Documentation: locking: Describe seqlock design and usage
authorAhmed S. Darwish <a.darwish@linutronix.de>
Mon, 20 Jul 2020 15:55:07 +0000 (17:55 +0200)
committerPeter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Wed, 29 Jul 2020 14:14:22 +0000 (16:14 +0200)
commit0d24f65e933ca89d55d17f6dbdb2a72ca88f0992
tree69b56e136fd1aba3f2b24db0116ba03c582ffdb1
parentf05d67179def83545d257aaff40b974e5915af38
Documentation: locking: Describe seqlock design and usage

Proper documentation for the design and usage of sequence counters and
sequential locks does not exist. Complete the seqlock.h documentation as
follows:

  - Divide all documentation on a seqcount_t vs. seqlock_t basis. The
    description for both mechanisms was intermingled, which is incorrect
    since the usage constrains for each type are vastly different.

  - Add an introductory paragraph describing the internal design of, and
    rationale for, sequence counters.

  - Document seqcount_t writer non-preemptibility requirement, which was
    not previously documented anywhere, and provide a clear rationale.

  - Provide template code for seqcount_t and seqlock_t initialization
    and reader/writer critical sections.

  - Recommend using seqlock_t by default. It implicitly handles the
    serialization and non-preemptibility requirements of writers.

At seqlock.h:

  - Remove references to brlocks as they've long been removed from the
    kernel.

  - Remove references to gcc-3.x since the kernel's minimum supported
    gcc version is 4.9.

References: 0f6ed63b1707 ("no need to keep brlock macros anymore...")
References: 6ec4476ac825 ("Raise gcc version requirement to 4.9")
Signed-off-by: Ahmed S. Darwish <a.darwish@linutronix.de>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200720155530.1173732-2-a.darwish@linutronix.de
Documentation/locking/index.rst
Documentation/locking/seqlock.rst [new file with mode: 0644]
include/linux/seqlock.h