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rcu: Fix rcu_barrier() documentation
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There was a time when rcu_barrier() was guaranteed to wait for at least
a grace period, but that time ended due to energy-efficiency concerns.
So now rcu_barrier() is a no-op if there are no RCU callbacks queued in
the system.  This commit updates the documentation to reflect this change.

Now, rcu_barrier() often does wait for a grace period, so, one could
imagine some modification to rcu_barrier() to more efficiently handle
cases where both rcu_barrier() and a grace period are needed.  But this
must wait until someone shows a real-world need for a change.

Reported-by: Bob Copeland <bob@cozybit.com>
Reported-by: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Reviewed-by: Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>
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Paul E. McKenney committed Aug 19, 2013
1 parent f7f7bac commit d84297c
Showing 1 changed file with 8 additions and 4 deletions.
12 changes: 8 additions & 4 deletions Documentation/RCU/rcubarrier.txt
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -70,10 +70,14 @@ in realtime kernels in order to avoid excessive scheduling latencies.

rcu_barrier()

We instead need the rcu_barrier() primitive. This primitive is similar
to synchronize_rcu(), but instead of waiting solely for a grace
period to elapse, it also waits for all outstanding RCU callbacks to
complete. Pseudo-code using rcu_barrier() is as follows:
We instead need the rcu_barrier() primitive. Rather than waiting for
a grace period to elapse, rcu_barrier() waits for all outstanding RCU
callbacks to complete. Please note that rcu_barrier() does -not- imply
synchronize_rcu(), in particular, if there are no RCU callbacks queued
anywhere, rcu_barrier() is within its rights to return immediately,
without waiting for a grace period to elapse.

Pseudo-code using rcu_barrier() is as follows:

1. Prevent any new RCU callbacks from being posted.
2. Execute rcu_barrier().
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