linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] De-macro spin_trylock_irq, spin_trylock_irqsave, write_trylock

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Date:	Sun, 17 Aug 2008 01:04:39 +0400
From:	Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
Cc:	torvalds@...l.org, akpm@...l.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] De-macro spin_trylock_irq, spin_trylock_irqsave,
	write_trylock_irqsave

On Sat, Aug 16, 2008 at 03:46:00PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> * Alexey Dobriyan <adobriyan@...il.com> wrote:
> 
> > 1) de-macro, remove ({ usages as side-effect,
> > 2) change calling convention to not accept "flags" by value -- trylock
> >    functions can modify them, so by-value is misleading, and number of users
> >    is relatively low.
> > 3) de-macro spin_trylock_irq() for a change.
> 
> > +++ b/kernel/sched.c
> > @@ -1174,7 +1174,7 @@ static void resched_cpu(int cpu)
> >  	struct rq *rq = cpu_rq(cpu);
> >  	unsigned long flags;
> >  
> > -	if (!spin_trylock_irqsave(&rq->lock, flags))
> > +	if (!spin_trylock_irqsave(&rq->lock, &flags))
> >  		return;
> 
> hm, i dont really like this assymetric calling convention to other 
> locking primitives that all take 'flags' as a value. 
> [spin_lock_irqsave(), etc.]
> 
> so what's the point really? It sure does not make actual usage more 
> readable.

Only slightly, reader is hinted that flags can be changed, otherwise
they will be passed by value.

> If we switched _all_ primitives to use flags as a pointer, 
> that might make sense, in theory.

We can't really, and I don't propose that: ~8700 usages of
spin_lock_irqsave, ~1300 usages of local_irq_save. However for code
which has small number of users, why not?



The prehistory of this patch is that I'm deeply in spinlock and
irqflags.h headers for clean irq_flags_t conversion and overall
implession is that they're horrible.

Just the joke with local_irq_enable() defined via raw_local_irq_enable()
and several lines below in the opposite order.

The patch is about slightly cleaner code close to C. ;-)

> (but it would also be hugely invasive, 
> with not much upside with tons of downside like years of migration 
> fallout and having to rewrite hundreds of kernel hacking books ;-) )

I want my money back for scheduler chapter from "Understanding the Linux Kernel"!

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