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rcu: 1Q2010 update for RCU documentation
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Add expedited functions.  Review documentation and update
obsolete verbiage.  Also fix the advice for the RCU CPU-stall
kernel configuration parameter, and document RCU CPU-stall
warnings.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: laijs@cn.fujitsu.com
Cc: dipankar@in.ibm.com
Cc: mathieu.desnoyers@polymtl.ca
Cc: josh@joshtriplett.org
Cc: dvhltc@us.ibm.com
Cc: niv@us.ibm.com
Cc: peterz@infradead.org
Cc: rostedt@goodmis.org
Cc: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
Cc: dhowells@redhat.com
LKML-Reference: <12635142581866-git-send-email->
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
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Paul E. McKenney authored and Ingo Molnar committed Jan 16, 2010
1 parent b6407e8 commit 4c54005
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8 changes: 6 additions & 2 deletions Documentation/RCU/00-INDEX
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -8,14 +8,18 @@ listRCU.txt
- Using RCU to Protect Read-Mostly Linked Lists
NMI-RCU.txt
- Using RCU to Protect Dynamic NMI Handlers
rcubarrier.txt
- RCU and Unloadable Modules
rculist_nulls.txt
- RCU list primitives for use with SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU
rcuref.txt
- Reference-count design for elements of lists/arrays protected by RCU
rcu.txt
- RCU Concepts
rcubarrier.txt
- Unloading modules that use RCU callbacks
RTFP.txt
- List of RCU papers (bibliography) going back to 1980.
stallwarn.txt
- RCU CPU stall warnings (CONFIG_RCU_CPU_STALL_DETECTOR)
torture.txt
- RCU Torture Test Operation (CONFIG_RCU_TORTURE_TEST)
trace.txt
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58 changes: 54 additions & 4 deletions Documentation/RCU/RTFP.txt
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Expand Up @@ -25,10 +25,10 @@ to be referencing the data structure. However, this mechanism was not
optimized for modern computer systems, which is not surprising given
that these overheads were not so expensive in the mid-80s. Nonetheless,
passive serialization appears to be the first deferred-destruction
mechanism to be used in production. Furthermore, the relevant patent has
lapsed, so this approach may be used in non-GPL software, if desired.
(In contrast, use of RCU is permitted only in software licensed under
GPL. Sorry!!!)
mechanism to be used in production. Furthermore, the relevant patent
has lapsed, so this approach may be used in non-GPL software, if desired.
(In contrast, implementation of RCU is permitted only in software licensed
under either GPL or LGPL. Sorry!!!)

In 1990, Pugh [Pugh90] noted that explicitly tracking which threads
were reading a given data structure permitted deferred free to operate
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -150,6 +150,18 @@ preemptible RCU [PaulEMcKenney2007PreemptibleRCU], and the three-part
LWN "What is RCU?" series [PaulEMcKenney2007WhatIsRCUFundamentally,
PaulEMcKenney2008WhatIsRCUUsage, and PaulEMcKenney2008WhatIsRCUAPI].

2008 saw a journal paper on real-time RCU [DinakarGuniguntala2008IBMSysJ],
a history of how Linux changed RCU more than RCU changed Linux
[PaulEMcKenney2008RCUOSR], and a design overview of hierarchical RCU
[PaulEMcKenney2008HierarchicalRCU].

2009 introduced user-level RCU algorithms [PaulEMcKenney2009MaliciousURCU],
which Mathieu Desnoyers is now maintaining [MathieuDesnoyers2009URCU]
[MathieuDesnoyersPhD]. TINY_RCU [PaulEMcKenney2009BloatWatchRCU] made
its appearance, as did expedited RCU [PaulEMcKenney2009expeditedRCU].
The problem of resizeable RCU-protected hash tables may now be on a path
to a solution [JoshTriplett2009RPHash].

Bibtex Entries

@article{Kung80
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -730,6 +742,11 @@ Revised:
"
}

#
# "What is RCU?" LWN series.
#
########################################################################

@article{DinakarGuniguntala2008IBMSysJ
,author="D. Guniguntala and P. E. McKenney and J. Triplett and J. Walpole"
,title="The read-copy-update mechanism for supporting real-time applications on shared-memory multiprocessor systems with {Linux}"
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -820,3 +837,36 @@ Revised:
Uniprocessor assumptions allow simplified RCU implementation.
"
}

@unpublished{PaulEMcKenney2009expeditedRCU
,Author="Paul E. McKenney"
,Title="[{PATCH} -tip 0/3] expedited 'big hammer' {RCU} grace periods"
,month="June"
,day="25"
,year="2009"
,note="Available:
\url{http://lkml.org/lkml/2009/6/25/306}
[Viewed August 16, 2009]"
,annotation="
First posting of expedited RCU to be accepted into -tip.
"
}

@unpublished{JoshTriplett2009RPHash
,Author="Josh Triplett"
,Title="Scalable concurrent hash tables via relativistic programming"
,month="September"
,year="2009"
,note="Linux Plumbers Conference presentation"
,annotation="
RP fun with hash tables.
"
}

@phdthesis{MathieuDesnoyersPhD
, title = "Low-impact Operating System Tracing"
, author = "Mathieu Desnoyers"
, school = "Ecole Polytechnique de Montr\'{e}al"
, month = "December"
, year = 2009
}
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