Re: [PATCH] doc: add note on usleep_range range

Pavel Machek
2016-12-27T21:56:42Z

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On Tue 2016-12-13 04:58:43, Nicholas Mc Guire wrote:
> useleep_range() with a delta of 0 makes no sense and only prevents the
> timer subsystem from optimizing interrupts. As any user of usleep_range()
> is in non-atomic context the timer jitter is in the range of 10s of
> microseconds anyway.
>
> This adds a note making it clear that a range of 0 is a bad idea.
>
> Signed-off-by: Nicholas Mc Guire <hofrat@osadl.org>
> ---
>
> as of 4.9.0 there are about 20 cases of usleep_ranges() that have
> min==max and none of them really look like they are necessary, so
> it does seem like a relatively common misunderstanding worth
> noting in the documentation.
>
> Patch is against 4.9.0 (localversion-next is 20161212)
>
> Documentation/timers/timers-howto.txt | 7 +++++++
> 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)
>
> diff --git a/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.txt b/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.txt
> index 038f8c7..b5cdf82 100644
> --- a/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/timers/timers-howto.txt
> @@ -93,6 +93,13 @@ NON-ATOMIC CONTEXT:
> tolerances here are very situation specific, thus it
> is left to the caller to determine a reasonable range.
>
> + A range of 0, that is usleep_range(100,100) or the
> + like, do not make sense as this code is in a
> + non-atomic section and a system can not be expected
> + to have jitter 0. For any non-RT code any delta

Would it be possible to fix english here?

"to have zero jitter" at least. I believe it is "does not".

I don't see how atomic vs. non-atomic context makes difference. There
are sources of jitter that affect atomic context...

> + less than 50 microseconds probably is only preventing
> + timer subsystem optimization but providing no benefit.

And I don't trust you here. _If_ it prevents timer optimalization,
_then_ it provides benefit, at least in the average case.

Pavel
--
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html

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