Re: [PATCH] rwsem: Comments to explain the meaning of the rwsem's count field

[Tim Chen]

On Thu, 2014-05-01 at 16:18 -0400, Peter Hurley wrote:
> On 05/01/2014 01:50 PM, Tim Chen wrote:
> > It takes me a while to understand how rwsem's count field mainifest
> > itself in different scenarios.  I'm adding comments to provide a quick
> > reference on the the rwsem's count field for each scenario where readers
> > and writers are contending/holding the lock.  Hopefully it will be useful
> > for future maintenance of the code and for people to get up to speed on
> > how the logic in the code works.
> 
> Except there are a lot of transition states for the count that look like
> stable states for some other condition, and vice versa.
> 
> For example, 0xffff000X could be:
> 1. stable state as described below.
> 2. 1 or more (but not X) readers active,
>     1 writer which failed to acquire and has not yet backed out the adjustment
>     0 or more readers which failed to acquire because of the waiting writer
>         and have not yet backed out
> 3. 1 writer active,
>     1 or more readers which failed to acquire because of the active writer and
>         have not yet backed out
> 4. maybe more states where a owning writer has just dropped the lock

Thanks for the feedback.  Yes, one thing I missed was to account for the
readers and writers who are actively attempting to lock by adding
ACTIVE_BIAS or ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS to the count.  Once we account for
those we should take care of the transition states. 
The revised comments also look at the readers and writers actively
attempting the lock.

> 
> Because of this, it's hazardous to infer lock state except for the specific
> existing tests (eg., the count observed by a failed reader after it has
> acquired the wait_lock).

Thanks.

Tim

---

It takes me quite a while to understand how rwsem's count field mainifest
itself in different scenarios.  I'm adding comments to provide a quick
reference on the the rwsem's count field for each scenario where readers
and writers are contending for the lock.  Hopefully it will be useful
for future maintenance of the code and for people to get up to speed on
how the logic in the code works.

Signed-off-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c | 48 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 48 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c b/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c
index 1d66e08..b92a403 100644
--- a/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c
+++ b/kernel/locking/rwsem-xadd.c
@@ -12,6 +12,54 @@
 #include <linux/export.h>
 
 /*
+ * Guide to the rw_semaphore's count field for common values.
+ * (32 bit case illustrated, similar for 64 bit)
+ *
+ * 0x0000000X	(1) X readers active or attempting lock, no writer waiting
+ *		    X = #active_readers + #readers attempting to lock
+ *		    (X*ACTIVE_BIAS)
+ *
+ * 0x00000000	rwsem is unlocked, and no one is waiting for the lock or
+ *		attempting to read lock or write lock.
+ *
+ * 0xffff000X	(1) X readers active or attempt lock, there are waiters for lock
+ *		    X = #active readers + # readers attempting lock
+ *		    (X*ACTIVE_BIAS + WAITING_BIAS)
+ *		(2) 1 writer attempting lock, no waiters for lock
+ *		    X-1 = #active readers + #readers attempting lock
+ *		    ((X-1)*ACTIVE_BIAS + ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS)
+ *		(3) 1 writer active, no waiters for lock
+ *		    X-1 = #active readers + #readers attempting lock
+ *		    ((X-1)*ACTIVE_BIAS + ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS)
+ *
+ * 0xffff0001	(1) 1 reader active or attempting lock, waiters for lock
+ *		    (WAITING_BIAS + ACTIVE_BIAS)
+ *		(2) 1 writer active or attempt lock, no waiters for lock
+ *		    (ACTIVE_BIAS + ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS)
+ *
+ * 0xffff0000	(1) There are writers or readers queued but none active
+ *		    or in the process of attempting lock.
+ *		    (WAITING_BIAS)
+ *		Note: writer can attempt to steal lock for this count by adding
+ *		ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS in cmpxchg and checking the old count
+ *
+ * 0xfffe0001	(1) 1 writer active, or attempting lock. Waiters on queue.
+ *		    (ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS + WAITING_BIAS)
+ *
+ * Note: Reader attempt to lock by adding ACTIVE_BIAS in down_read and checking
+ *	 the count becomes more than 0, i.e. the case where there are only
+ *	 readers or no body has lock. (1st and 2nd case above)
+ *
+ *	 Writer attempt to lock by adding ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS in down_write and
+ *	 checking the count becomes ACTIVE_WRITE_BIAS for succesful lock
+ *	 acquisition (i.e. nobody else has lock or attempts lock).  If
+ *	 unsuccessful, in rwsem_down_write_failed, we'll check to see if there
+ *	 are only waiters but none active (5th case above), and attempt to
+ *	 steal the lock.
+ *
+ */
+
+/*
  * Initialize an rwsem:
  */
 void __init_rwsem(struct rw_semaphore *sem, const char *name,
-- 
1.7.11.7






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