Re: [patch 2/6] mmu_notifier: Callbacks to invalidate address ranges

[Andrea Arcangeli <andrea@qumranet.com>]

On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 04:59:59PM -0800, Christoph Lameter wrote:
> And thus the device driver may stop receiving data on a UP system? It will 
> never get the ack.

Not sure to follow, sorry.

My idea was:

   post the invalidate in the mmio region of the device
   smp_call_function()
   while (mmio device wait-bitflag is on);

Instead of the current:

   smp_call_function()
   post the invalidate in the mmio region of the device
   while (mmio device wait-bitflag is on);

To decrease the wait loop time.

> invalidate_page_before/end could be realized as an 
> invalidate_range_begin/end on a page sized range?

If we go this route, once you add support to xpmem, you'll have to
make the anon_vma lock a mutex too, that would be fine with me
though. The main reason invalidate_page exists, is to allow you to
leave it as non-sleep-capable even after you make invalidate_range
sleep capable, and to implement the mmu_rmap_notifiers sleep capable
in all the paths that invalidate_page would be called. That was the
strategy you had in your patch. I'll try to drop invalidate_page. I
wonder if then you won't need the mmu_rmap_notifiers anymore.