[PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU

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To: Andrew Morton <akpm@...>
Cc: linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...>, hugh <hugh@...>, Paul E McKenney <paulmck@...>, Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...>, Eric Dumazet <dada1@...>
Date: Thursday, November 13, 2008 - 10:28 am

Subject: slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU
From: Peter Zijlstra
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:13:42 +0200

Explain this SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU thing...

Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra
Acked-by: Jens Axboe
Acked-by: Paul E. McKenney
---
include/linux/slab.h | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 file changed, 26 insertions(+)

Index: linux-2.6/include/linux/slab.h
===================================================================
--- linux-2.6.orig/include/linux/slab.h
+++ linux-2.6/include/linux/slab.h
@@ -23,6 +23,32 @@
#define SLAB_CACHE_DMA 0x00004000UL /* Use GFP_DMA memory */
#define SLAB_STORE_USER 0x00010000UL /* DEBUG: Store the last owner for bug hunting */
#define SLAB_PANIC 0x00040000UL /* Panic if kmem_cache_create() fails */
+/*
+ * SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU - **WARNING** READ THIS!
+ *
+ * This delays freeing the SLAB page by a grace period, it does _NOT_
+ * delay object freeing. This means that if you do kmem_cache_free()
+ * that memory location is free to be reused at any time. Thus it may
+ * be possible to see another object there in the same RCU grace period.
+ *
+ * This feature only ensures the memory location backing the object
+ * stays valid, the trick to using this is relying on an independent
+ * object validation pass. Something like:
+ *
+ * rcu_read_lock()
+ * again:
+ * obj = lockless_lookup(key);
+ * if (obj) {
+ * if (!try_get_ref(obj)) // might fail for free objects
+ * goto again;
+ *
+ * if (obj->key != key) { // not the object we expected
+ * put_ref(obj);
+ * goto again;
+ * }
+ * }
+ * rcu_read_unlock();
+ */
#define SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU 0x00080000UL /* Defer freeing slabs to RCU */
#define SLAB_MEM_SPREAD 0x00100000UL /* Spread some memory over cpuset */
#define SLAB_TRACE 0x00200000UL /* Trace allocations and frees */

--

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Messages in current thread:
[PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Peter Zijlstra, (Thu Nov 13, 10:28 am)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Paul E. McKenney, (Thu Nov 13, 1:32 pm)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Hugh Dickins, (Thu Nov 13, 12:33 pm)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Pekka Enberg, (Thu Nov 13, 2:23 pm)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Peter Zijlstra, (Thu Nov 13, 1:05 pm)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Pekka Enberg, (Thu Nov 13, 10:57 am)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Christoph Lameter, (Thu Nov 13, 1:25 pm)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Pekka Enberg, (Thu Nov 13, 1:31 pm)
Re: [PATCH] slab: document SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU, Peter Zijlstra, (Thu Nov 13, 1:50 pm)