linux-kernel - [for-next][PATCH 29/29] tracing: Comment why cond_snapshot is checked outside of max

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Date:   Wed, 20 Feb 2019 13:38:06 -0500
From:   Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>
To:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc:     Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: [for-next][PATCH 29/29] tracing: Comment why cond_snapshot is checked outside of max_lock
 protection

From: "Steven Rostedt (VMware)" <rostedt@...dmis.org>

Before setting tr->cond_snapshot, it must be NULL before it can be updated.
It can go to NULL when a trace event hist trigger is created or removed, and
can only be modified under the max_lock spin lock. But because it can only
be set to something other than NULL under both the max_lock spin lock as
well as the trace_types_lock, we can perform the check if it is not NULL
only under the trace_types_lock and fail out without having to grab the
max_lock spin lock.

This is very subtle, and deserves a comment.

Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (VMware) <rostedt@...dmis.org>
---
 kernel/trace/trace.c | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace.c b/kernel/trace/trace.c
index 0460cc0f28fd..2cf3c747a357 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace.c
@@ -1116,6 +1116,14 @@ int tracing_snapshot_cond_enable(struct trace_array *tr, void *cond_data,
 		goto fail_unlock;
 	}
 
+	/*
+	 * The cond_snapshot can only change to NULL without the
+	 * trace_types_lock. We don't care if we race with it going
+	 * to NULL, but we want to make sure that it's not set to
+	 * something other than NULL when we get here, which we can
+	 * do safely with only holding the trace_types_lock and not
+	 * having to take the max_lock.
+	 */
 	if (tr->cond_snapshot) {
 		ret = -EBUSY;
 		goto fail_unlock;
-- 
2.20.1