Re: [PATCH 2/4] rcu: Add comment documenting how rcu_seq_snap works

[Paul E. McKenney]

On Tue, May 22, 2018 at 11:38:13PM -0700, Joel Fernandes wrote:
> From: "Joel Fernandes (Google)" <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> rcu_seq_snap may be tricky to decipher. Lets document how it works with
> an example to make it easier.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes (Google) <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Very good, queued for further review, thank you!

							Thanx, Paul

> ---
>  kernel/rcu/rcu.h | 34 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/kernel/rcu/rcu.h b/kernel/rcu/rcu.h
> index 0453a7d12b3f..5819a37f19fb 100644
> --- a/kernel/rcu/rcu.h
> +++ b/kernel/rcu/rcu.h
> @@ -91,7 +91,39 @@ static inline void rcu_seq_end(unsigned long *sp)
>  	WRITE_ONCE(*sp, rcu_seq_endval(sp));
>  }
> 
> -/* Take a snapshot of the update side's sequence number. */
> +/*
> + * rcu_seq_snap - Take a snapshot of the update side's sequence number.
> + *
> + * This function returns the earliest value of the grace-period sequence number
> + * that will indicate that a full grace period has elapsed since the current
> + * time.  Once the grace-period sequence number has reached this value, it will
> + * be safe to invoke all callbacks that have been registered prior to the
> + * current time. This value is the current grace-period number plus two to the
> + * power of the number of low-order bits reserved for state, then rounded up to
> + * the next value in which the state bits are all zero.
> + *
> + * In the current design, RCU_SEQ_STATE_MASK=3 and the least significant bit of
> + * the seq is used to track if a GP is in progress or not. Given this, it is
> + * sufficient if we add (6+1) and mask with ~3 to get the next GP. Let's see
> + * why with an example:
> + *
> + * Say the current seq is 12 which is 0b1100 (GP is 3 and state bits are 0b00).
> + * To get to the next GP number of 4, we have to add 0b100 to this (0x1 << 2)
> + * to account for the shift due to 2 state bits. Now, if the current seq is
> + * 13 (GP is 3 and state bits are 0b01), then it means the current grace period
> + * is already in progress so the next GP that a future call back will be queued
> + * to run at is GP+2 = 5, not 4. To account for the extra +1, we just overflow
> + * the 2 lower bits by adding 0b11. In case the lower bit was set, the overflow
> + * will cause the extra +1 to the GP, along with the usual +1 explained before.
> + * This gives us GP+2. Finally we mask the lower to bits by ~0x3 in case the
> + * overflow didn't occur. This masking is needed because in case RCU was idle
> + * (no GP in progress so lower 2 bits are 0b00), then the overflow of the lower
> + * 2 state bits wouldn't occur, so we mask to zero out those lower 2 bits.
> + *
> + * In other words, the next seq can be obtained by (0b11 + 0b100) & (~0b11)
> + * which can be generalized to:
> + * seq + (RCU_SEQ_STATE_MASK + (RCU_SEQ_STATE_MASK + 1)) & (~RCU_SEQ_STATE_MASK)
> + */
>  static inline unsigned long rcu_seq_snap(unsigned long *sp)
>  {
>  	unsigned long s;
> -- 
> 2.17.0.441.gb46fe60e1d-goog
>