Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S964930AbVLMKfF (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Dec 2005 05:35:05 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S964914AbVLMKfF (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Dec 2005 05:35:05 -0500 Received: from mx2.mail.elte.hu ([157.181.151.9]:59355 "EHLO mx2.mail.elte.hu") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S964831AbVLMKfD (ORCPT ); Tue, 13 Dec 2005 05:35:03 -0500 Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:34:20 +0100 From: Ingo Molnar To: David Howells Cc: Nick Piggin , torvalds@osdl.org, akpm@osdl.org, hch@infradead.org, arjan@infradead.org, matthew@wil.cx, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-arch@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/19] MUTEX: Introduce simple mutex implementation Message-ID: <20051213103420.GA6681@elte.hu> References: <439E122E.3080902@yahoo.com.au> <22479.1134467689@warthog.cambridge.redhat.com> <20051213101300.GA2178@elte.hu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20051213101300.GA2178@elte.hu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-ELTE-SpamScore: -1.7 X-ELTE-SpamLevel: X-ELTE-SpamCheck: no X-ELTE-SpamVersion: ELTE 2.0 X-ELTE-SpamCheck-Details: score=-1.7 required=5.9 tests=ALL_TRUSTED,AWL autolearn=no SpamAssassin version=3.0.3 -2.8 ALL_TRUSTED Did not pass through any untrusted hosts 1.1 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list X-ELTE-VirusStatus: clean Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1345 Lines: 35 * Ingo Molnar wrote: > > Nick Piggin wrote: > > > > > We have atomic_cmpxchg. Can you use that for a sufficient generic > > > implementation? > > > > No. CMPXCHG/CAS is not as available as XCHG, and it's also unnecessary. > > take a look at the PREEMPT_RT implementation of mutexes: it uses > cmpxchg(), and thus both the down() and the up() fastpath is lockless! > (And that is a mutex type that does alot more things, as it supports > priority inheritance.) > > architectures which dont have cmpxchg can use a spinlock just fine. the cost of a spinlock-based generic_cmpxchg could be significantly reduced by adding a generic_cmpxchg() variant that also includes a 'spinlock pointer' parameter. Architectures that do not have the instruction, can use the specified spinlock to do the cmpxchg. This means that there wont be one single global spinlock to emulate cmpxchg, but the mutex's own spinlock can be used for it. Architectures that have the cmpxchg instruction would simply ignore the parameter, and would incur no overhead. Ingo - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/