCU implementation
  ...

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt b/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt
index 613033ff2b9b..5e6429d66c24 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/rcuref.txt
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ please read on.
 Reference counting on elements of lists which are protected by traditional
 reader/writer spinlocks or semaphores are straightforward:
 
+CODE LISTING A:
 1.				2.
 add()				search_and_reference()
 {				{
@@ -28,7 +29,8 @@ add()				search_and_reference()
 release_referenced()			delete()
 {					{
     ...					    write_lock(&list_lock);
-    atomic_dec(&el->rc, relfunc)	    ...
+    if(atomic_dec_and_test(&el->rc))	    ...
+	kfree(el);
     ...					    remove_element
 }					    write_unlock(&list_lock);
  					    ...
@@ -44,6 +46,7 @@ search_and_reference() could potentially hold reference to an element which
 has already been deleted from the list/array.  Use atomic_inc_not_zero()
 in this scenario as follows:
 
+CODE LISTING B:
 1.					2.
 add()					search_and_reference()
 {					{
@@ -79,6 +82,7 @@ search_and_reference() code path.  In such cases, the
 atomic_dec_and_test() may be moved from delete() to el_free()
 as follows:
 
+CODE LISTING C:
 1.					2.
 add()					search_and_reference()
 {					{
@@ -114,6 +118,17 @@ element can therefore safely be freed.  This in turn guarantees that if
 any reader finds the element, that reader may safely acquire a reference
 without checking the value of the reference counter.
 
+A clear advantage of the RCU-based pattern in listing C over the one
+in listing B is that any call to search_and_reference() that locates
+a given object will succeed in obtaining a reference to that object,
+even given a concurrent invocation of delete() for that same object.
+Similarly, a clear advantage of both listings B and C over listing A is
+that a call to delete() is not delayed even if there are an arbitrarily
+large number of calls to search_and_reference() searching for the same
+object that delete() was invoked on.  Instead, all that is delayed is
+the eventual invocation of kfree(), which is usually not a problem on
+modern computer systems, even the small ones.
+
 In cases where delete() can sleep, synchronize_rcu() can be called from
 delete(), so that el_free() can be subsumed into delete as follows:
 
@@ -130,3 +145,7 @@ delete()
     	kfree(el);
     ...
 }
+
+As additional examples in the kernel, the pattern in listing C is used by
+reference counting of struct pid, while the pattern in listing B is used by
+struct posix_acl.