there cannot be any readers who hold references to the data structure,
and these can now be safely reclaimed (e.g., freed or unref'ed).
-Here is a picutre:
+Here is a picture:
thread 1 thread 2 thread 3
------------------- ------------------------ -------------------
Note that it would be valid for another update to come while
synchronize_rcu is running. Because of this, it is better that
the updater releases any locks it may hold before calling
- synchronize_rcu.
+ synchronize_rcu. If this is not possible (for example, because
+ the updater is protected by the BQL), you can use call_rcu.
+
+ void call_rcu1(struct rcu_head * head,
+ void (*func)(struct rcu_head *head));
+
+ This function invokes func(head) after all pre-existing RCU
+ read-side critical sections on all threads have completed. This
+ marks the end of the removal phase, with func taking care
+ asynchronously of the reclamation phase.
+
+ The foo struct needs to have an rcu_head structure added,
+ perhaps as follows:
+
+ struct foo {
+ struct rcu_head rcu;
+ int a;
+ char b;
+ long c;
+ };
+
+ so that the reclaimer function can fetch the struct foo address
+ and free it:
+
+ call_rcu1(&foo.rcu, foo_reclaim);
+
+ void foo_reclaim(struct rcu_head *rp)
+ {
+ struct foo *fp = container_of(rp, struct foo, rcu);
+ g_free(fp);
+ }
+
+ For the common case where the rcu_head member is the first of the
+ struct, you can use the following macro.
+
+ void call_rcu(T *p,
+ void (*func)(T *p),
+ field-name);
+ void g_free_rcu(T *p,
+ field-name);
+
+ call_rcu1 is typically used through these macro, in the common case
+ where the "struct rcu_head" is the first field in the struct. If
+ the callback function is g_free, in particular, g_free_rcu can be
+ used. In the above case, one could have written simply:
+
+ g_free_rcu(&foo, rcu);
typeof(*p) atomic_rcu_read(p);
and then read from there.
RCU read-side critical sections must use atomic_rcu_read() to
- read data, unless concurrent writes are presented by another
+ read data, unless concurrent writes are prevented by another
synchronization mechanism.
Furthermore, RCU read-side critical sections should traverse the
- atomic_rcu_read and atomic_rcu_set replace rcu_dereference and
rcu_assign_pointer. They take a _pointer_ to the variable being accessed.
+- call_rcu is a macro that has an extra argument (the name of the first
+ field in the struct, which must be a struct rcu_head), and expects the
+ type of the callback's argument to be the type of the first argument.
+ call_rcu1 is the same as Linux's call_rcu.
+
RCU PATTERNS
============
synchronize_rcu();
free(old);
-Note that the same idiom would be possible with reader/writer
+If the processing cannot be done purely within the critical section, it
+is possible to combine this idiom with a "real" reference count:
+
+ rcu_read_lock();
+ p = atomic_rcu_read(&foo);
+ foo_ref(p);
+ rcu_read_unlock();
+ /* do something with p. */
+ foo_unref(p);
+
+The write side can be like this:
+
+ qemu_mutex_lock(&foo_mutex);
+ old = foo;
+ atomic_rcu_set(&foo, new);
+ qemu_mutex_unlock(&foo_mutex);
+ synchronize_rcu();
+ foo_unref(old);
+
+or with call_rcu:
+
+ qemu_mutex_lock(&foo_mutex);
+ old = foo;
+ atomic_rcu_set(&foo, new);
+ qemu_mutex_unlock(&foo_mutex);
+ call_rcu(foo_unref, old, rcu);
+
+In both cases, the write side only performs removal. Reclamation
+happens when the last reference to a "foo" object is dropped.
+Using synchronize_rcu() is undesirably expensive, because the
+last reference may be dropped on the read side. Hence you can
+use call_rcu() instead:
+
+ foo_unref(struct foo *p) {
+ if (atomic_fetch_dec(&p->refcount) == 1) {
+ call_rcu(foo_destroy, p, rcu);
+ }
+ }
+
+
+Note that the same idioms would be possible with reader/writer
locks:
read_lock(&foo_rwlock); write_mutex_lock(&foo_rwlock);
write_mutex_unlock(&foo_rwlock);
free(p);
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+ read_lock(&foo_rwlock); write_mutex_lock(&foo_rwlock);
+ p = foo; old = foo;
+ foo_ref(p); foo = new;
+ read_unlock(&foo_rwlock); foo_unref(old);
+ /* do something with p. */ write_mutex_unlock(&foo_rwlock);
+ read_lock(&foo_rwlock);
+ foo_unref(p);
+ read_unlock(&foo_rwlock);
+
+foo_unref could use a mechanism such as bottom halves to move deallocation
+out of the write-side critical section.
+
RCU resizable arrays
--------------------
Resizable arrays can be used with RCU. The expensive RCU synchronization
-only needs to take place when the array is resized. The two items to
-take care of are:
+(or call_rcu) only needs to take place when the array is resized.
+The two items to take care of are:
- ensuring that the old version of the array is available between removal
and reclamation;
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