summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorSrikant Patnaik2015-01-11 12:28:04 +0530
committerSrikant Patnaik2015-01-11 12:28:04 +0530
commit871480933a1c28f8a9fed4c4d34d06c439a7a422 (patch)
tree8718f573808810c2a1e8cb8fb6ac469093ca2784 /ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking
parent9d40ac5867b9aefe0722bc1f110b965ff294d30d (diff)
downloadFOSSEE-netbook-kernel-source-871480933a1c28f8a9fed4c4d34d06c439a7a422.tar.gz
FOSSEE-netbook-kernel-source-871480933a1c28f8a9fed4c4d34d06c439a7a422.tar.bz2
FOSSEE-netbook-kernel-source-871480933a1c28f8a9fed4c4d34d06c439a7a422.zip
Moved, renamed, and deleted files
The original directory structure was scattered and unorganized. Changes are basically to make it look like kernel structure.
Diffstat (limited to 'ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking')
-rw-r--r--ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking172
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 172 deletions
diff --git a/ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking b/ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking
deleted file mode 100644
index 3ea36554..00000000
--- a/ANDROID_3.4.5/fs/jffs2/README.Locking
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,172 +0,0 @@
-
- JFFS2 LOCKING DOCUMENTATION
- ---------------------------
-
-At least theoretically, JFFS2 does not require the Big Kernel Lock
-(BKL), which was always helpfully obtained for it by Linux 2.4 VFS
-code. It has its own locking, as described below.
-
-This document attempts to describe the existing locking rules for
-JFFS2. It is not expected to remain perfectly up to date, but ought to
-be fairly close.
-
-
- alloc_sem
- ---------
-
-The alloc_sem is a per-filesystem mutex, used primarily to ensure
-contiguous allocation of space on the medium. It is automatically
-obtained during space allocations (jffs2_reserve_space()) and freed
-upon write completion (jffs2_complete_reservation()). Note that
-the garbage collector will obtain this right at the beginning of
-jffs2_garbage_collect_pass() and release it at the end, thereby
-preventing any other write activity on the file system during a
-garbage collect pass.
-
-When writing new nodes, the alloc_sem must be held until the new nodes
-have been properly linked into the data structures for the inode to
-which they belong. This is for the benefit of NAND flash - adding new
-nodes to an inode may obsolete old ones, and by holding the alloc_sem
-until this happens we ensure that any data in the write-buffer at the
-time this happens are part of the new node, not just something that
-was written afterwards. Hence, we can ensure the newly-obsoleted nodes
-don't actually get erased until the write-buffer has been flushed to
-the medium.
-
-With the introduction of NAND flash support and the write-buffer,
-the alloc_sem is also used to protect the wbuf-related members of the
-jffs2_sb_info structure. Atomically reading the wbuf_len member to see
-if the wbuf is currently holding any data is permitted, though.
-
-Ordering constraints: See f->sem.
-
-
- File Mutex f->sem
- ---------------------
-
-This is the JFFS2-internal equivalent of the inode mutex i->i_sem.
-It protects the contents of the jffs2_inode_info private inode data,
-including the linked list of node fragments (but see the notes below on
-erase_completion_lock), etc.
-
-The reason that the i_sem itself isn't used for this purpose is to
-avoid deadlocks with garbage collection -- the VFS will lock the i_sem
-before calling a function which may need to allocate space. The
-allocation may trigger garbage-collection, which may need to move a
-node belonging to the inode which was locked in the first place by the
-VFS. If the garbage collection code were to attempt to lock the i_sem
-of the inode from which it's garbage-collecting a physical node, this
-lead to deadlock, unless we played games with unlocking the i_sem
-before calling the space allocation functions.
-
-Instead of playing such games, we just have an extra internal
-mutex, which is obtained by the garbage collection code and also
-by the normal file system code _after_ allocation of space.
-
-Ordering constraints:
-
- 1. Never attempt to allocate space or lock alloc_sem with
- any f->sem held.
- 2. Never attempt to lock two file mutexes in one thread.
- No ordering rules have been made for doing so.
-
-
- erase_completion_lock spinlock
- ------------------------------
-
-This is used to serialise access to the eraseblock lists, to the
-per-eraseblock lists of physical jffs2_raw_node_ref structures, and
-(NB) the per-inode list of physical nodes. The latter is a special
-case - see below.
-
-As the MTD API no longer permits erase-completion callback functions
-to be called from bottom-half (timer) context (on the basis that nobody
-ever actually implemented such a thing), it's now sufficient to use
-a simple spin_lock() rather than spin_lock_bh().
-
-Note that the per-inode list of physical nodes (f->nodes) is a special
-case. Any changes to _valid_ nodes (i.e. ->flash_offset & 1 == 0) in
-the list are protected by the file mutex f->sem. But the erase code
-may remove _obsolete_ nodes from the list while holding only the
-erase_completion_lock. So you can walk the list only while holding the
-erase_completion_lock, and can drop the lock temporarily mid-walk as
-long as the pointer you're holding is to a _valid_ node, not an
-obsolete one.
-
-The erase_completion_lock is also used to protect the c->gc_task
-pointer when the garbage collection thread exits. The code to kill the
-GC thread locks it, sends the signal, then unlocks it - while the GC
-thread itself locks it, zeroes c->gc_task, then unlocks on the exit path.
-
-
- inocache_lock spinlock
- ----------------------
-
-This spinlock protects the hashed list (c->inocache_list) of the
-in-core jffs2_inode_cache objects (each inode in JFFS2 has the
-correspondent jffs2_inode_cache object). So, the inocache_lock
-has to be locked while walking the c->inocache_list hash buckets.
-
-This spinlock also covers allocation of new inode numbers, which is
-currently just '++->highest_ino++', but might one day get more complicated
-if we need to deal with wrapping after 4 milliard inode numbers are used.
-
-Note, the f->sem guarantees that the correspondent jffs2_inode_cache
-will not be removed. So, it is allowed to access it without locking
-the inocache_lock spinlock.
-
-Ordering constraints:
-
- If both erase_completion_lock and inocache_lock are needed, the
- c->erase_completion has to be acquired first.
-
-
- erase_free_sem
- --------------
-
-This mutex is only used by the erase code which frees obsolete node
-references and the jffs2_garbage_collect_deletion_dirent() function.
-The latter function on NAND flash must read _obsolete_ nodes to
-determine whether the 'deletion dirent' under consideration can be
-discarded or whether it is still required to show that an inode has
-been unlinked. Because reading from the flash may sleep, the
-erase_completion_lock cannot be held, so an alternative, more
-heavyweight lock was required to prevent the erase code from freeing
-the jffs2_raw_node_ref structures in question while the garbage
-collection code is looking at them.
-
-Suggestions for alternative solutions to this problem would be welcomed.
-
-
- wbuf_sem
- --------
-
-This read/write semaphore protects against concurrent access to the
-write-behind buffer ('wbuf') used for flash chips where we must write
-in blocks. It protects both the contents of the wbuf and the metadata
-which indicates which flash region (if any) is currently covered by
-the buffer.
-
-Ordering constraints:
- Lock wbuf_sem last, after the alloc_sem or and f->sem.
-
-
- c->xattr_sem
- ------------
-
-This read/write semaphore protects against concurrent access to the
-xattr related objects which include stuff in superblock and ic->xref.
-In read-only path, write-semaphore is too much exclusion. It's enough
-by read-semaphore. But you must hold write-semaphore when updating,
-creating or deleting any xattr related object.
-
-Once xattr_sem released, there would be no assurance for the existence
-of those objects. Thus, a series of processes is often required to retry,
-when updating such a object is necessary under holding read semaphore.
-For example, do_jffs2_getxattr() holds read-semaphore to scan xref and
-xdatum at first. But it retries this process with holding write-semaphore
-after release read-semaphore, if it's necessary to load name/value pair
-from medium.
-
-Ordering constraints:
- Lock xattr_sem last, after the alloc_sem.