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atomics: Add header comment so spin_unlock_wait()

There is material describing the ordering guarantees provided by
spin_unlock_wait(), but it is not necessarily easy to find.  This commit
therefore adds a docbook header comment to this function informally
describing its semantics.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Paul E. McKenney 8 years ago
parent
commit
6016ffc387
1 changed files with 20 additions and 0 deletions
  1. 20 0
      include/linux/spinlock.h

+ 20 - 0
include/linux/spinlock.h

@@ -369,6 +369,26 @@ static __always_inline int spin_trylock_irq(spinlock_t *lock)
 	raw_spin_trylock_irqsave(spinlock_check(lock), flags); \
 })
 
+/**
+ * spin_unlock_wait - Interpose between successive critical sections
+ * @lock: the spinlock whose critical sections are to be interposed.
+ *
+ * Semantically this is equivalent to a spin_lock() immediately
+ * followed by a spin_unlock().  However, most architectures have
+ * more efficient implementations in which the spin_unlock_wait()
+ * cannot block concurrent lock acquisition, and in some cases
+ * where spin_unlock_wait() does not write to the lock variable.
+ * Nevertheless, spin_unlock_wait() can have high overhead, so if
+ * you feel the need to use it, please check to see if there is
+ * a better way to get your job done.
+ *
+ * The ordering guarantees provided by spin_unlock_wait() are:
+ *
+ * 1.  All accesses preceding the spin_unlock_wait() happen before
+ *     any accesses in later critical sections for this same lock.
+ * 2.  All accesses following the spin_unlock_wait() happen after
+ *     any accesses in earlier critical sections for this same lock.
+ */
 static __always_inline void spin_unlock_wait(spinlock_t *lock)
 {
 	raw_spin_unlock_wait(&lock->rlock);