[Xen-devel] [PATCHv6 1/5] gnttab: add locking documentation

[David Vrabel <david.vrabel@xxxxxxxxxx>]

From: Matt Wilson <msw@xxxxxxxxxx>

The grant table locking is becomes more fine-grained in subsequent
commits.  Describe how it will work.

Signed-off-by: Matt Wilson <msw@xxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: David Vrabel <david.vrabel@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 docs/misc/grant-tables.txt |   35 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/docs/misc/grant-tables.txt b/docs/misc/grant-tables.txt
index 19db4ec..626f40b 100644
--- a/docs/misc/grant-tables.txt
+++ b/docs/misc/grant-tables.txt
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ is complete.
   act->domid : remote domain being granted rights
   act->frame : machine frame being granted
   act->pin   : used to hold reference counts
+  act->lock  : spinlock used to serialize access to active entry state
 
  Map tracking
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -74,7 +75,39 @@ is complete.
  matching map track entry is then removed, as if unmap had been invoked.
  These are not used by the transfer mechanism.
   map->domid         : owner of the mapped frame
-  map->ref_and_flags : grant reference, ro/rw, mapped for host or device access
+  map->ref           : grant reference
+  map->flags         : ro/rw, mapped for host or device access
+
+********************************************************************************
+ Locking
+ ~~~~~~~
+ Xen uses several locks to serialize access to the internal grant table state.
+
+  grant_table->lock          : lock used to protect grant table size, version,
+                               etc. updates
+  grant_table->maptrack_lock : spinlock used to protect the maptrack state
+  active_grant_entry->lock   : spinlock used to serialize modifications to
+                               active entries
+
+ The primary lock for the grant table is a spinlock. All functions
+ that modify or access members of struct grant_table must acquire the
+ lock around critical sections.  As an exception, testing that ref in
+ in range of nr_grant_frames and nr_status_frames or gt_version is
+ initialized, does _not_ require the grant table lock.  This is safe
+ because the grant table only grows and the table version is only set
+ once (to 1 or 2).  In particular, acquiring an active entry (see
+ below) does not require the grant table lock to be held.
+
+ The maptrack state is protected by its own spinlock. Any access (read
+ or write) of struct grant_table members that have a "maptrack_"
+ prefix must be made while holding the maptrack lock. The maptrack
+ state can be rapidly modified under some workloads, and the critical
+ sections are very small, thus we use a spinlock to protect them.
+
+ Active entries are obtained by calling active_entry_acquire(gt, ref).
+ This function returns a pointer to the active entry after locking its
+ spinlock. Once all access to the active entry is complete, release
+ the lock by calling active_entry_release(act).
 
 
********************************************************************************
 
-- 
1.7.10.4


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