[v6,46/46] Documentation/cpu-hotplug: Remove references to stop_machine()

Commit Message

Srivatsa S. Bhat Feb. 18, 2013, 12:44 p.m. UTC

Since stop_machine() is no longer used in the CPU offline path, we cannot
disable CPU hotplug using preempt_disable()/local_irq_disable() etc. We
need to use the newly introduced get/put_online_cpus_atomic() APIs.
Reflect this in the documentation.

Cc: Rob Landley <[e-mail]>
Cc: [e-mail]
Signed-off-by: Srivatsa S. Bhat <[e-mail]>
Reviewed-by: Paul E. McKenney <[e-mail]>
---

 Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt |   17 +++++++++++------
 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

Patch

diff --git a/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt b/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt
index 9f40135..7f907ec 100644
--- a/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt
+++ b/Documentation/cpu-hotplug.txt
@@ -113,13 +113,15 @@  Never use anything other than cpumask_t to represent bitmap of CPUs.
 	#include <linux/cpu.h>
 	get_online_cpus() and put_online_cpus():
 
-The above calls are used to inhibit cpu hotplug operations. While the
+The above calls are used to inhibit cpu hotplug operations, when invoked from
+non-atomic context (because the above functions can sleep). While the
 cpu_hotplug.refcount is non zero, the cpu_online_mask will not change.
-If you merely need to avoid cpus going away, you could also use
-preempt_disable() and preempt_enable() for those sections.
-Just remember the critical section cannot call any
-function that can sleep or schedule this process away. The preempt_disable()
-will work as long as stop_machine_run() is used to take a cpu down.
+
+However, if you are executing in atomic context (ie., you can't afford to
+sleep), and you merely need to avoid cpus going offline, you can use
+get_online_cpus_atomic() and put_online_cpus_atomic() for those sections.
+Just remember the critical section cannot call any function that can sleep or
+schedule this process away.
 
 CPU Hotplug - Frequently Asked Questions.
 
@@ -360,6 +362,9 @@  A: There are two ways.  If your code can be run in interrupt context, use
 		return err;
 	}
 
+   If my_func_on_cpu() itself cannot block, use get/put_online_cpus_atomic()
+   instead of get/put_online_cpus() to prevent CPUs from going offline.
+
 Q: How do we determine how many CPUs are available for hotplug.
 A: There is no clear spec defined way from ACPI that can give us that
    information today. Based on some input from Natalie of Unisys,