documentation: Record reason for rcu_head two-byte alignment
There is an assertion in __call_rcu() that checks only the bottom bit of the rcu_head pointer, rather than the bottom two (as might be expected for 32-bit systems) or the bottom three (as might be expected for 64-bit systems). This choice might be a bit surprising in these days of ubiquitous 32-bit and 64-bit systems. This commit therefore records the reason for this odd alignment check, namely that m68k guarantees only two-byte alignment despite being a 32-bit architectures. Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
This commit is contained in:
Родитель
e1ef69217f
Коммит
ed2bec07fd
|
@ -2493,6 +2493,28 @@ or some future “lazy”
|
|||
variant of <tt>call_rcu()</tt> that might one day be created for
|
||||
energy-efficiency purposes.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
That said, there are limits.
|
||||
RCU requires that the <tt>rcu_head</tt> structure be aligned to a
|
||||
two-byte boundary, and passing a misaligned <tt>rcu_head</tt>
|
||||
structure to one of the <tt>call_rcu()</tt> family of functions
|
||||
will result in a splat.
|
||||
It is therefore necessary to exercise caution when packing
|
||||
structures containing fields of type <tt>rcu_head</tt>.
|
||||
Why not a four-byte or even eight-byte alignment requirement?
|
||||
Because the m68k architecture provides only two-byte alignment,
|
||||
and thus acts as alignment's least common denominator.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
The reason for reserving the bottom bit of pointers to
|
||||
<tt>rcu_head</tt> structures is to leave the door open to
|
||||
“lazy” callbacks whose invocations can safely be deferred.
|
||||
Deferring invocation could potentially have energy-efficiency
|
||||
benefits, but only if the rate of non-lazy callbacks decreases
|
||||
significantly for some important workload.
|
||||
In the meantime, reserving the bottom bit keeps this option open
|
||||
in case it one day becomes useful.
|
||||
|
||||
<h3><a name="Performance, Scalability, Response Time, and Reliability">
|
||||
Performance, Scalability, Response Time, and Reliability</a></h3>
|
||||
|
||||
|
|
Загрузка…
Ссылка в новой задаче