Date:   Mon, 12 Dec 2016 18:01:45 -0800
From:   Joel Fernandes <joelaf@...gle.com>
To:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Huang Ying <ying.huang@...el.com>,
        Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>,
        Joel Fernandes <joelaf@...gle.com>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>,
        Paul McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: [PATCH v3] llist: Clarify comments about when locking is needed

llist.h comments are confusing about when locking is needed versus when it
isn't. Clarify these comments by being more descriptive about why locking is
needed for llist_del_first.

Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
Cc: Will Deacon <will.deacon@....com>
Cc: Paul McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Acked-by: Huang Ying <ying.huang@...el.com>
Acked-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>
Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <joelaf@...gle.com>
---
Changes since before:
Minor changes to comment and commit message based on Mathieu's suggestions
(https://lkml.org/lkml/2016/12/10/39)

 include/linux/llist.h | 37 +++++++++++++++++++++----------------
 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/llist.h b/include/linux/llist.h
index fd4ca0b..31822bb 100644
--- a/include/linux/llist.h
+++ b/include/linux/llist.h
@@ -3,28 +3,33 @@
 /*
  * Lock-less NULL terminated single linked list
  *
- * If there are multiple producers and multiple consumers, llist_add
- * can be used in producers and llist_del_all can be used in
- * consumers.  They can work simultaneously without lock.  But
- * llist_del_first can not be used here.  Because llist_del_first
- * depends on list->first->next does not changed if list->first is not
- * changed during its operation, but llist_del_first, llist_add,
- * llist_add (or llist_del_all, llist_add, llist_add) sequence in
- * another consumer may violate that.
- *
- * If there are multiple producers and one consumer, llist_add can be
- * used in producers and llist_del_all or llist_del_first can be used
- * in the consumer.
- *
- * This can be summarized as follow:
+ * Cases where locking is not needed:
+ * If there are multiple producers and multiple consumers, llist_add can be
+ * used in producers and llist_del_all can be used in consumers simultaneously
+ * without locking. Also a single consumer can use llist_del_first while
+ * multiple producers simultaneously use llist_add, without any locking.
+ *
+ * Cases where locking is needed:
+ * If we have multiple consumers with llist_del_first used in one consumer, and
+ * llist_del_first or llist_del_all used in other consumers, then a lock is
+ * needed.  This is because llist_del_first depends on list->first->next not
+ * changing, but without lock protection, there's no way to be sure about that
+ * if a preemption happens in the middle of the delete operation and on being
+ * preempted back, the list->first is the same as before causing the cmpxchg in
+ * llist_del_first to succeed. For example, while a llist_del_first operation
+ * is in progress in one consumer, then a llist_del_first, llist_add,
+ * llist_add (or llist_del_all, llist_add, llist_add) sequence in another
+ * consumer may cause violations.
+ *
+ * This can be summarized as follows:
  *
  *           |   add    | del_first |  del_all
  * add       |    -     |     -     |     -
  * del_first |          |     L     |     L
  * del_all   |          |           |     -
  *
- * Where "-" stands for no lock is needed, while "L" stands for lock
- * is needed.
+ * Where, a particular row's operation can happen concurrently with a column's
+ * operation, with "-" being no lock needed, while "L" being lock is needed.
  *
  * The list entries deleted via llist_del_all can be traversed with
  * traversing function such as llist_for_each etc.  But the list
-- 
2.8.0.rc3.226.g39d4020

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