Re: [PATCH -v6 04/13] futex,rt_mutex: Provide futex specific rt_mutex API

From: Darren Hart
Date: Thu Apr 06 2017 - 13:08:20 EST


On Thu, Apr 06, 2017 at 02:17:28PM +0200, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 05, 2017 at 08:02:17AM -0700, Darren Hart wrote:
> > > @@ -1364,20 +1364,18 @@ static int wake_futex_pi(u32 __user *uad
> > > pi_state->owner = new_owner;
> > > raw_spin_unlock(&new_owner->pi_lock);
> > >
> > > /*
> > > + * We've updated the uservalue, this unlock cannot fail.
> >
> > It isn't clear to me what I should understand from this new comment. How does
> > the value of the uval affect whether or not the pi_state->pi_mutex can be
> > unlocked or not? Or are you noting that we've set FUTEX_WAITIERS so any valid
> > userspace operations will be forced intot he kernel and can't race with us since
> > we hold the hb->lock? With futexes, I think it's important that we be very
> > explicit in our comment blocks.
>
> The critical point is that once you've modified uval we must not fail;
> there is no way to undo things thereafter.

Aha, "must not", OK. I interpretted "cannot" as "is incapable of failing". So
let's use something like that for the comment:

/*
* We updated the user value and are committed to completing the unlock, we must
* not fail.
*/

Wow... English. I tried a few versions, but cannot, may not, etc. all have
doublt meanings. :-)

--
Darren Hart
VMware Open Source Technology Center