rcu: Add comments to final rcu_gp_cleanup() "if" statement

The final "if" statement in rcu_gp_cleanup() has proven to be rather
confusing, straightforward though it might have seemed when initially
written.  This commit therefore adds comments to its "then" and "else"
clauses to at least provide a more elevated form of confusion.

Reported-by: Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@gmail.com>
Reported-by: Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@kernel.org>
Reported-by: Neeraj Upadhyay <quic_neeraju@quicinc.com>
Reported-by: Uladzislau Rezki <urezki@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 20 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree.c b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
index a5ea67454640..29669070348e 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/tree.c
+++ b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
@@ -2098,14 +2098,29 @@ static noinline void rcu_gp_cleanup(void)
 	/* Advance CBs to reduce false positives below. */
 	offloaded = rcu_rdp_is_offloaded(rdp);
 	if ((offloaded || !rcu_accelerate_cbs(rnp, rdp)) && needgp) {
+
+		// We get here if a grace period was needed (“needgp”)
+		// and the above call to rcu_accelerate_cbs() did not set
+		// the RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT bit in ->gp_state (which records
+		// the need for another grace period).  The purpose
+		// of the “offloaded” check is to avoid invoking
+		// rcu_accelerate_cbs() on an offloaded CPU because we do not
+		// hold the ->nocb_lock needed to safely access an offloaded
+		// ->cblist.  We do not want to acquire that lock because
+		// it can be heavily contended during callback floods.
+
 		WRITE_ONCE(rcu_state.gp_flags, RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT);
 		WRITE_ONCE(rcu_state.gp_req_activity, jiffies);
-		trace_rcu_grace_period(rcu_state.name,
-				       rcu_state.gp_seq,
-				       TPS("newreq"));
+		trace_rcu_grace_period(rcu_state.name, rcu_state.gp_seq, TPS("newreq"));
 	} else {
-		WRITE_ONCE(rcu_state.gp_flags,
-			   rcu_state.gp_flags & RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT);
+
+		// We get here either if there is no need for an
+		// additional grace period or if rcu_accelerate_cbs() has
+		// already set the RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT bit in ->gp_flags. 
+		// So all we need to do is to clear all of the other
+		// ->gp_flags bits.
+
+		WRITE_ONCE(rcu_state.gp_flags, rcu_state.gp_flags & RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT);
 	}
 	raw_spin_unlock_irq_rcu_node(rnp);