doc: Set down RCU's scheduling-clock-interrupt needs

This commit documents the situations in which RCU needs the
scheduling-clock interrupt to be enabled, along with the consequences
of failing to meet RCU's needs in this area.

Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

1 files changed, 130 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
index 95b30fa25d56..62e847bcdcdd 100644
--- a/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
+++ b/Documentation/RCU/Design/Requirements/Requirements.html
@@ -2080,6 +2080,8 @@ Some of the relevant points of interest are as follows:
 <li>	<a href="#Scheduler and RCU">Scheduler and RCU</a>.
 <li>	<a href="#Tracing and RCU">Tracing and RCU</a>.
 <li>	<a href="#Energy Efficiency">Energy Efficiency</a>.
+<li>	<a href="#Scheduling-Clock Interrupts and RCU">
+	Scheduling-Clock Interrupts and RCU</a>.
 <li>	<a href="#Memory Efficiency">Memory Efficiency</a>.
 <li>	<a href="#Performance, Scalability, Response Time, and Reliability">
 	Performance, Scalability, Response Time, and Reliability</a>.
@@ -2532,6 +2534,134 @@ I learned of many of these requirements via angry phone calls:
 Flaming me on the Linux-kernel mailing list was apparently not
 sufficient to fully vent their ire at RCU's energy-efficiency bugs!
 
+<h3><a name="Scheduling-Clock Interrupts and RCU">
+Scheduling-Clock Interrupts and RCU</a></h3>
+
+<p>
+The kernel transitions between in-kernel non-idle execution, userspace
+execution, and the idle loop.
+Depending on kernel configuration, RCU handles these states differently:
+
+<table border=3>
+<tr><th><tt>HZ</tt> Kconfig</th>
+	<th>In-Kernel</th>
+		<th>Usermode</th>
+			<th>Idle</th></tr>
+<tr><th align="left"><tt>HZ_PERIODIC</tt></th>
+	<td>Can rely on scheduling-clock interrupt.</td>
+		<td>Can rely on scheduling-clock interrupt and its
+		    detection of interrupt from usermode.</td>
+			<td>Can rely on RCU's dyntick-idle detection.</td></tr>
+<tr><th align="left"><tt>NO_HZ_IDLE</tt></th>
+	<td>Can rely on scheduling-clock interrupt.</td>
+		<td>Can rely on scheduling-clock interrupt and its
+		    detection of interrupt from usermode.</td>
+			<td>Can rely on RCU's dyntick-idle detection.</td></tr>
+<tr><th align="left"><tt>NO_HZ_FULL</tt></th>
+	<td>Can only sometimes rely on scheduling-clock interrupt.
+	    In other cases, it is necessary to bound kernel execution
+	    times and/or use IPIs.</td>
+		<td>Can rely on RCU's dyntick-idle detection.</td>
+			<td>Can rely on RCU's dyntick-idle detection.</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<table>
+<tr><th>&nbsp;</th></tr>
+<tr><th align="left">Quick Quiz:</th></tr>
+<tr><td>
+	Why can't <tt>NO_HZ_FULL</tt> in-kernel execution rely on the
+	scheduling-clock interrupt, just like <tt>HZ_PERIODIC</tt>
+	and <tt>NO_HZ_IDLE</tt> do?
+</td></tr>
+<tr><th align="left">Answer:</th></tr>
+<tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff"><font color="ffffff">
+	Because, as a performance optimization, <tt>NO_HZ_FULL</tt>
+	does not necessarily re-enable the scheduling-clock interrupt
+	on entry to each and every system call.
+</font></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+However, RCU must be reliably informed as to whether any given
+CPU is currently in the idle loop, and, for <tt>NO_HZ_FULL</tt>,
+also whether that CPU is executing in usermode, as discussed
+<a href="#Energy Efficiency">earlier</a>.
+It also requires that the scheduling-clock interrupt be enabled when
+RCU needs it to be:
+
+<ol>
+<li>	If a CPU is either idle or executing in usermode, and RCU believes
+	it is non-idle, the scheduling-clock tick had better be running.
+	Otherwise, you will get RCU CPU stall warnings.  Or at best,
+	very long (11-second) grace periods, with a pointless IPI waking
+	the CPU from time to time.
+<li>	If a CPU is in a portion of the kernel that executes RCU read-side
+	critical sections, and RCU believes this CPU to be idle, you will get
+	random memory corruption.  <b>DON'T DO THIS!!!</b>
+
+	<br>This is one reason to test with lockdep, which will complain
+	about this sort of thing.
+<li>	If a CPU is in a portion of the kernel that is absolutely
+	positively no-joking guaranteed to never execute any RCU read-side
+	critical sections, and RCU believes this CPU to to be idle,
+	no problem.  This sort of thing is used by some architectures
+	for light-weight exception handlers, which can then avoid the
+	overhead of <tt>rcu_irq_enter()</tt> and <tt>rcu_irq_exit()</tt>
+	at exception entry and exit, respectively.
+	Some go further and avoid the entireties of <tt>irq_enter()</tt>
+	and <tt>irq_exit()</tt>.
+
+	<br>Just make very sure you are running some of your tests with
+	<tt>CONFIG_PROVE_RCU=y</tt>, just in case one of your code paths
+	was in fact joking about not doing RCU read-side critical sections.
+<li>	If a CPU is executing in the kernel with the scheduling-clock
+	interrupt disabled and RCU believes this CPU to be non-idle,
+	and if the CPU goes idle (from an RCU perspective) every few
+	jiffies, no problem.  It is usually OK for there to be the
+	occasional gap between idle periods of up to a second or so.
+
+	<br>If the gap grows too long, you get RCU CPU stall warnings.
+<li>	If a CPU is either idle or executing in usermode, and RCU believes
+	it to be idle, of course no problem.
+<li>	If a CPU is executing in the kernel, the kernel code
+	path is passing through quiescent states at a reasonable
+	frequency (preferably about once per few jiffies, but the
+	occasional excursion to a second or so is usually OK) and the
+	scheduling-clock interrupt is enabled, of course no problem.
+
+	<br>If the gap between a successive pair of quiescent states grows
+	too long, you get RCU CPU stall warnings.
+</ol>
+
+<table>
+<tr><th>&nbsp;</th></tr>
+<tr><th align="left">Quick Quiz:</th></tr>
+<tr><td>
+	But what if my driver has a hardware interrupt handler
+	that can run for many seconds?
+	I cannot invoke <tt>schedule()</tt> from an hardware
+	interrupt handler, after all!
+</td></tr>
+<tr><th align="left">Answer:</th></tr>
+<tr><td bgcolor="#ffffff"><font color="ffffff">
+	One approach is to do <tt>rcu_irq_exit();rcu_irq_enter();</tt>
+	every so often.
+	But given that long-running interrupt handlers can cause
+	other problems, not least for response time, shouldn't you
+	work to keep your interrupt handler's runtime within reasonable
+	bounds?
+</font></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>
+But as long as RCU is properly informed of kernel state transitions between
+in-kernel execution, usermode execution, and idle, and as long as the
+scheduling-clock interrupt is enabled when RCU needs it to be, you
+can rest assured that the bugs you encounter will be in some other
+part of RCU or some other part of the kernel!
+
 <h3><a name="Memory Efficiency">Memory Efficiency</a></h3>
 
 <p>