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author | Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr@hp.com> | 2014-07-30 22:41:55 +0200 |
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committer | Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> | 2014-08-13 10:32:03 +0200 |
commit | 214e0aed639ef40987bf6159fad303171a6de31e (patch) | |
tree | 9f4c2eb1497a7377de93d619c05cf6c82fcfa0cb /Documentation/rt-mutex-design.txt | |
parent | locking/mutexes: Use MUTEX_SPIN_ON_OWNER when appropriate (diff) | |
download | linux-214e0aed639ef40987bf6159fad303171a6de31e.tar.xz linux-214e0aed639ef40987bf6159fad303171a6de31e.zip |
locking/Documentation: Move locking related docs into Documentation/locking/
Specifically:
Documentation/locking/lockdep-design.txt
Documentation/locking/lockstat.txt
Documentation/locking/mutex-design.txt
Documentation/locking/rt-mutex-design.txt
Documentation/locking/rt-mutex.txt
Documentation/locking/spinlocks.txt
Documentation/locking/ww-mutex-design.txt
Signed-off-by: Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr@hp.com>
Acked-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: jason.low2@hp.com
Cc: aswin@hp.com
Cc: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@plumgrid.com>
Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Chris Mason <clm@fb.com>
Cc: Dan Streetman <ddstreet@ieee.org>
Cc: David Airlie <airlied@linux.ie>
Cc: Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr@hp.com>
Cc: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Cc: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Cc: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
Cc: Jason Low <jason.low2@hp.com>
Cc: Josef Bacik <jbacik@fusionio.com>
Cc: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Lubomir Rintel <lkundrak@v3.sk>
Cc: Masanari Iida <standby24x7@gmail.com>
Cc: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Cc: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Vineet Gupta <vgupta@synopsys.com>
Cc: fengguang.wu@intel.com
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/1406752916-3341-6-git-send-email-davidlohr@hp.com
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/rt-mutex-design.txt')
-rw-r--r-- | Documentation/rt-mutex-design.txt | 781 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 781 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/rt-mutex-design.txt b/Documentation/rt-mutex-design.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 8666070d3189..000000000000 --- a/Documentation/rt-mutex-design.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,781 +0,0 @@ -# -# Copyright (c) 2006 Steven Rostedt -# Licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 -# - -RT-mutex implementation design ------------------------------- - -This document tries to describe the design of the rtmutex.c implementation. -It doesn't describe the reasons why rtmutex.c exists. For that please see -Documentation/rt-mutex.txt. Although this document does explain problems -that happen without this code, but that is in the concept to understand -what the code actually is doing. - -The goal of this document is to help others understand the priority -inheritance (PI) algorithm that is used, as well as reasons for the -decisions that were made to implement PI in the manner that was done. - - -Unbounded Priority Inversion ----------------------------- - -Priority inversion is when a lower priority process executes while a higher -priority process wants to run. This happens for several reasons, and -most of the time it can't be helped. Anytime a high priority process wants -to use a resource that a lower priority process has (a mutex for example), -the high priority process must wait until the lower priority process is done -with the resource. This is a priority inversion. What we want to prevent -is something called unbounded priority inversion. That is when the high -priority process is prevented from running by a lower priority process for -an undetermined amount of time. - -The classic example of unbounded priority inversion is where you have three -processes, let's call them processes A, B, and C, where A is the highest -priority process, C is the lowest, and B is in between. A tries to grab a lock -that C owns and must wait and lets C run to release the lock. But in the -meantime, B executes, and since B is of a higher priority than C, it preempts C, -but by doing so, it is in fact preempting A which is a higher priority process. -Now there's no way of knowing how long A will be sleeping waiting for C -to release the lock, because for all we know, B is a CPU hog and will -never give C a chance to release the lock. This is called unbounded priority -inversion. - -Here's a little ASCII art to show the problem. - - grab lock L1 (owned by C) - | -A ---+ - C preempted by B - | -C +----+ - -B +--------> - B now keeps A from running. - - -Priority Inheritance (PI) -------------------------- - -There are several ways to solve this issue, but other ways are out of scope -for this document. Here we only discuss PI. - -PI is where a process inherits the priority of another process if the other -process blocks on a lock owned by the current process. To make this easier -to understand, let's use the previous example, with processes A, B, and C again. - -This time, when A blocks on the lock owned by C, C would inherit the priority -of A. So now if B becomes runnable, it would not preempt C, since C now has -the high priority of A. As soon as C releases the lock, it loses its -inherited priority, and A then can continue with the resource that C had. - -Terminology ------------ - -Here I explain some terminology that is used in this document to help describe -the design that is used to implement PI. - -PI chain - The PI chain is an ordered series of locks and processes that cause - processes to inherit priorities from a previous process that is - blocked on one of its locks. This is described in more detail - later in this document. - -mutex - In this document, to differentiate from locks that implement - PI and spin locks that are used in the PI code, from now on - the PI locks will be called a mutex. - -lock - In this document from now on, I will use the term lock when - referring to spin locks that are used to protect parts of the PI - algorithm. These locks disable preemption for UP (when - CONFIG_PREEMPT is enabled) and on SMP prevents multiple CPUs from - entering critical sections simultaneously. - -spin lock - Same as lock above. - -waiter - A waiter is a struct that is stored on the stack of a blocked - process. Since the scope of the waiter is within the code for - a process being blocked on the mutex, it is fine to allocate - the waiter on the process's stack (local variable). This - structure holds a pointer to the task, as well as the mutex that - the task is blocked on. It also has the plist node structures to - place the task in the waiter_list of a mutex as well as the - pi_list of a mutex owner task (described below). - - waiter is sometimes used in reference to the task that is waiting - on a mutex. This is the same as waiter->task. - -waiters - A list of processes that are blocked on a mutex. - -top waiter - The highest priority process waiting on a specific mutex. - -top pi waiter - The highest priority process waiting on one of the mutexes - that a specific process owns. - -Note: task and process are used interchangeably in this document, mostly to - differentiate between two processes that are being described together. - - -PI chain --------- - -The PI chain is a list of processes and mutexes that may cause priority -inheritance to take place. Multiple chains may converge, but a chain -would never diverge, since a process can't be blocked on more than one -mutex at a time. - -Example: - - Process: A, B, C, D, E - Mutexes: L1, L2, L3, L4 - - A owns: L1 - B blocked on L1 - B owns L2 - C blocked on L2 - C owns L3 - D blocked on L3 - D owns L4 - E blocked on L4 - -The chain would be: - - E->L4->D->L3->C->L2->B->L1->A - -To show where two chains merge, we could add another process F and -another mutex L5 where B owns L5 and F is blocked on mutex L5. - -The chain for F would be: - - F->L5->B->L1->A - -Since a process may own more than one mutex, but never be blocked on more than -one, the chains merge. - -Here we show both chains: - - E->L4->D->L3->C->L2-+ - | - +->B->L1->A - | - F->L5-+ - -For PI to work, the processes at the right end of these chains (or we may -also call it the Top of the chain) must be equal to or higher in priority -than the processes to the left or below in the chain. - -Also since a mutex may have more than one process blocked on it, we can -have multiple chains merge at mutexes. If we add another process G that is -blocked on mutex L2: - - G->L2->B->L1->A - -And once again, to show how this can grow I will show the merging chains -again. - - E->L4->D->L3->C-+ - +->L2-+ - | | - G-+ +->B->L1->A - | - F->L5-+ - - -Plist ------ - -Before I go further and talk about how the PI chain is stored through lists -on both mutexes and processes, I'll explain the plist. This is similar to -the struct list_head functionality that is already in the kernel. -The implementation of plist is out of scope for this document, but it is -very important to understand what it does. - -There are a few differences between plist and list, the most important one -being that plist is a priority sorted linked list. This means that the -priorities of the plist are sorted, such that it takes O(1) to retrieve the -highest priority item in the list. Obviously this is useful to store processes -based on their priorities. - -Another difference, which is important for implementation, is that, unlike -list, the head of the list is a different element than the nodes of a list. -So the head of the list is declared as struct plist_head and nodes that will -be added to the list are declared as struct plist_node. - - -Mutex Waiter List ------------------ - -Every mutex keeps track of all the waiters that are blocked on itself. The mutex -has a plist to store these waiters by priority. This list is protected by -a spin lock that is located in the struct of the mutex. This lock is called -wait_lock. Since the modification of the waiter list is never done in -interrupt context, the wait_lock can be taken without disabling interrupts. - - -Task PI List ------------- - -To keep track of the PI chains, each process has its own PI list. This is -a list of all top waiters of the mutexes that are owned by the process. -Note that this list only holds the top waiters and not all waiters that are -blocked on mutexes owned by the process. - -The top of the task's PI list is always the highest priority task that -is waiting on a mutex that is owned by the task. So if the task has -inherited a priority, it will always be the priority of the task that is -at the top of this list. - -This list is stored in the task structure of a process as a plist called -pi_list. This list is protected by a spin lock also in the task structure, -called pi_lock. This lock may also be taken in interrupt context, so when -locking the pi_lock, interrupts must be disabled. - - -Depth of the PI Chain ---------------------- - -The maximum depth of the PI chain is not dynamic, and could actually be -defined. But is very complex to figure it out, since it depends on all -the nesting of mutexes. Let's look at the example where we have 3 mutexes, -L1, L2, and L3, and four separate functions func1, func2, func3 and func4. -The following shows a locking order of L1->L2->L3, but may not actually -be directly nested that way. - -void func1(void) -{ - mutex_lock(L1); - - /* do anything */ - - mutex_unlock(L1); -} - -void func2(void) -{ - mutex_lock(L1); - mutex_lock(L2); - - /* do something */ - - mutex_unlock(L2); - mutex_unlock(L1); -} - -void func3(void) -{ - mutex_lock(L2); - mutex_lock(L3); - - /* do something else */ - - mutex_unlock(L3); - mutex_unlock(L2); -} - -void func4(void) -{ - mutex_lock(L3); - - /* do something again */ - - mutex_unlock(L3); -} - -Now we add 4 processes that run each of these functions separately. -Processes A, B, C, and D which run functions func1, func2, func3 and func4 -respectively, and such that D runs first and A last. With D being preempted -in func4 in the "do something again" area, we have a locking that follows: - -D owns L3 - C blocked on L3 - C owns L2 - B blocked on L2 - B owns L1 - A blocked on L1 - -And thus we have the chain A->L1->B->L2->C->L3->D. - -This gives us a PI depth of 4 (four processes), but looking at any of the -functions individually, it seems as though they only have at most a locking -depth of two. So, although the locking depth is defined at compile time, -it still is very difficult to find the possibilities of that depth. - -Now since mutexes can be defined by user-land applications, we don't want a DOS -type of application that nests large amounts of mutexes to create a large -PI chain, and have the code holding spin locks while looking at a large -amount of data. So to prevent this, the implementation not only implements -a maximum lock depth, but also only holds at most two different locks at a -time, as it walks the PI chain. More about this below. - - -Mutex owner and flags ---------------------- - -The mutex structure contains a pointer to the owner of the mutex. If the -mutex is not owned, this owner is set to NULL. Since all architectures -have the task structure on at least a four byte alignment (and if this is -not true, the rtmutex.c code will be broken!), this allows for the two -least significant bits to be used as flags. This part is also described -in Documentation/rt-mutex.txt, but will also be briefly described here. - -Bit 0 is used as the "Pending Owner" flag. This is described later. -Bit 1 is used as the "Has Waiters" flags. This is also described later - in more detail, but is set whenever there are waiters on a mutex. - - -cmpxchg Tricks --------------- - -Some architectures implement an atomic cmpxchg (Compare and Exchange). This -is used (when applicable) to keep the fast path of grabbing and releasing -mutexes short. - -cmpxchg is basically the following function performed atomically: - -unsigned long _cmpxchg(unsigned long *A, unsigned long *B, unsigned long *C) -{ - unsigned long T = *A; - if (*A == *B) { - *A = *C; - } - return T; -} -#define cmpxchg(a,b,c) _cmpxchg(&a,&b,&c) - -This is really nice to have, since it allows you to only update a variable -if the variable is what you expect it to be. You know if it succeeded if -the return value (the old value of A) is equal to B. - -The macro rt_mutex_cmpxchg is used to try to lock and unlock mutexes. If -the architecture does not support CMPXCHG, then this macro is simply set -to fail every time. But if CMPXCHG is supported, then this will -help out extremely to keep the fast path short. - -The use of rt_mutex_cmpxchg with the flags in the owner field help optimize -the system for architectures that support it. This will also be explained -later in this document. - - -Priority adjustments --------------------- - -The implementation of the PI code in rtmutex.c has several places that a -process must adjust its priority. With the help of the pi_list of a -process this is rather easy to know what needs to be adjusted. - -The functions implementing the task adjustments are rt_mutex_adjust_prio, -__rt_mutex_adjust_prio (same as the former, but expects the task pi_lock -to already be taken), rt_mutex_getprio, and rt_mutex_setprio. - -rt_mutex_getprio and rt_mutex_setprio are only used in __rt_mutex_adjust_prio. - -rt_mutex_getprio returns the priority that the task should have. Either the -task's own normal priority, or if a process of a higher priority is waiting on -a mutex owned by the task, then that higher priority should be returned. -Since the pi_list of a task holds an order by priority list of all the top -waiters of all the mutexes that the task owns, rt_mutex_getprio simply needs -to compare the top pi waiter to its own normal priority, and return the higher -priority back. - -(Note: if looking at the code, you will notice that the lower number of - prio is returned. This is because the prio field in the task structure - is an inverse order of the actual priority. So a "prio" of 5 is - of higher priority than a "prio" of 10.) - -__rt_mutex_adjust_prio examines the result of rt_mutex_getprio, and if the -result does not equal the task's current priority, then rt_mutex_setprio -is called to adjust the priority of the task to the new priority. -Note that rt_mutex_setprio is defined in kernel/sched/core.c to implement the -actual change in priority. - -It is interesting to note that __rt_mutex_adjust_prio can either increase -or decrease the priority of the task. In the case that a higher priority -process has just blocked on a mutex owned by the task, __rt_mutex_adjust_prio -would increase/boost the task's priority. But if a higher priority task -were for some reason to leave the mutex (timeout or signal), this same function -would decrease/unboost the priority of the task. That is because the pi_list -always contains the highest priority task that is waiting on a mutex owned -by the task, so we only need to compare the priority of that top pi waiter -to the normal priority of the given task. - - -High level overview of the PI chain walk ----------------------------------------- - -The PI chain walk is implemented by the function rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain. - -The implementation has gone through several iterations, and has ended up -with what we believe is the best. It walks the PI chain by only grabbing -at most two locks at a time, and is very efficient. - -The rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain can be used either to boost or lower process -priorities. - -rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain is called with a task to be checked for PI -(de)boosting (the owner of a mutex that a process is blocking on), a flag to -check for deadlocking, the mutex that the task owns, and a pointer to a waiter -that is the process's waiter struct that is blocked on the mutex (although this -parameter may be NULL for deboosting). - -For this explanation, I will not mention deadlock detection. This explanation -will try to stay at a high level. - -When this function is called, there are no locks held. That also means -that the state of the owner and lock can change when entered into this function. - -Before this function is called, the task has already had rt_mutex_adjust_prio -performed on it. This means that the task is set to the priority that it -should be at, but the plist nodes of the task's waiter have not been updated -with the new priorities, and that this task may not be in the proper locations -in the pi_lists and wait_lists that the task is blocked on. This function -solves all that. - -A loop is entered, where task is the owner to be checked for PI changes that -was passed by parameter (for the first iteration). The pi_lock of this task is -taken to prevent any more changes to the pi_list of the task. This also -prevents new tasks from completing the blocking on a mutex that is owned by this -task. - -If the task is not blocked on a mutex then the loop is exited. We are at -the top of the PI chain. - -A check is now done to see if the original waiter (the process that is blocked -on the current mutex) is the top pi waiter of the task. That is, is this -waiter on the top of the task's pi_list. If it is not, it either means that -there is another process higher in priority that is blocked on one of the -mutexes that the task owns, or that the waiter has just woken up via a signal -or timeout and has left the PI chain. In either case, the loop is exited, since -we don't need to do any more changes to the priority of the current task, or any -task that owns a mutex that this current task is waiting on. A priority chain -walk is only needed when a new top pi waiter is made to a task. - -The next check sees if the task's waiter plist node has the priority equal to -the priority the task is set at. If they are equal, then we are done with -the loop. Remember that the function started with the priority of the -task adjusted, but the plist nodes that hold the task in other processes -pi_lists have not been adjusted. - -Next, we look at the mutex that the task is blocked on. The mutex's wait_lock -is taken. This is done by a spin_trylock, because the locking order of the -pi_lock and wait_lock goes in the opposite direction. If we fail to grab the -lock, the pi_lock is released, and we restart the loop. - -Now that we have both the pi_lock of the task as well as the wait_lock of -the mutex the task is blocked on, we update the task's waiter's plist node -that is located on the mutex's wait_list. - -Now we release the pi_lock of the task. - -Next the owner of the mutex has its pi_lock taken, so we can update the -task's entry in the owner's pi_list. If the task is the highest priority -process on the mutex's wait_list, then we remove the previous top waiter -from the owner's pi_list, and replace it with the task. - -Note: It is possible that the task was the current top waiter on the mutex, - in which case the task is not yet on the pi_list of the waiter. This - is OK, since plist_del does nothing if the plist node is not on any - list. - -If the task was not the top waiter of the mutex, but it was before we -did the priority updates, that means we are deboosting/lowering the -task. In this case, the task is removed from the pi_list of the owner, -and the new top waiter is added. - -Lastly, we unlock both the pi_lock of the task, as well as the mutex's -wait_lock, and continue the loop again. On the next iteration of the -loop, the previous owner of the mutex will be the task that will be -processed. - -Note: One might think that the owner of this mutex might have changed - since we just grab the mutex's wait_lock. And one could be right. - The important thing to remember is that the owner could not have - become the task that is being processed in the PI chain, since - we have taken that task's pi_lock at the beginning of the loop. - So as long as there is an owner of this mutex that is not the same - process as the tasked being worked on, we are OK. - - Looking closely at the code, one might be confused. The check for the - end of the PI chain is when the task isn't blocked on anything or the - task's waiter structure "task" element is NULL. This check is - protected only by the task's pi_lock. But the code to unlock the mutex - sets the task's waiter structure "task" element to NULL with only - the protection of the mutex's wait_lock, which was not taken yet. - Isn't this a race condition if the task becomes the new owner? - - The answer is No! The trick is the spin_trylock of the mutex's - wait_lock. If we fail that lock, we release the pi_lock of the - task and continue the loop, doing the end of PI chain check again. - - In the code to release the lock, the wait_lock of the mutex is held - the entire time, and it is not let go when we grab the pi_lock of the - new owner of the mutex. So if the switch of a new owner were to happen - after the check for end of the PI chain and the grabbing of the - wait_lock, the unlocking code would spin on the new owner's pi_lock - but never give up the wait_lock. So the PI chain loop is guaranteed to - fail the spin_trylock on the wait_lock, release the pi_lock, and - try again. - - If you don't quite understand the above, that's OK. You don't have to, - unless you really want to make a proof out of it ;) - - -Pending Owners and Lock stealing --------------------------------- - -One of the flags in the owner field of the mutex structure is "Pending Owner". -What this means is that an owner was chosen by the process releasing the -mutex, but that owner has yet to wake up and actually take the mutex. - -Why is this important? Why can't we just give the mutex to another process -and be done with it? - -The PI code is to help with real-time processes, and to let the highest -priority process run as long as possible with little latencies and delays. -If a high priority process owns a mutex that a lower priority process is -blocked on, when the mutex is released it would be given to the lower priority -process. What if the higher priority process wants to take that mutex again. -The high priority process would fail to take that mutex that it just gave up -and it would need to boost the lower priority process to run with full -latency of that critical section (since the low priority process just entered -it). - -There's no reason a high priority process that gives up a mutex should be -penalized if it tries to take that mutex again. If the new owner of the -mutex has not woken up yet, there's no reason that the higher priority process -could not take that mutex away. - -To solve this, we introduced Pending Ownership and Lock Stealing. When a -new process is given a mutex that it was blocked on, it is only given -pending ownership. This means that it's the new owner, unless a higher -priority process comes in and tries to grab that mutex. If a higher priority -process does come along and wants that mutex, we let the higher priority -process "steal" the mutex from the pending owner (only if it is still pending) -and continue with the mutex. - - -Taking of a mutex (The walk through) ------------------------------------- - -OK, now let's take a look at the detailed walk through of what happens when -taking a mutex. - -The first thing that is tried is the fast taking of the mutex. This is -done when we have CMPXCHG enabled (otherwise the fast taking automatically -fails). Only when the owner field of the mutex is NULL can the lock be -taken with the CMPXCHG and nothing else needs to be done. - -If there is contention on the lock, whether it is owned or pending owner -we go about the slow path (rt_mutex_slowlock). - -The slow path function is where the task's waiter structure is created on -the stack. This is because the waiter structure is only needed for the -scope of this function. The waiter structure holds the nodes to store -the task on the wait_list of the mutex, and if need be, the pi_list of -the owner. - -The wait_lock of the mutex is taken since the slow path of unlocking the -mutex also takes this lock. - -We then call try_to_take_rt_mutex. This is where the architecture that -does not implement CMPXCHG would always grab the lock (if there's no -contention). - -try_to_take_rt_mutex is used every time the task tries to grab a mutex in the -slow path. The first thing that is done here is an atomic setting of -the "Has Waiters" flag of the mutex's owner field. Yes, this could really -be false, because if the mutex has no owner, there are no waiters and -the current task also won't have any waiters. But we don't have the lock -yet, so we assume we are going to be a waiter. The reason for this is to -play nice for those architectures that do have CMPXCHG. By setting this flag -now, the owner of the mutex can't release the mutex without going into the -slow unlock path, and it would then need to grab the wait_lock, which this -code currently holds. So setting the "Has Waiters" flag forces the owner -to synchronize with this code. - -Now that we know that we can't have any races with the owner releasing the -mutex, we check to see if we can take the ownership. This is done if the -mutex doesn't have a owner, or if we can steal the mutex from a pending -owner. Let's look at the situations we have here. - - 1) Has owner that is pending - ---------------------------- - - The mutex has a owner, but it hasn't woken up and the mutex flag - "Pending Owner" is set. The first check is to see if the owner isn't the - current task. This is because this function is also used for the pending - owner to grab the mutex. When a pending owner wakes up, it checks to see - if it can take the mutex, and this is done if the owner is already set to - itself. If so, we succeed and leave the function, clearing the "Pending - Owner" bit. - - If the pending owner is not current, we check to see if the current priority is - higher than the pending owner. If not, we fail the function and return. - - There's also something special about a pending owner. That is a pending owner - is never blocked on a mutex. So there is no PI chain to worry about. It also - means that if the mutex doesn't have any waiters, there's no accounting needed - to update the pending owner's pi_list, since we only worry about processes - blocked on the current mutex. - - If there are waiters on this mutex, and we just stole the ownership, we need - to take the top waiter, remove it from the pi_list of the pending owner, and - add it to the current pi_list. Note that at this moment, the pending owner - is no longer on the list of waiters. This is fine, since the pending owner - would add itself back when it realizes that it had the ownership stolen - from itself. When the pending owner tries to grab the mutex, it will fail - in try_to_take_rt_mutex if the owner field points to another process. - - 2) No owner - ----------- - - If there is no owner (or we successfully stole the lock), we set the owner - of the mutex to current, and set the flag of "Has Waiters" if the current - mutex actually has waiters, or we clear the flag if it doesn't. See, it was - OK that we set that flag early, since now it is cleared. - - 3) Failed to grab ownership - --------------------------- - - The most interesting case is when we fail to take ownership. This means that - there exists an owner, or there's a pending owner with equal or higher - priority than the current task. - -We'll continue on the failed case. - -If the mutex has a timeout, we set up a timer to go off to break us out -of this mutex if we failed to get it after a specified amount of time. - -Now we enter a loop that will continue to try to take ownership of the mutex, or -fail from a timeout or signal. - -Once again we try to take the mutex. This will usually fail the first time -in the loop, since it had just failed to get the mutex. But the second time -in the loop, this would likely succeed, since the task would likely be -the pending owner. - -If the mutex is TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE a check for signals and timeout is done -here. - -The waiter structure has a "task" field that points to the task that is blocked -on the mutex. This field can be NULL the first time it goes through the loop -or if the task is a pending owner and had its mutex stolen. If the "task" -field is NULL then we need to set up the accounting for it. - -Task blocks on mutex --------------------- - -The accounting of a mutex and process is done with the waiter structure of -the process. The "task" field is set to the process, and the "lock" field -to the mutex. The plist nodes are initialized to the processes current -priority. - -Since the wait_lock was taken at the entry of the slow lock, we can safely -add the waiter to the wait_list. If the current process is the highest -priority process currently waiting on this mutex, then we remove the -previous top waiter process (if it exists) from the pi_list of the owner, -and add the current process to that list. Since the pi_list of the owner -has changed, we call rt_mutex_adjust_prio on the owner to see if the owner -should adjust its priority accordingly. - -If the owner is also blocked on a lock, and had its pi_list changed -(or deadlock checking is on), we unlock the wait_lock of the mutex and go ahead -and run rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain on the owner, as described earlier. - -Now all locks are released, and if the current process is still blocked on a -mutex (waiter "task" field is not NULL), then we go to sleep (call schedule). - -Waking up in the loop ---------------------- - -The schedule can then wake up for a few reasons. - 1) we were given pending ownership of the mutex. - 2) we received a signal and was TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE - 3) we had a timeout and was TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE - -In any of these cases, we continue the loop and once again try to grab the -ownership of the mutex. If we succeed, we exit the loop, otherwise we continue -and on signal and timeout, will exit the loop, or if we had the mutex stolen -we just simply add ourselves back on the lists and go back to sleep. - -Note: For various reasons, because of timeout and signals, the steal mutex - algorithm needs to be careful. This is because the current process is - still on the wait_list. And because of dynamic changing of priorities, - especially on SCHED_OTHER tasks, the current process can be the - highest priority task on the wait_list. - -Failed to get mutex on Timeout or Signal ----------------------------------------- - -If a timeout or signal occurred, the waiter's "task" field would not be -NULL and the task needs to be taken off the wait_list of the mutex and perhaps -pi_list of the owner. If this process was a high priority process, then -the rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain needs to be executed again on the owner, -but this time it will be lowering the priorities. - - -Unlocking the Mutex -------------------- - -The unlocking of a mutex also has a fast path for those architectures with -CMPXCHG. Since the taking of a mutex on contention always sets the -"Has Waiters" flag of the mutex's owner, we use this to know if we need to -take the slow path when unlocking the mutex. If the mutex doesn't have any -waiters, the owner field of the mutex would equal the current process and -the mutex can be unlocked by just replacing the owner field with NULL. - -If the owner field has the "Has Waiters" bit set (or CMPXCHG is not available), -the slow unlock path is taken. - -The first thing done in the slow unlock path is to take the wait_lock of the -mutex. This synchronizes the locking and unlocking of the mutex. - -A check is made to see if the mutex has waiters or not. On architectures that -do not have CMPXCHG, this is the location that the owner of the mutex will -determine if a waiter needs to be awoken or not. On architectures that -do have CMPXCHG, that check is done in the fast path, but it is still needed -in the slow path too. If a waiter of a mutex woke up because of a signal -or timeout between the time the owner failed the fast path CMPXCHG check and -the grabbing of the wait_lock, the mutex may not have any waiters, thus the -owner still needs to make this check. If there are no waiters then the mutex -owner field is set to NULL, the wait_lock is released and nothing more is -needed. - -If there are waiters, then we need to wake one up and give that waiter -pending ownership. - -On the wake up code, the pi_lock of the current owner is taken. The top -waiter of the lock is found and removed from the wait_list of the mutex -as well as the pi_list of the current owner. The task field of the new -pending owner's waiter structure is set to NULL, and the owner field of the -mutex is set to the new owner with the "Pending Owner" bit set, as well -as the "Has Waiters" bit if there still are other processes blocked on the -mutex. - -The pi_lock of the previous owner is released, and the new pending owner's -pi_lock is taken. Remember that this is the trick to prevent the race -condition in rt_mutex_adjust_prio_chain from adding itself as a waiter -on the mutex. - -We now clear the "pi_blocked_on" field of the new pending owner, and if -the mutex still has waiters pending, we add the new top waiter to the pi_list -of the pending owner. - -Finally we unlock the pi_lock of the pending owner and wake it up. - - -Contact -------- - -For updates on this document, please email Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> - - -Credits -------- - -Author: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org> - -Reviewers: Ingo Molnar, Thomas Gleixner, Thomas Duetsch, and Randy Dunlap - -Updates -------- - -This document was originally written for 2.6.17-rc3-mm1 |