[PATCH 3/8] doc: Make checklist.rst note that spinlocks are implied RCU readers

From: Boqun Feng
Date: Thu Jan 25 2024 - 23:00:15 EST


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

In kernels built with CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT=n, spinlock critical sections
are RCU readers because they disable preemption. However, they are also
RCU readers in CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT=y because in that case the locking
primitives contain rcu_read_lock() and rcu_read_unlock(). Therefore,
upgrade checklist.rst to document this non-obvious case.

While in the area, fix a typo by changing "read-side critical" to
"read-side critical section".

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
Documentation/RCU/checklist.rst | 5 +++--
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.rst b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.rst
index 2d42998a89a6..98a622f77248 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/checklist.rst
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/checklist.rst
@@ -68,7 +68,8 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
rcu_read_lock_sched(), or by the appropriate update-side lock.
Explicit disabling of preemption (preempt_disable(), for example)
can serve as rcu_read_lock_sched(), but is less readable and
- prevents lockdep from detecting locking issues.
+ prevents lockdep from detecting locking issues. Acquiring a
+ spinlock also enters an RCU read-side critical section.

Please note that you *cannot* rely on code known to be built
only in non-preemptible kernels. Such code can and will break,
@@ -444,7 +445,7 @@ over a rather long period of time, but improvements are always welcome!
real-time workloads than is synchronize_rcu_expedited().

It is also permissible to sleep in RCU Tasks Trace read-side
- critical, which are delimited by rcu_read_lock_trace() and
+ critical section, which are delimited by rcu_read_lock_trace() and
rcu_read_unlock_trace(). However, this is a specialized flavor
of RCU, and you should not use it without first checking with
its current users. In most cases, you should instead use SRCU.
--
2.43.0