DragonFly kernel List (threaded) for 2006-08
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Working on vnode sequencing and locking - HEAD will destabilize for a little bit
I'm working on the vnode ref counting and locking, HEAD may destabilize
for a bit. There are a couple of things going on here, all related
to userland VFS interfacing.
First, I am distinguishing between ref'ing a vnode that already has
refs (which is just one atomic add instruction), vs ref'ing a vnode
that has 0 refs (which requires interactions with the recycling code).
If I got the separation wrong the kernel will assert. This commit is
going in today.
Secondly, I am going to start using the vnode's spinlock to control
access to the vnode ref count. That commit will go in tomorrow.
Its an easy thing to do and it helps with the MP locking work.
Third, the vnode locking code is getting an overhaul. VOP_LOCK
and VOP_UNLOCK are going to be removed - vnode locking will become
native to the vnode and not run through VOP operations any more. Most
of the groundwork for this has already been done.
This relates to userland VFS and clustering. Because VOP operations
may run over a communications stream, VOP_LOCK and VOP_UNLOCK simply
do not fit into the scheme any more.
Finally, the vnode locking will be moved out of the kernel layer and
into the filesystem layer. This is again for userland VFS and clustering.
It will mean that we do not have to hold a vnode lock across a filesystem
operation... we've already seen what that can lead to with NFS when an
NFS server goes down.
So instead of this:
lock vnode
VOP_READ ------->
[userland VFS / syslink communications layer]
do operation
unlock vnode <------
We will have this:
VOP_READ ------->
[userland VFS / syslink communications layer]
lock local representation of vnode
do operation
unlock local representation of vnode
<-------
And, poof, no more indefinite blocking states in the kernel for NFS or
for the upcoming userland VFS or clustering.
There will be fine-grained range locks to maintain UNIX atomicy
requirements, but since they aren't going to be hard locks they won't
prevent basic things like ^C from working properly.
-Matt
Matthew Dillon
<dillon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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