tree 333cb87d73c154cdc82d2b08356a7337abec72e2
parent 4b7a3e9e32114a09c61995048f055615b5d4c26d
author Lai Jiangshan <laijs@cn.fujitsu.com> 1329946146 -0800
committer Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com> 1335808100 -0700

rcu: Increment upper bit only for srcu_read_lock()

The purpose of the upper bit of SRCU's per-CPU counters is to guarantee
that no reasonable series of srcu_read_lock() and srcu_read_unlock()
operations can return the value of the counter to its original value.
This guarantee is require only after the index has been switched to
the other set of counters, so at most one srcu_read_lock() can affect
a given CPU's counter.  The number of srcu_read_unlock() operations
on a given counter is limited to the number of tasks in the system,
which given the Linux kernel's current structure is limited to far less
than 2^30 on 32-bit systems and far less than 2^62 on 64-bit systems.
(Something about a limited number of bytes in the kernel's address space.)

Therefore, if srcu_read_lock() increments the upper bits, then
srcu_read_unlock() need not do so.  In this case, an srcu_read_lock() and
an srcu_read_unlock() will flip the lower bit of the upper field of the
counter.  An unreasonably large additional number of srcu_read_unlock()
operations would be required to return the counter to its initial value,
thus preserving the guarantee.

This commit takes this approach, which further allows it to shrink
the size of the upper field to one bit, making the number of
srcu_read_unlock() operations required to return the counter to its
initial value even more unreasonable than before.

Signed-off-by: Lai Jiangshan <laijs@cn.fujitsu.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>