Re: [PATCH tip/core/rcu 0/41] More RCU flavor consolidation cleanup for v4.21/v5.0

[Mathieu Desnoyers]

----- On Nov 11, 2018, at 2:41 PM, paulmck paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Hello!
> 
> This series does additional cleanup for the RCU flavor consolidation,
> focusing primarily on uses of old API members, for example, so that
> call_rcu_bh() becomes call_rcu().  There are also a few straggling
> internal-to-RCU cleanups.
> 
> 1.	Remove unused rcu_state externs, courtesy of Joel Fernandes.
> 
> 2.	Fix rcu_{node,data} comments about gp_seq_needed, courtesy of
>	Joel Fernandes.
> 
> 3.	Eliminate synchronize_rcu_mult() and its sole caller.
> 
> 4.	Consolidate the RCU update functions invoked by sync.c.
> 
> 5-41.	Replace old flavorful RCU API calls with the corresponding
>	vanilla calls.

Hi Paul,

Just a heads up: we might want to spell out warnings in very big letters
for anyone trying to backport code using RCU from post-4.21 kernels
back to older kernels. I fear that newer code will build just fine
on older kernels, but will spectacularly fail in hard-to-debug ways at
runtime.

Renaming synchronize_rcu() and call_rcu() to something that did not
exist in prior kernels would prevent that. It may not be as pretty
though.

Thanks,

Mathieu


-- 
Mathieu Desnoyers
EfficiOS Inc.
http://www.efficios.com