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Tejun Heo authored
percpu_ref internally uses sched-RCU to implement the percpu -> atomic mode switching and the documentation suggested that this could be depended upon. This doesn't seem like a good idea. * percpu_ref uses sched-RCU which has different grace periods regular RCU. Users may combine percpu_ref with regular RCU usage and incorrectly believe that regular RCU grace periods are performed by percpu_ref. This can lead to, for example, use-after-free due to premature freeing. * percpu_ref has a grace period when switching from percpu to atomic mode. It doesn't have one between the last put and release. This distinction is subtle and can lead to surprising bugs. * percpu_ref allows starting in and switching to atomic mode manually for debugging and other purposes. This means that there may not be any grace periods from kill to release. This patch makes it clear that the grace periods are percpu_ref's internal implementation detail and can't be depended upon by the users. Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org> Cc: Kent Overstreet <kent.overstreet@gmail.com> Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>
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