Re: [PATCH RFC -tip 0/4] v2 RCU cleanups and simplifiedpreemptable RCU

From: Ingo Molnar
Date: Mon Aug 03 2009 - 04:21:29 EST



* Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> [Not yet for inclusion, but making good progress.]
>
> This patchset contains some RCU cleanups as follows:
>
> o Move private definitions from include/linux/rcutree.h to
> kernel/rcutree.h
>
> o Rename variables and functions so that RCU-sched is an
> underlying definition, along with RCU-bh and (when so
> configured) RCU-preempt. RCU then maps to either RCU-sched
> or RCU-preempt, depending on configuration.
>
> o Consolidate sparse and lockdep into include/linux/rcupdate.h
> so that all RCU implementations are set up properly.
>
> With these in place, we add configurable preemptable-RCU functionality
> to kernel/rcutree.c. This new implementation has much faster and
> simpler read-side primitives (roughly that of Classic RCU built with
> CONFIG_PREEMPT), and has update-side performance equal to Classic RCU (at
> least in absence of blocking/preemption of read-side critical sections).
> This new implementation should eventually replace the old preemptable RCU,
> which would remove 2099 lines of code from the kernel, for a net removal
> of more than 1000 lines of code.
>
> This patchset is undoubtably buggy, and does not have RCU priority
> boosting, though it does have the necessary tracking of tasks blocked
> in RCU read-side critical sections.
>
> Changes from v1 (http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/7/23/294):
>
> o Fixes some locking problems detected by lockdep.
>
> o Disable irqs in quiescent-state-detection code, and fix handling
> of scheduling-clock interrupt always occurring in RCU read-side
> critical section.
>
> o Fix sparse annotations.
>
> o Apply feedback from Mathieu Desnoyers.
>
> o Fix x86 kernel-build errors.
>
> o Now passes moderate (multi-hour) rcutorture tests.
>
> Shortcomings:
>
> o Only moderately tested, probably still quite buggy. CPU hotplug
> not yet tested heavily, for example.
>
> o Probably does not even compile for all of the relevant
> combinations of kernel configuration variables.
>
> o Lacks RCU priority boosting.
>
> b/Documentation/RCU/trace.txt | 7
> b/include/linux/init_task.h | 15 +
> b/include/linux/rcupdate.h | 21 +-
> b/include/linux/rcupreempt.h | 4
> b/include/linux/rcutree.h | 211 --------------------
> b/include/linux/sched.h | 37 +++
> b/init/Kconfig | 22 +-
> b/kernel/Makefile | 1
> b/kernel/exit.c | 1
> b/kernel/fork.c | 5
> b/kernel/rcupreempt.c | 8
> b/kernel/rcutree.c | 2
> b/kernel/rcutree.h | 238 +++++++++++++++++++++++
> b/kernel/rcutree_plugin.h | 428 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> b/kernel/rcutree_trace.c | 2
> b/kernel/sched.c | 2
> b/kernel/softirq.c | 5
> include/linux/rcupdate.h | 48 ++++
> include/linux/rcupreempt.h | 8
> include/linux/rcutree.h | 43 ++--
> kernel/rcutree.c | 207 +++++++++++++-------
> kernel/rcutree.h | 13 +
> kernel/rcutree_trace.c | 40 ++-
> 23 files changed, 1018 insertions(+), 350 deletions(-)

The structure looks really nice. If feasible i'd suggest to remove
preemptible-rcu in this same patch-set as well, to simplify the
testing matrix and to get the net code removal effect as well.

An added benefit is that that way the -rt folks will test out the
new preemptible-rcu code with enthusiasm as well ;-)

Ingo
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