Re: [PATCH] net: Convert net_mutex into rw_semaphore and down read it on net->init/->exit

[Kirill Tkhai]

On 14.11.2017 20:07, Eric Dumazet wrote:
> On Tue, 2017-11-14 at 16:53 +0300, Kirill Tkhai wrote:
>> Curently mutex is used to protect pernet operations list. It makes
>> cleanup_net() to execute ->exit methods of the same operations set,
>> which was used on the time of ->init, even after net namespace is
>> unlinked from net_namespace_list.
>>
> ...
> 
>> The solution is to convert net_mutex to the rw_semaphore. Then,
>> pernet_operations::init/::exit methods, modifying the net-related data,
>> will require down_read() locking only, while down_write() will be used
>> for changing pernet_list.
>>
> ...
> 
>> This patch requires commit 76f8507f7a64 "locking/rwsem: Add down_read_killable()"
>> from Linus tree (not in net-next yet).
> 
> 
> Looks great, thanks for doing this.
> 
> I wonder if the down_read_killable() is really needed, maybe a
> down_read() would not be blocking the thread too long after this change.

I'm afraid there are spin_unlock() or similar actions leading to preempt_enable(),
which are made under the mutex/new rw_sem. They may be preempted and leave a cpu
for some time. So the possibility to break the wait may be useful in some way...