[patch 14/15] timers: Update the documentation to reflect on the new timer_shutdown() API

From: Thomas Gleixner
Date: Tue Nov 15 2022 - 15:31:27 EST


From: "Steven Rostedt (Google)" <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>

In order to make sure that a timer is not re-armed after it is stopped
before freeing, a new shutdown state is added to the timer code. The API
timer_shutdown_sync() and timer_shutdown() must be called before the
object that holds the timer can be freed.

Update the documentation to reflect this new workflow.

[ tglx: Updated to the new semantics and removed the bogus claim that
del_timer_sync() returns the number of removal attempts ]

Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt (Google) <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Tested-by: Guenter Roeck <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20221110064147.712934793@xxxxxxxxxxx
---
Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.rst | 2 +-
Documentation/core-api/local_ops.rst | 2 +-
Documentation/kernel-hacking/locking.rst | 13 ++++++++-----
3 files changed, 10 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

--- a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.rst
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.rst
@@ -1858,7 +1858,7 @@ unloaded. After a given module has been
one of its functions results in a segmentation fault. The module-unload
functions must therefore cancel any delayed calls to loadable-module
functions, for example, any outstanding mod_timer() must be dealt
-with via del_timer_sync() or similar.
+with via timer_shutdown_sync().

Unfortunately, there is no way to cancel an RCU callback; once you
invoke call_rcu(), the callback function is eventually going to be
--- a/Documentation/core-api/local_ops.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/local_ops.rst
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ Here is a sample module which implements

static void __exit test_exit(void)
{
- del_timer_sync(&test_timer);
+ timer_shutdown_sync(&test_timer);
}

module_init(test_init);
--- a/Documentation/kernel-hacking/locking.rst
+++ b/Documentation/kernel-hacking/locking.rst
@@ -1003,11 +1003,14 @@ If 0, it means (in this case) that it is


Another common problem is deleting timers which restart themselves (by
-calling add_timer() at the end of their timer function).
-Because this is a fairly common case which is prone to races, you should
-use del_timer_sync() (``include/linux/timer.h``) to
-handle this case. It returns the number of times the timer had to be
-deleted before we finally stopped it from adding itself back in.
+calling add_timer() at the end of their timer function). Because this is a
+fairly common case which is prone to races, you should use del_timer_sync()
+(``include/linux/timer.h``) to handle this case.
+
+Before freeing a timer, timer_shutdown() or timer_shutdown_sync() should be
+called which will keep it from being rearmed. Any subsequent attempt to
+rearm the timer will be silently ignored by the core code.
+

Locking Speed
=============