[PATCH resent] Documentation: rw_lock lessons learned

From: William Allen Simpson
Date: Tue Nov 10 2009 - 14:55:56 EST


In recent weeks, two different network projects erroneously
strayed down the rw_lock path. Update the Documentation
based upon comments in those threads.

Signed-off-by: William.Allen.Simpson@xxxxxxxxx
---
Documentation/spinlocks.txt | 14 ++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 14 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/spinlocks.txt b/Documentation/spinlocks.txt
index 619699d..c112052 100644
--- a/Documentation/spinlocks.txt
+++ b/Documentation/spinlocks.txt
@@ -233,4 +233,18 @@ indeed), while write-locks need to protect themselves against interrupts.

Linus

+----
+
+The implications of spin_locks on memory are further described in:
+
+ Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
+ (5) LOCK operations.
+ (6) UNLOCK operations.
+
+----
+
+We are working hard to remove reader-writer spinlocks (rw_lock) from the
+network stack, so please don't add a new one. Instead, see:
+
+ Documentation/RCU/rcu.txt

--
1.6.3.3