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path: root/include/linux/lockdep.h
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2008-12-31Merge branch 'irq-core-for-linus' of ↵Linus Torvalds
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip * 'irq-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip: x86, sparseirq: clean up Kconfig entry x86: turn CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ off by default sparseirq: fix numa_migrate_irq_desc dependency and comments sparseirq: add kernel-doc notation for new member in irq_desc, -v2 locking, irq: enclose irq_desc_lock_class in CONFIG_LOCKDEP sparseirq, xen: make sure irq_desc is allocated for interrupts sparseirq: fix !SMP building, #2 x86, sparseirq: move irq_desc according to smp_affinity, v7 proc: enclose desc variable of show_stat() in CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ sparse irqs: add irqnr.h to the user headers list sparse irqs: handle !GENIRQ platforms sparseirq: fix !SMP && !PCI_MSI && !HT_IRQ build sparseirq: fix Alpha build failure sparseirq: fix typo in !CONFIG_IO_APIC case x86, MSI: pass irq_cfg and irq_desc x86: MSI start irq numbering from nr_irqs_gsi x86: use NR_IRQS_LEGACY sparse irq_desc[] array: core kernel and x86 changes genirq: record IRQ_LEVEL in irq_desc[] irq.h: remove padding from irq_desc on 64bits
2008-12-18locking, irq: enclose irq_desc_lock_class in CONFIG_LOCKDEPKOSAKI Motohiro
Impact: simplify code commit "08678b0: generic: sparse irqs: use irq_desc() [...]" introduced the irq_desc_lock_class variable. But it is used only if CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ=Y or CONFIG_TRACE_IRQFLAGS=Y. Otherwise, following warnings happen: CC kernel/irq/handle.o kernel/irq/handle.c:26: warning: 'irq_desc_lock_class' defined but not used Actually, current early_init_irq_lock_class has a bit strange and messy ifdef. In addition, it is not valueable. 1. this function is protected by !CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ, but that is not necessary. if CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ=Y, desc of all irq number are initialized by NULL at first - then this function calling is safe. 2. this function protected by CONFIG_TRACE_IRQFLAGS too. but it is not necessary either, because lockdep_set_class() doesn't have bad side effect even if CONFIG_TRACE_IRQFLAGS=n. This patch bloat kernel size a bit on CONFIG_TRACE_IRQFLAGS=n and CONFIG_SPARSE_IRQ=Y - but that's ok. early_init_irq_lock_class() is not a fastpatch at all. To avoid messy ifdefs is more important than a few bytes diet. Signed-off-by: KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@jp.fujitsu.com> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-12-04lockdep: change a held lock's classPeter Zijlstra
Impact: introduce new lockdep API Allow to change a held lock's class. Basically the same as the existing code to change a subclass therefore reuse all that. The XFS code will be able to use this to annotate their inode locking. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-11-14lockdep: include/linux/lockdep.h - fix warning in net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.cIngo Molnar
fix this warning: net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:60: warning: ‘bt_key_strings’ defined but not used net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:71: warning: ‘bt_slock_key_strings’ defined but not used this is a lockdep macro problem in the !LOCKDEP case. We cannot convert it to an inline because the macro works on multiple types, but we can mark the parameter used. [ also clean up a misaligned tab in sock_lock_init_class_and_name() ] [ also remove #ifdefs from around af_family_clock_key strings - which were certainly added to get rid of the ugly build warnings. ] Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
2008-11-12lockdep: include/linux/lockdep.h - fix warning in net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.cIngo Molnar
fix this warning: net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:60: warning: ‘bt_key_strings’ defined but not used net/bluetooth/af_bluetooth.c:71: warning: ‘bt_slock_key_strings’ defined but not used this is a lockdep macro problem in the !LOCKDEP case. We cannot convert it to an inline because the macro works on multiple types, but we can mark the parameter used. [ also clean up a misaligned tab in sock_lock_init_class_and_name() ] [ also remove #ifdefs from around af_family_clock_key strings - which were certainly added to get rid of the ugly build warnings. ] Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-10-20lockstat: contend with pointsPeter Zijlstra
We currently only provide points that have to wait on contention, also lists the points we have to wait for. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-09-10lockdep: add might_lock() / might_lock_read()Peter Zijlstra
useful to establish a lock dependency in case the actual dependency is rare or hard to trigger. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Acked-by: Nick Piggin <nickpiggin@yahoo.com.au> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: increase MAX_LOCKDEP_KEYSIngo Molnar
certain configs produce: [ 70.076229] BUG: MAX_LOCKDEP_KEYS too low! [ 70.080230] turning off the locking correctness validator. tune them up. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: fix overflow in the hlock shrinkage codePeter Zijlstra
There is a overflow by 1 case in the new shrunken hlock code. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: rename map_[acquire|release]() => lock_map_[acquire|release]()Ingo Molnar
the names were too generic: drivers/uio/uio.c:87: error: expected identifier or '(' before 'do' drivers/uio/uio.c:87: error: expected identifier or '(' before 'while' drivers/uio/uio.c:113: error: 'map_release' undeclared here (not in a function) Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: spin_lock_nest_lock()Peter Zijlstra
Expose the new lock protection lock. This can be used to annotate places where we take multiple locks of the same class and avoid deadlocks by always taking another (top-level) lock first. NOTE: we're still bound to the MAX_LOCK_DEPTH (48) limit. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: lock protection locksPeter Zijlstra
On Fri, 2008-08-01 at 16:26 -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > On Fri, 1 Aug 2008, David Miller wrote: > > > > Taking more than a few locks of the same class at once is bad > > news and it's better to find an alternative method. > > It's not always wrong. > > If you can guarantee that anybody that takes more than one lock of a > particular class will always take a single top-level lock _first_, then > that's all good. You can obviously screw up and take the same lock _twice_ > (which will deadlock), but at least you cannot get into ABBA situations. > > So maybe the right thing to do is to just teach lockdep about "lock > protection locks". That would have solved the multi-queue issues for > networking too - all the actual network drivers would still have taken > just their single queue lock, but the one case that needs to take all of > them would have taken a separate top-level lock first. > > Never mind that the multi-queue locks were always taken in the same order: > it's never wrong to just have some top-level serialization, and anybody > who needs to take <n> locks might as well do <n+1>, because they sure as > hell aren't going to be on _any_ fastpaths. > > So the simplest solution really sounds like just teaching lockdep about > that one special case. It's not "nesting" exactly, although it's obviously > related to it. Do as Linus suggested. The lock protection lock is called nest_lock. Note that we still have the MAX_LOCK_DEPTH (48) limit to consider, so anything that spills that it still up shit creek. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: map_acquirePeter Zijlstra
Most the free-standing lock_acquire() usages look remarkably similar, sweep them into a new helper. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-08-11lockdep: shrink held_lock structureDave Jones
struct held_lock { u64 prev_chain_key; /* 0 8 */ struct lock_class * class; /* 8 8 */ long unsigned int acquire_ip; /* 16 8 */ struct lockdep_map * instance; /* 24 8 */ int irq_context; /* 32 4 */ int trylock; /* 36 4 */ int read; /* 40 4 */ int check; /* 44 4 */ int hardirqs_off; /* 48 4 */ /* size: 56, cachelines: 1 */ /* padding: 4 */ /* last cacheline: 56 bytes */ }; struct held_lock { u64 prev_chain_key; /* 0 8 */ long unsigned int acquire_ip; /* 8 8 */ struct lockdep_map * instance; /* 16 8 */ unsigned int class_idx:11; /* 24:21 4 */ unsigned int irq_context:2; /* 24:19 4 */ unsigned int trylock:1; /* 24:18 4 */ unsigned int read:2; /* 24:16 4 */ unsigned int check:2; /* 24:14 4 */ unsigned int hardirqs_off:1; /* 24:13 4 */ /* size: 32, cachelines: 1 */ /* padding: 4 */ /* bit_padding: 13 bits */ /* last cacheline: 32 bytes */ }; [mingo@elte.hu: shrunk hlock->class too] [peterz@infradead.org: fixup bit sizes] Signed-off-by: Dave Jones <davej@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
2008-08-11lockdep: lock_set_subclass - reset a held lock's subclassPeter Zijlstra
this can be used to reset a held lock's subclass, for arbitrary-depth iterated data structures such as trees or lists which have per-node locks. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-07-31lockdep: fix combinatorial explosion in lock subgraph traversalDavid Miller
When we traverse the graph, either forwards or backwards, we are interested in whether a certain property exists somewhere in a node reachable in the graph. Therefore it is never necessary to traverse through a node more than once to get a correct answer to the given query. Take advantage of this property using a global ID counter so that we need not clear all the markers in all the lock_class entries before doing a traversal. A new ID is choosen when we start to traverse, and we continue through a lock_class only if it's ID hasn't been marked with the new value yet. This short-circuiting is essential especially for high CPU count systems. The scheduler has a runqueue per cpu, and needs to take two runqueue locks at a time, which leads to long chains of backwards and forwards subgraphs from these runqueue lock nodes. Without the short-circuit implemented here, a graph traversal on a runqueue lock can take up to (1 << (N - 1)) checks on a system with N cpus. For anything more than 16 cpus or so, lockdep will eventually bring the machine to a complete standstill. Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net> Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-06-24lockdep: remove duplicate definition of STATIC_LOCKDEP_MAP_INITLi Zefan
STATIC_LOCKDEP_MAP_INIT is defined twice in lockdep.h. I guess it's a copy & paste. Signed-off-by: Li Zefan <lizf@cn.fujitsu.com> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2008-06-20lockdep: add lock_class information to lock_chain and output itHuang, Ying
This patch records array of lock_class into lock_chain, and export lock_chain information via /proc/lockdep_chains. It is based on x86/master branch of git-x86 tree, and has been tested on x86_64 platform. Signed-off-by: Huang Ying <ying.huang@intel.com> Cc: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2007-10-19workqueue: debug flushing deadlocks with lockdepJohannes Berg
In the following scenario: code path 1: my_function() -> lock(L1); ...; flush_workqueue(); ... code path 2: run_workqueue() -> my_work() -> ...; lock(L1); ... you can get a deadlock when my_work() is queued or running but my_function() has acquired L1 already. This patch adds a pseudo-lock to each workqueue to make lockdep warn about this scenario. [akpm@linux-foundation.org: coding-style fixes] Signed-off-by: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net> Acked-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@tv-sign.ru> Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-10-11lockdep: annotate rcu_read_{,un}lock{,_bh}Peter Zijlstra
lockdep annotate rcu_read_{,un}lock{,_bh} in order to catch imbalanced usage. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Cc: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
2007-10-11lockdep: syscall exit checkPeter Zijlstra
Provide a check to validate that we do not hold any locks when switching back to user-space. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>
2007-07-19lockstat: measure lock bouncingPeter Zijlstra
__acquire | lock _____ | \ | __contended | | | wait | _______/ |/ | __acquired | __release | unlock We measure acquisition and contention bouncing. This is done by recording a cpu stamp in each lock instance. Contention bouncing requires the cpu stamp to be set on acquisition. Hence we move __acquired into the generic path. __acquired is then used to measure acquisition bouncing by comparing the current cpu with the old stamp before replacing it. __contended is used to measure contention bouncing (only useful for preemptable locks) [akpm@linux-foundation.org: cleanups] Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-07-19lockdep: various fixesPeter Zijlstra
- update the copyright notices - use the default hash function - fix a thinko in a BUILD_BUG_ON - add a WARN_ON to spot inconsitent naming - fix a termination issue in /proc/lock_stat [akpm@linux-foundation.org: cleanups] Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-07-19lockstat: core infrastructurePeter Zijlstra
Introduce the core lock statistics code. Lock statistics provides lock wait-time and hold-time (as well as the count of corresponding contention and acquisitions events). Also, the first few call-sites that encounter contention are tracked. Lock wait-time is the time spent waiting on the lock. This provides insight into the locking scheme, that is, a heavily contended lock is indicative of a too coarse locking scheme. Lock hold-time is the duration the lock was held, this provides a reference for the wait-time numbers, so they can be put into perspective. 1) lock 2) ... do stuff .. unlock 3) The time between 1 and 2 is the wait-time. The time between 2 and 3 is the hold-time. The lockdep held-lock tracking code is reused, because it already collects locks into meaningful groups (classes), and because it is an existing infrastructure for lock instrumentation. Currently lockdep tracks lock acquisition with two hooks: lock() lock_acquire() _lock() ... code protected by lock ... unlock() lock_release() _unlock() We need to extend this with two more hooks, in order to measure contention. lock_contended() - used to measure contention events lock_acquired() - completion of the contention These are then placed the following way: lock() lock_acquire() if (!_try_lock()) lock_contended() _lock() lock_acquired() ... do locked stuff ... unlock() lock_release() _unlock() (Note: the try_lock() 'trick' is used to avoid instrumenting all platform dependent lock primitive implementations.) It is also possible to toggle the two lockdep features at runtime using: /proc/sys/kernel/prove_locking /proc/sys/kernel/lock_stat (esp. turning off the O(n^2) prove_locking functionaliy can help) [akpm@linux-foundation.org: build fixes] [akpm@linux-foundation.org: nuke unneeded ifdefs] Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Acked-by: Jason Baron <jbaron@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-03-23[PATCH] lockdep: lockdep_depth vs. debug_locksJarek Poplawski
lockdep found a bug during a run of workqueue function - this could be also caused by a bug from other code running simultaneously. lockdep really shouldn't be used when debug_locks == 0! Reported-by: Folkert van Heusden <folkert@vanheusden.com> Inspired-by: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@tv-sign.ru> Signed-off-by: Jarek Poplawski <jarkao2@o2.pl> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-02-12[PATCH] lockdep: forward declare struct task_structHeiko Carstens
3117df0453828bd045c16244e6f50e5714667a8a causes this: In file included from arch/s390/kernel/early.c:13: include/linux/lockdep.h:300: warning: "struct task_struct" declared inside parameter list include/linux/lockdep.h:300: warning: its scope is only this definition or declaration, which is probably not what you want Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Cc: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com> Signed-off-by: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com> Cc: <stable@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2007-02-11[PATCH] lockdep: add graph depth information to /proc/lockdepJason Baron
Generate locking graph information into /proc/lockdep, for lock hierarchy documentation and visualization purposes. sample output: c089fd5c OPS: 138 FD: 14 BD: 1 --..: &tty->termios_mutex -> [c07a3430] tty_ldisc_lock -> [c07a37f0] &port_lock_key -> [c07afdc0] &rq->rq_lock_key#2 The lock classes listed are all the first-hop lock dependencies that lockdep has seen so far. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
2006-12-13[PATCH] lockdep: print irq-trace info on assertsIngo Molnar
When we print an assert due to scheduling-in-atomic bugs, and if lockdep is enabled, then the IRQ tracing information of lockdep can be printed to pinpoint the code location that disabled interrupts. This saved me quite a bit of debugging time in cases where the backtrace did not identify the irq-disabling site well enough. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-07[PATCH] remove kernel/lockdep.c:lockdep_internalAdrian Bunk
Remove the no longer used lockdep_internal(). Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-12-07[PATCH] debug: workqueue locking sanityPeter Zijlstra
Workqueue functions should not leak locks, assert so, printing the last function ran. Use macros in lockdep.h to avoid include dependency pains. [akpm@osdl.org: build fix] Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Acked-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-10-12Lockdep: fix compile error in drivers/input/serio/serio.cAndrew Morton
lockdep_set_subclass() was missing in !LOCKDEP case Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Dmitry Torokhov <dtor@mail.ru>
2006-10-11Lockdep: add lockdep_set_class_and_subclass() and lockdep_set_subclass()Peter Zijlstra
This annotation makes it possible to assign a subclass on lock init. This annotation is meant to reduce the _nested() annotations by assigning a default subclass. One could do without this annotation and rely on lockdep_set_class() exclusively, but that would require a manual stack of struct lock_class_key objects. Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl> Signed-off-by: Dmitry Torokhov <dtor@mail.ru>
2006-09-29[PATCH] lockdep: don't pull in includes when lockdep disabledMichael S. Tsirkin
Do not pull in various includes through lockdep.h if lockdep is disabled. Signed-off-by: Michael S. Tsirkin <mst@mellanox.co.il> Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Cc: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-07-10[PATCH] lockdep: core, reduce per-lock class-cache sizeIngo Molnar
lockdep_map is embedded into every lock, which blows up data structure sizes all around the kernel. Reduce the class-cache to be for the default class only - that is used in 99.9% of the cases and even if we dont have a class cached, the lookup in the class-hash is lockless. This change reduces the per-lock dep_map overhead by 56 bytes on 64-bit platforms and by 28 bytes on 32-bit platforms. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Cc: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-07-03[PATCH] lockdep: annotate genirqIngo Molnar
Teach special (recursive) locking code to the lock validator. Has no effect on non-lockdep kernels. Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
2006-07-03[PATCH] lockdep: coreIngo Molnar
Do 'make oldconfig' and accept all the defaults for new config options - reboot into the kernel and if everything goes well it should boot up fine and you should have /proc/lockdep and /proc/lockdep_stats files. Typically if the lock validator finds some problem it will print out voluminous debug output that begins with "BUG: ..." and which syslog output can be used by kernel developers to figure out the precise locking scenario. What does the lock validator do? It "observes" and maps all locking rules as they occur dynamically (as triggered by the kernel's natural use of spinlocks, rwlocks, mutexes and rwsems). Whenever the lock validator subsystem detects a new locking scenario, it validates this new rule against the existing set of rules. If this new rule is consistent with the existing set of rules then the new rule is added transparently and the kernel continues as normal. If the new rule could create a deadlock scenario then this condition is printed out. When determining validity of locking, all possible "deadlock scenarios" are considered: assuming arbitrary number of CPUs, arbitrary irq context and task context constellations, running arbitrary combinations of all the existing locking scenarios. In a typical system this means millions of separate scenarios. This is why we call it a "locking correctness" validator - for all rules that are observed the lock validator proves it with mathematical certainty that a deadlock could not occur (assuming that the lock validator implementation itself is correct and its internal data structures are not corrupted by some other kernel subsystem). [see more details and conditionals of this statement in include/linux/lockdep.h and Documentation/lockdep-design.txt] Furthermore, this "all possible scenarios" property of the validator also enables the finding of complex, highly unlikely multi-CPU multi-context races via single single-context rules, increasing the likelyhood of finding bugs drastically. In practical terms: the lock validator already found a bug in the upstream kernel that could only occur on systems with 3 or more CPUs, and which needed 3 very unlikely code sequences to occur at once on the 3 CPUs. That bug was found and reported on a single-CPU system (!). So in essence a race will be found "piecemail-wise", triggering all the necessary components for the race, without having to reproduce the race scenario itself! In its short existence the lock validator found and reported many bugs before they actually caused a real deadlock. To further increase the efficiency of the validator, the mapping is not per "lock instance", but per "lock-class". For example, all struct inode objects in the kernel have inode->inotify_mutex. If there are 10,000 inodes cached, then there are 10,000 lock objects. But ->inotify_mutex is a single "lock type", and all locking activities that occur against ->inotify_mutex are "unified" into this single lock-class. The advantage of the lock-class approach is that all historical ->inotify_mutex uses are mapped into a single (and as narrow as possible) set of locking rules - regardless of how many different tasks or inode structures it took to build this set of rules. The set of rules persist during the lifetime of the kernel. To see the rough magnitude of checking that the lock validator does, here's a portion of /proc/lockdep_stats, fresh after bootup: lock-classes: 694 [max: 2048] direct dependencies: 1598 [max: 8192] indirect dependencies: 17896 all direct dependencies: 16206 dependency chains: 1910 [max: 8192] in-hardirq chains: 17 in-softirq chains: 105 in-process chains: 1065 stack-trace entries: 38761 [max: 131072] combined max dependencies: 2033928 hardirq-safe locks: 24 hardirq-unsafe locks: 176 softirq-safe locks: 53 softirq-unsafe locks: 137 irq-safe locks: 59 irq-unsafe locks: 176 The lock validator has observed 1598 actual single-thread locking patterns, and has validated all possible 2033928 distinct locking scenarios. More details about the design of the lock validator can be found in Documentation/lockdep-design.txt, which can also found at: http://redhat.com/~mingo/lockdep-patches/lockdep-design.txt [bunk@stusta.de: cleanups] Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu> Signed-off-by: Arjan van de Ven <arjan@linux.intel.com> Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>