Re: [PATCH] 2.5.21 Nonlinear CPU support

From: Anton Altaparmakov (aia21@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk)
Date: Wed Jun 12 2002 - 20:45:40 EST


On Wed, 12 Jun 2002, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Anton Altaparmakov wrote:
> >
> > The code would be run outside the critical region... But correct about
> > the race. I thought that was obvious and wasn't suggesting the above to be
> > the actual code... That was supposed to be obvious from lack of error
> > handling etc... Never mind. My mistake, I should have been more precise
> > the first time round, here is the actual code I had in mind:
> >
> > [snip]
> > if (unlikely(!ntfs_compression_buffers)) {
> > int err;
> >
> > /*
> > * This code path only ever triggers once so we take it
> > * out of line.
> > */
> > if ((err = try_to_allocate_compression_buffers())) {
> > // TODO: do appropriate cleanups
> > return err;
> > }
> > }
> > disable_preempt();
> > cb = ntfs_compression_buffers[smp_processor_id()];
> > [snip]
> >
> > and try_to_allocate_compression_buffers would be:
> >
> > int try_to_allocate_compression_buffers(void)
> > {
> > int err = 0;
> >
> > down(&ntfs_lock);
> > if (likely(!ntfs_compression_buffers))
> > err = allocate_compression_buffers();
> > up(&ntfs_lock);
> > return err;
> > }
> >
> > and allocate_compression_buffers() is the same as it is now. Actually I
> > was going to fuse try_to_allocate and allocate into one function but as I
> > am showing above it is clearer to see what I had in mind...
> >
> > Happy now? This basically just defers the allocation to a bit later. As it
> > is at the moment the allocation happens at mount time of a partition which
> > supports compression. Note that the code in super.c would still need to
> > exist due to reference counting so we know when we can free the buffers
> > again. The only thing changed in super.c will be to remove the actual call
> > to allocate_compression_buffers, all else stays in place. Otherwise we
> > have no way to tell when we can throw away the buffers.
>
> I presume allocate_compression_buffers() allocates *all* buffers, and
> doesn't return error if there is nothing to allocate? If so, the above
> code should be OK.
>
> If allocate_compression_buffers() either doesn't check if it has already
> allocated, or returns an error if buffers were already allocated, then
> the above code is OK *EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF HOTSWAP CPUs*.
>
> My originally proposed code allocated one buffer at a time, and should
> be correct even in the presence of hotswap CPUs.

allocate_compression_buffers() currently allocates all buffers up
smp_num_cpus which is fine without hotswap cpus. Once hotswap cpus path
goes in, then the allocation will be (pseudo code):

        for (i = 0; i < NR_CPUS; i++) {
                if (cpu_possible(i)) {
                        ntfs_compression_buffer[i] = vmalloc();
                        // TODO handle errors
                }
        }

That means in words that we allocate buffers only once and for all
existing cpu SOCKETS, i.e. including all potentially hotpluggable cpus
which are currently offline. - If someone invents hotpluggable cpu sockets
at some point then they should be burnt at the stake! (-;

Best regards,

        Anton

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sat Jun 15 2002 - 22:00:27 EST