[linux.git] / Documentation / percpu-rw-semaphore.txt

Percpu rw semaphores
--------------------

Percpu rw semaphores is a new read-write semaphore design that is
optimized for locking for reading.

The problem with traditional read-write semaphores is that when multiple
cores take the lock for reading, the cache line containing the semaphore
is bouncing between L1 caches of the cores, causing performance
degradation.

Locking for reading is very fast, it uses RCU and it avoids any atomic
instruction in the lock and unlock path. On the other hand, locking for
writing is very expensive, it calls synchronize_rcu() that can take
hundreds of milliseconds.

The lock is declared with "struct percpu_rw_semaphore" type.
The lock is initialized percpu_init_rwsem, it returns 0 on success and
-ENOMEM on allocation failure.
The lock must be freed with percpu_free_rwsem to avoid memory leak.

The lock is locked for read with percpu_down_read, percpu_up_read and
for write with percpu_down_write, percpu_up_write.

The idea of using RCU for optimized rw-lock was introduced by
Eric Dumazet <[email protected]>.
The code was written by Mikulas Patocka <[email protected]>
Commit	Line	Data
62ac665f MP	1	Percpu rw semaphores
	2	--------------------
	3
	4	Percpu rw semaphores is a new read-write semaphore design that is
	5	optimized for locking for reading.
	6
	7	The problem with traditional read-write semaphores is that when multiple
	8	cores take the lock for reading, the cache line containing the semaphore
	9	is bouncing between L1 caches of the cores, causing performance
	10	degradation.
	11
e6b5c082	12	Locking for reading is very fast, it uses RCU and it avoids any atomic
62ac665f MP	13	instruction in the lock and unlock path. On the other hand, locking for
62ac665f MP	14	writing is very expensive, it calls synchronize_rcu() that can take
e6b5c082	15	hundreds of milliseconds.
62ac665f MP	16
	17	The lock is declared with "struct percpu_rw_semaphore" type.
	18	The lock is initialized percpu_init_rwsem, it returns 0 on success and
	19	-ENOMEM on allocation failure.
	20	The lock must be freed with percpu_free_rwsem to avoid memory leak.
	21
	22	The lock is locked for read with percpu_down_read, percpu_up_read and
	23	for write with percpu_down_write, percpu_up_write.
	24
	25	The idea of using RCU for optimized rw-lock was introduced by
	26	Eric Dumazet <[email protected]>.
	27	The code was written by Mikulas Patocka <[email protected]>