linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH RFC] mm: Rename SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU to SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY

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Date:   Wed, 25 Jan 2017 15:25:33 -0500
From:   Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>
To:     "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org, cl@...ux.com,
        penberg@...nel.org, rientjes@...gle.com, iamjoonsoo.kim@....com,
        akpm@...ux-foundation.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH RFC] mm: Rename SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU to
 SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU

On Wed, Jan 18, 2017 at 03:07:32AM -0800, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> A group of Linux kernel hackers reported chasing a bug that resulted
> from their assumption that SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU provided an existence
> guarantee, that is, that no block from such a slab would be reallocated
> during an RCU read-side critical section.  Of course, that is not the
> case.  Instead, SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU only prevents freeing of an entire
> slab of blocks.
> 
> However, there is a phrase for this, namely "type safety".  This commit
> therefore renames SLAB_DESTROY_BY_RCU to SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU in order
> to avoid future instances of this sort of confusion.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>

This has come up in the past, and it always proved hard to agree on a
better name for it. But I like SLAB_TYPESAFE_BY_RCU the best out of
all proposals, and it's much more poignant than the current name.

Acked-by: Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>