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Date:   Thu, 29 Aug 2019 09:59:07 -0400
From:   Joel Fernandes <joel@joelfernandes.org>
To:     "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@kernel.org>
Cc:     linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
        Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@gmail.com>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>,
        Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>, kernel-team@android.com,
        Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@gmail.com>,
        linux-doc@vger.kernel.org,
        Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>,
        Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org>,
        rcu@vger.kernel.org, Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC v1 2/2] rcu/tree: Remove dynticks_nmi_nesting counter
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On Wed, Aug 28, 2019 at 08:43:36PM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
[snip] 
> On the tracing patch...  That patch might be a good idea regardless,
> but I bet that the reason that you felt the sudden need for it was due
> to the loss of information in your eventual ->dynticks_nesting field.
> After all, the value 0x1 might be an interrupt from idle, or it might
> just as easily be a task running in the kernel at process level.

True, however what really triggered me to do it was the existing code which
does not distinguish between entry/exit from USER and IDLE.

> The reason the patch might nevertheless be a good idea is that redundant
> information can be helpful when debugging.  Especially when debugging
> new architecture-specific code, which is when RCU's dyntick-idle warnings
> tend to find bugs.

Sure, and also that it is more readable to ordinary human beings than "++="
and "--=" :-D.

thanks,

 - Joel