[PATCH rcu 5/5] doc: Clarify historical disclaimers in memory-barriers.txt

[Neeraj Upadhyay (AMD)]

From: "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx>

This commit makes it clear that the reason that these sections are
historical is that smp_read_barrier_depends() is no more.  It also
removes the point about comparison operations, given that there are
other optimizations that can break address dependencies.

Suggested-by: Jonas Oberhauser <jonas.oberhauser@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Alan Stern <stern@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrea Parri <parri.andrea@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: David Howells <dhowells@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jade Alglave <j.alglave@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Luc Maranget <luc.maranget@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Akira Yokosawa <akiyks@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Daniel Lustig <dlustig@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Joel Fernandes <joel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@xxxxxxx>
Cc: <linux-arch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: <linux-doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Neeraj Upadhyay (AMD) <neeraj.iitr10@xxxxxxxxx>
---
 Documentation/memory-barriers.txt | 17 ++++++++++-------
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
index d414e145f912..4202174a6262 100644
--- a/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
+++ b/Documentation/memory-barriers.txt
@@ -396,10 +396,11 @@ Memory barriers come in four basic varieties:
 
 
  (2) Address-dependency barriers (historical).
-     [!] This section is marked as HISTORICAL: For more up-to-date
-     information, including how compiler transformations related to pointer
-     comparisons can sometimes cause problems, see
-     Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst.
+     [!] This section is marked as HISTORICAL: it covers the long-obsolete
+     smp_read_barrier_depends() macro, the semantics of which are now
+     implicit in all marked accesses.  For more up-to-date information,
+     including how compiler transformations can sometimes break address
+     dependencies, see Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst.
 
      An address-dependency barrier is a weaker form of read barrier.  In the
      case where two loads are performed such that the second depends on the
@@ -560,9 +561,11 @@ There are certain things that the Linux kernel memory barriers do not guarantee:
 
 ADDRESS-DEPENDENCY BARRIERS (HISTORICAL)
 ----------------------------------------
-[!] This section is marked as HISTORICAL: For more up-to-date information,
-including how compiler transformations related to pointer comparisons can
-sometimes cause problems, see Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst.
+[!] This section is marked as HISTORICAL: it covers the long-obsolete
+smp_read_barrier_depends() macro, the semantics of which are now implicit
+in all marked accesses.  For more up-to-date information, including
+how compiler transformations can sometimes break address dependencies,
+see Documentation/RCU/rcu_dereference.rst.
 
 As of v4.15 of the Linux kernel, an smp_mb() was added to READ_ONCE() for
 DEC Alpha, which means that about the only people who need to pay attention
-- 
2.40.1