linux-kernel - [PATCH v3 tip/core/rcu 01/14] rcu: Add comment on evaluate-once properties of rcu_assign

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Message-Id: <1381533451-29018-1-git-send-email-paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Date:	Fri, 11 Oct 2013 16:17:18 -0700
From:	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:	mingo@...nel.org, laijs@...fujitsu.com, dipankar@...ibm.com,
	akpm@...ux-foundation.org, mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com,
	josh@...htriplett.org, niv@...ibm.com, tglx@...utronix.de,
	peterz@...radead.org, rostedt@...dmis.org, dhowells@...hat.com,
	edumazet@...gle.com, darren@...art.com, fweisbec@...il.com,
	sbw@....edu, "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: [PATCH v3 tip/core/rcu 01/14] rcu: Add comment on evaluate-once properties of rcu_assign_pointer().

From: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>

The rcu_assign_pointer() macro, as with most cpp macros, must not evaluate
its argument more than once.  And it in fact does not.  But this might
not be obvious to the casual observer, because one of the arguments
appears no less than three times.  However, but one expansion is only
visible to sparse (__CHECKER__), and one lives inside a typeof (where
it will never be evaluated), so this is in fact safe.

This commit therefore adds a comment making this explicit.

Reported-by: Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
---
 include/linux/rcupdate.h | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/include/linux/rcupdate.h b/include/linux/rcupdate.h
index f1f1bc39346b..f4da2175cde0 100644
--- a/include/linux/rcupdate.h
+++ b/include/linux/rcupdate.h
@@ -911,6 +911,14 @@ static inline notrace void rcu_read_unlock_sched_notrace(void)
  * rcu_assign_pointer() is a very bad thing that results in
  * impossible-to-diagnose memory corruption.  So please be careful.
  * See the RCU_INIT_POINTER() comment header for details.
+ *
+ * Note that rcu_assign_pointer() evaluates each of its arguments only
+ * once, appearances notwithstanding.  One of the "extra" evaluations
+ * is in typeof() and the other visible only to sparse (__CHECKER__),
+ * neither of which actually execute the argument.  As with most cpp
+ * macros, this execute-arguments-only-once property is important, so
+ * please be careful when making changes to rcu_assign_pointer() and the
+ * other macros that it invokes.
  */
 #define rcu_assign_pointer(p, v) \
 	__rcu_assign_pointer((p), (v), __rcu)
-- 
1.8.1.5

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