From: "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@kernel.org>
To: tglx@linutronix.de, arnd@arndb.de, cl@linux.com
Cc: keescook@chromium.org, luto@amacapital.net, longman@redhat.com,
viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk, dhowells@redhat.com,
willy@infradead.org, ebiederm@xmission.com,
rdunlap@infradead.org, joel.opensrc@gmail.com,
linux-arch@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org,
linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
"Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Subject: [PATCH v2] mm: expland documentation over __read_mostly
Date: Tue, 8 May 2018 11:19:24 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20180508181924.19939-1-mcgrof@kernel.org> (raw)
__read_mostly can easily be misused by folks, its not meant for
just read-only data. There are performance reasons for using it, but
we also don't provide any guidance about its use. Provide a bit more
guidance over it use.
Acked-by: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux.com>
Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@kernel.org>
---
include/linux/cache.h | 12 ++++++++++--
1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/include/linux/cache.h b/include/linux/cache.h
index 750621e41d1c..4967566ed08c 100644
--- a/include/linux/cache.h
+++ b/include/linux/cache.h
@@ -15,8 +15,16 @@
/*
* __read_mostly is used to keep rarely changing variables out of frequently
- * updated cachelines. If an architecture doesn't support it, ignore the
- * hint.
+ * updated cachelines. Its use should be reserved for data that is used
+ * frequently in hot paths. Performance traces can help decide when to use
+ * this. You want __read_mostly data to be tightly packed, so that in the
+ * best case multiple frequently read variables for a hot path will be next
+ * to each other in order to reduce the number of cachelines needed to
+ * execute a critial path. We should be mindful and selective of its use.
+ * ie: if you're going to use it please supply a *good* justification in your
+ * commit log.
+ *
+ * If an architecture doesn't support it, ignore the hint.
*/
#ifndef __read_mostly
#define __read_mostly
--
2.17.0
next reply other threads:[~2018-05-08 18:19 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 2+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2018-05-08 18:19 Luis R. Rodriguez [this message]
2020-05-06 23:03 ` [PATCH v2] mm: expland documentation over __read_mostly Luis Chamberlain
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