Re: [RFC][PATCH 2/6] lockdep: validate rcu_dereference() vs rcu_read_lock()

Paul E. McKenney
2007-09-19T17:34:09Z

On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 12:59:10PM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> On 9/19/07, Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 19, 2007 at 11:16:21AM -0400, Dmitry Torokhov wrote:
> > > On 9/19/07, Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 10:17:25 -0400 "Dmitry Torokhov"
> > > > <dmitry.torokhov@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi Peter,
> > > > >
> > > > > On 9/19/07, Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> wrote:
> > > > > > Warn when rcu_dereference() is not used in combination with rcu_read_lock()
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > According to Paul it is fine to use RCU primitives (when accompanied
> > > > > with proper comments) when the read-size critical section is guarded
> > > > > by spin_lock_irqsave()/spin_lock_irqsrestore() instead of
> > > > > rcu_read_lock()/rcu_read_unlock() and writers synchronize with
> > > > > synchronize_sched(), not synchronize_rcu(). Your patch will trigger
> > > > > warnign on such valid usages.
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > Sounds fragile to begin with. But you're right in that that is valid
> > > > for Linux as you know it. However in -rt most/all spinlocks are
> > > > converted to sleeping locks. In that case sync_sched() is not enough.
> > >
> > > OK, then it goes beyond RCU... We need to come up with something that
> > > can be used to synchronize with IRQ handlers (quite often in driver
> > > code one needs to be sure that current invocation of IRQ handler
> > > completed before doing something). And once we have it splinlock + RCU
> > > users can just use that method.
> >
> > But Peter's approach would not cause a problem here -- you wouldn't be
> > doing an rcu_dereference from within the IRQ handler in this case, right?
>
> Yes I do. Along with list_for_each_rcu().

OK, in that case it does indeed need to be handled.

Thanx, Paul

> > That said, we will need something to handle threaded interrupts, since
> > synchronize_sched() only waits for hardirq, NMI, SMI, etc., and not
> > threaded IRQs.
> >
> > Thanx, Paul
> >
>
> --
> Dmitry