Re: [PATCH v3 5/4] srcu: Document __srcu_read_{,un}lock_fast() implicit RCU readers

[Paul E. McKenney]

On Wed, Jul 23, 2025 at 12:10:46PM -0400, Joel Fernandes wrote:
> 
> 
> On 7/23/2025 9:32 AM, joelagnelf@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >> On Jul 22, 2025, at 6:17 PM, Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>
> >> This commit documents the implicit RCU readers that are implied by the
> >> this_cpu_inc() and atomic_long_inc() operations in __srcu_read_lock_fast()
> >> and __srcu_read_unlock_fast().  While in the area, fix the documentation
> >> of the memory pairing of atomic_long_inc() in __srcu_read_lock_fast().
> > 
> > Just to clarify, the implication here is since SRCU-fast uses synchronize_rcu on the update side, these operations result in blocking of classical RCU too. So simply using srcu fast is another way of achieving the previously used pre-empt-disabling in the use cases.
> 
> Hi Paul, it was nice sync'ing with you off-list. Following are my suggestions
> and where I am coming from:
> 
> 1. For someone who doesn't know SRCU-fast depends on synchronize_rcu (me after a
> few beers :P), the word 'RCU' in the comment you added to this patch, might come
> across as 'which RCU are we referring to - SRCU or classical RCU or some other'.
> So I would call it 'classical RCU reader' in the comment.
> 
> 2. It would be good to call out specifically that, the SRCU-fast critical
> section is akin to a classical RCU reader, because of its implementation's
> dependence on synchronize_rcu() to overcome the lack of read-side memory barriers.
> 
> 3. I think since the potential size of these code comment suggestions, it may
> make sense to provide a bigger comment suggesting these than providing them
> inline as you did. And also calling out the tracing usecase in the comments for
> additional usecase clarification.
> 
> I could provide a patch to do all this soon, as we discussed, as well (unless
> you're Ok with making this change as well).

Thank you very much for the clarification, and I will make the changes
with attribution.

							Thanx, Paul

> Thanks!
> 
>  - Joel
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > Or is the rationale for this something else?
> > 
> > I would probably spell this out more in a longer comment above the if/else, than modify the inline comments.
> > 
> > But I am probably misunderstood the whole thing. :-(
> > 
> > -Joel
> > 
> >>
> >> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx>
> >> Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >> Cc: <bpf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> >>
> >> diff --git a/include/linux/srcutree.h b/include/linux/srcutree.h
> >> index 043b5a67ef71e..78e1a7b845ba9 100644
> >> --- a/include/linux/srcutree.h
> >> +++ b/include/linux/srcutree.h
> >> @@ -245,9 +245,9 @@ static inline struct srcu_ctr __percpu *__srcu_read_lock_fast(struct srcu_struct
> >>    struct srcu_ctr __percpu *scp = READ_ONCE(ssp->srcu_ctrp);
> >>
> >>    if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_NEED_SRCU_NMI_SAFE))
> >> -        this_cpu_inc(scp->srcu_locks.counter); /* Y */
> >> +        this_cpu_inc(scp->srcu_locks.counter); // Y, and implicit RCU reader.
> >>    else
> >> -        atomic_long_inc(raw_cpu_ptr(&scp->srcu_locks));  /* Z */
> >> +        atomic_long_inc(raw_cpu_ptr(&scp->srcu_locks));  // Y, and implicit RCU reader.
> >>    barrier(); /* Avoid leaking the critical section. */
> >>    return scp;
> >> }
> >> @@ -271,9 +271,9 @@ static inline void __srcu_read_unlock_fast(struct srcu_struct *ssp, struct srcu_
> >> {
> >>    barrier();  /* Avoid leaking the critical section. */
> >>    if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_NEED_SRCU_NMI_SAFE))
> >> -        this_cpu_inc(scp->srcu_unlocks.counter);  /* Z */
> >> +        this_cpu_inc(scp->srcu_unlocks.counter);  // Z, and implicit RCU reader.
> >>    else
> >> -        atomic_long_inc(raw_cpu_ptr(&scp->srcu_unlocks));  /* Z */
> >> +        atomic_long_inc(raw_cpu_ptr(&scp->srcu_unlocks));  // Z, and implicit RCU reader.
> >> }
> >>
> >> void __srcu_check_read_flavor(struct srcu_struct *ssp, int read_flavor);
> >>
>