> On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 03:49:48PM -0400, Rick Macklem wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I should know the answer to this, but... When reading a global
> > kernel
> > variable, where its modifications are protected by a mutex, is it
> > necessary to get the mutex lock to just read its value?
> >
> > For example:
> > A if ((mp->mnt_kern_flag & MNTK_UNMOUNTF) != 0)
> > return (EPERM);
> > versus
> > B MNT_ILOCK(mp);
> > if ((mp->mnt_kern_flag & MNTK_UNMOUNTF) != 0) {
> > MNT_IUNLOCK(mp);
> > return (EPERM);
> > }
> > MNT_IUNLOCK(mp);
> >
> > My hunch is that B is necessary if you need an up-to-date value
> > for the variable (mp->mnt_kern_flag in this case).
> >
> > Is that correct?
>
> mnt_kern_flag read is atomic on all architectures.
> If, as I suspect, the fragment is for the VFS_UNMOUNT() fs method,
> then VFS guarantees the stability of mnt_kern_flag, by blocking
> other attempts to unmount until current one is finished.
> If not, then either you do not need the lock, or provided snipped
> which takes a lock is unsufficient, since you are dropping the lock
> but continue the action that depends on the flag not being set.
Sounds like A should be ok then. The tests matter when dounmount()
calls VFS_SYNC() and VFS_UNMOUNT(), pretty much as you guessed. To
be honest, most of it will be the thread doing the dounmount() call,
although other threads fall through VOP_INACTIVE() while they are
terminating in VFS_UNMOUNT() and these need to do the test, too.
{ I just don't know much about the SMP stuff, so I don't know when
a cache on another core might still have a stale copy of a value.
I've heard the term "memory barrier", but don't really know what it
means.:-)
Thanks, rick
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