Re: [PATCH RFC tip/core/rcu 19/28] nohz: Allow rcu extendedquiescent state handling seperately from tick stop

[Paul E. McKenney]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2011 at 12:54:33PM +0100, Frederic Weisbecker wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 02, 2011 at 09:00:03PM -0700, Josh Triplett wrote:
> > On Wed, Nov 02, 2011 at 01:30:40PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> > > From: Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@xxxxxxxxx>
> > > 
> > > It is assumed that rcu won't be used once we switch to tickless
> > > mode and until we restart the tick. However this is not always
> > > true, as in x86-64 where we dereference the idle notifiers after
> > > the tick is stopped.
> > > 
> > > To prepare for fixing this, add two new APIs:
> > > tick_nohz_idle_enter_norcu() and tick_nohz_idle_exit_norcu().
> > > 
> > > If no use of RCU is made in the idle loop between
> > > tick_nohz_enter_idle() and tick_nohz_exit_idle() calls, the arch
> > > must instead call the new *_norcu() version such that the arch doesn't
> > > need to call rcu_idle_enter() and rcu_idle_exit().
> > 
> > The _norcu names confused me a bit.  At first, I thought they meant
> > "idle but not RCU idle, so you can use RCU", but from re-reading the
> > commit message, apparently they mean "idle and RCU idle, so don't use
> > RCU".  What about something like _forbid_rcu instead?  Or,
> > alternatively, why not just go ahead and separate the two types of idle
> > entirely rather than introducing the _norcu variants first?
> 
> Or tick_nohz_idle_enter_rcu_stop() and tick_nohz_idle_exit_rcu_restart()?
> 
> Sounds clear but too long. May be we can shorten the tick_nohz thing in the
> beginning.

How about tick_nohz_rcu_idle_enter() vs. tick_nohz_idle_enter() on
entry to the idle loop and tick_nohz_rcu_idle_exit() vs
tick_nohz_idle_exit() on exit?

That said, I don't feel all that strongly on this naming topic.

								Thanx, Paul

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