Re: [PATCH RFC] locking/mutexes: don't spin on owner when wait list is not NULL.

[Peter Zijlstra]

On Thu, Jan 21, 2016 at 06:02:34PM -0500, Waiman Long wrote:
> This patch attempts to fix this live-lock condition by enabling the
> a woken task in the wait list to enter optimistic spinning loop itself
> with precedence over the ones in the OSQ. This should prevent the
> live-lock
> condition from happening.


So I think having the top waiter going back in to contend on the OSQ is
an excellent idea, but I'm not sure the wlh_spinning thing is important.

The OSQ itself is FIFO fair, and the waiters retain the wait_list
position. So having the top wait_list entry contending on the OSQ
ensures we cannot starve (I think).

Also, as Davidlohr said, we cannot copy/paste this much code.