+===================================================
+Adding reference counters (krefs) to kernel objects
+===================================================
+
+:Author: Corey Minyard <minyard@acm.org>
+:Author: Thomas Hellstrom <thellstrom@vmware.com>
+
+A lot of this was lifted from Greg Kroah-Hartman's 2004 OLS paper and
+presentation on krefs, which can be found at:
+
+ - http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2004_kref_paper/Reprint-Kroah-Hartman-OLS2004.pdf
+ - http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2004_kref_talk/
+
+Introduction
+============
krefs allow you to add reference counters to your objects. If you
have objects that are used in multiple places and passed around, and
you don't have refcounts, your code is almost certainly broken. If
you want refcounts, krefs are the way to go.
-To use a kref, add one to your data structures like:
+To use a kref, add one to your data structures like::
-struct my_data
-{
+ struct my_data
+ {
.
.
struct kref refcount;
.
.
-};
+ };
The kref can occur anywhere within the data structure.
+Initialization
+==============
+
You must initialize the kref after you allocate it. To do this, call
-kref_init as so:
+kref_init as so::
struct my_data *data;
This sets the refcount in the kref to 1.
+Kref rules
+==========
+
Once you have an initialized kref, you must follow the following
rules:
1) If you make a non-temporary copy of a pointer, especially if
it can be passed to another thread of execution, you must
- increment the refcount with kref_get() before passing it off:
+ increment the refcount with kref_get() before passing it off::
+
kref_get(&data->refcount);
+
If you already have a valid pointer to a kref-ed structure (the
refcount cannot go to zero) you may do this without a lock.
-2) When you are done with a pointer, you must call kref_put():
+2) When you are done with a pointer, you must call kref_put()::
+
kref_put(&data->refcount, data_release);
+
If this is the last reference to the pointer, the release
routine will be called. If the code never tries to get
a valid pointer to a kref-ed structure without already
structure must remain valid during the kref_get().
For example, if you allocate some data and then pass it to another
-thread to process:
+thread to process::
-void data_release(struct kref *ref)
-{
+ void data_release(struct kref *ref)
+ {
struct my_data *data = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
kfree(data);
-}
+ }
-void more_data_handling(void *cb_data)
-{
+ void more_data_handling(void *cb_data)
+ {
struct my_data *data = cb_data;
.
. do stuff with data here
.
kref_put(&data->refcount, data_release);
-}
+ }
-int my_data_handler(void)
-{
+ int my_data_handler(void)
+ {
int rv = 0;
struct my_data *data;
struct task_struct *task;
.
. do stuff with data here
.
- out:
+ out:
kref_put(&data->refcount, data_release);
return rv;
-}
+ }
This way, it doesn't matter what order the two threads handle the
data, the kref_put() handles knowing when the data is not referenced
already holding a pointer.
Note that the "before" in rule 1 is very important. You should never
-do something like:
+do something like::
task = kthread_run(more_data_handling, data, "more_data_handling");
if (task == ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM)) {
There are some situations where you can optimize the gets and puts.
For instance, if you are done with an object and enqueuing it for
something else or passing it off to something else, there is no reason
-to do a get then a put:
+to do a get then a put::
/* Silly extra get and put */
kref_get(&obj->ref);
enqueue(obj);
kref_put(&obj->ref, obj_cleanup);
-Just do the enqueue. A comment about this is always welcome:
+Just do the enqueue. A comment about this is always welcome::
enqueue(obj);
/* We are done with obj, so we pass our refcount off
to get the first one. You can't just pull the first item off the list
and kref_get() it. That violates rule 3 because you are not already
holding a valid pointer. You must add a mutex (or some other lock).
-For instance:
-
-static DEFINE_MUTEX(mutex);
-static LIST_HEAD(q);
-struct my_data
-{
- struct kref refcount;
- struct list_head link;
-};
-
-static struct my_data *get_entry()
-{
- struct my_data *entry = NULL;
- mutex_lock(&mutex);
- if (!list_empty(&q)) {
- entry = container_of(q.next, struct my_data, link);
- kref_get(&entry->refcount);
+For instance::
+
+ static DEFINE_MUTEX(mutex);
+ static LIST_HEAD(q);
+ struct my_data
+ {
+ struct kref refcount;
+ struct list_head link;
+ };
+
+ static struct my_data *get_entry()
+ {
+ struct my_data *entry = NULL;
+ mutex_lock(&mutex);
+ if (!list_empty(&q)) {
+ entry = container_of(q.next, struct my_data, link);
+ kref_get(&entry->refcount);
+ }
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ return entry;
}
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
- return entry;
-}
-static void release_entry(struct kref *ref)
-{
- struct my_data *entry = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
+ static void release_entry(struct kref *ref)
+ {
+ struct my_data *entry = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
- list_del(&entry->link);
- kfree(entry);
-}
+ list_del(&entry->link);
+ kfree(entry);
+ }
-static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
-{
- mutex_lock(&mutex);
- kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry);
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
-}
+ static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
+ {
+ mutex_lock(&mutex);
+ kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry);
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ }
The kref_put() return value is useful if you do not want to hold the
lock during the whole release operation. Say you didn't want to call
kfree() with the lock held in the example above (since it is kind of
-pointless to do so). You could use kref_put() as follows:
+pointless to do so). You could use kref_put() as follows::
-static void release_entry(struct kref *ref)
-{
- /* All work is done after the return from kref_put(). */
-}
+ static void release_entry(struct kref *ref)
+ {
+ /* All work is done after the return from kref_put(). */
+ }
-static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
-{
- mutex_lock(&mutex);
- if (kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry)) {
- list_del(&entry->link);
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
- kfree(entry);
- } else
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
-}
+ static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
+ {
+ mutex_lock(&mutex);
+ if (kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry)) {
+ list_del(&entry->link);
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ kfree(entry);
+ } else
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ }
This is really more useful if you have to call other routines as part
of the free operations that could take a long time or might claim the
same lock. Note that doing everything in the release routine is still
preferred as it is a little neater.
-
-Corey Minyard <minyard@acm.org>
-
-A lot of this was lifted from Greg Kroah-Hartman's 2004 OLS paper and
-presentation on krefs, which can be found at:
- http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2004_kref_paper/Reprint-Kroah-Hartman-OLS2004.pdf
-and:
- http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2004_kref_talk/
-
-
The above example could also be optimized using kref_get_unless_zero() in
-the following way:
-
-static struct my_data *get_entry()
-{
- struct my_data *entry = NULL;
- mutex_lock(&mutex);
- if (!list_empty(&q)) {
- entry = container_of(q.next, struct my_data, link);
- if (!kref_get_unless_zero(&entry->refcount))
- entry = NULL;
+the following way::
+
+ static struct my_data *get_entry()
+ {
+ struct my_data *entry = NULL;
+ mutex_lock(&mutex);
+ if (!list_empty(&q)) {
+ entry = container_of(q.next, struct my_data, link);
+ if (!kref_get_unless_zero(&entry->refcount))
+ entry = NULL;
+ }
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ return entry;
}
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
- return entry;
-}
-static void release_entry(struct kref *ref)
-{
- struct my_data *entry = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
+ static void release_entry(struct kref *ref)
+ {
+ struct my_data *entry = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
- mutex_lock(&mutex);
- list_del(&entry->link);
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
- kfree(entry);
-}
+ mutex_lock(&mutex);
+ list_del(&entry->link);
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ kfree(entry);
+ }
-static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
-{
- kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry);
-}
+ static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
+ {
+ kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry);
+ }
Which is useful to remove the mutex lock around kref_put() in put_entry(), but
it's important that kref_get_unless_zero is enclosed in the same critical
return value. If you are sure (by already having a valid pointer) that
kref_get_unless_zero() will return true, then use kref_get() instead.
-The function kref_get_unless_zero also makes it possible to use rcu
-locking for lookups in the above example:
+Krefs and RCU
+=============
-struct my_data
-{
- struct rcu_head rhead;
- .
- struct kref refcount;
- .
- .
-};
-
-static struct my_data *get_entry_rcu()
-{
- struct my_data *entry = NULL;
- rcu_read_lock();
- if (!list_empty(&q)) {
- entry = container_of(q.next, struct my_data, link);
- if (!kref_get_unless_zero(&entry->refcount))
- entry = NULL;
+The function kref_get_unless_zero also makes it possible to use rcu
+locking for lookups in the above example::
+
+ struct my_data
+ {
+ struct rcu_head rhead;
+ .
+ struct kref refcount;
+ .
+ .
+ };
+
+ static struct my_data *get_entry_rcu()
+ {
+ struct my_data *entry = NULL;
+ rcu_read_lock();
+ if (!list_empty(&q)) {
+ entry = container_of(q.next, struct my_data, link);
+ if (!kref_get_unless_zero(&entry->refcount))
+ entry = NULL;
+ }
+ rcu_read_unlock();
+ return entry;
}
- rcu_read_unlock();
- return entry;
-}
-static void release_entry_rcu(struct kref *ref)
-{
- struct my_data *entry = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
+ static void release_entry_rcu(struct kref *ref)
+ {
+ struct my_data *entry = container_of(ref, struct my_data, refcount);
- mutex_lock(&mutex);
- list_del_rcu(&entry->link);
- mutex_unlock(&mutex);
- kfree_rcu(entry, rhead);
-}
+ mutex_lock(&mutex);
+ list_del_rcu(&entry->link);
+ mutex_unlock(&mutex);
+ kfree_rcu(entry, rhead);
+ }
-static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
-{
- kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry_rcu);
-}
+ static void put_entry(struct my_data *entry)
+ {
+ kref_put(&entry->refcount, release_entry_rcu);
+ }
But note that the struct kref member needs to remain in valid memory for a
rcu grace period after release_entry_rcu was called. That can be accomplished
by using kfree_rcu(entry, rhead) as done above, or by calling synchronize_rcu()
before using kfree, but note that synchronize_rcu() may sleep for a
substantial amount of time.
-
-
-Thomas Hellstrom <thellstrom@vmware.com>
git.samba.org / sfrench / cifs-2.6.git / blobdiff