On Mon, Jul 18, 2016 at 08:14:47PM +0200, [email protected] wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have some questions about the locking techniques used inside
> file drivers/staging/most/hdm-usb/hdm_usb.c.

Eeek, never use anything from drivers/staging/ as a good example of
anything.  Please, that code is in staging for a good reason, only worry
about code outside of drivers/staging/ for good examples.

> 
> The one and only call to function free_anchored_buffers is locked by a Mutex:
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>       ...
>         mutex_lock(&mdev->io_mutex);
>       free_anchored_buffers(mdev, channel);
>       if (mdev->padding_active[channel])
>               mdev->padding_active[channel] = false;
> 
>         if (mdev->conf[channel].data_type == MOST_CH_ASYNC) {
>               del_timer_sync(&mdev->link_stat_timer);
>               cancel_work_sync(&mdev->poll_work_obj);
>       }
>       mutex_unlock(&mdev->io_mutex);
>       ...                                             
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Then, inside function free_anchored_buffers, they use a (from my point of 
> view)
> somewhat complex spinlock variant:
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> static void free_anchored_buffers(struct most_dev *mdev, unsigned int channel)
> {
>       struct mbo *mbo;
>       struct buf_anchor *anchor, *tmp;
>       unsigned long flags;
> 
>       spin_lock_irqsave(&mdev->anchor_list_lock[channel], flags);
>       list_for_each_entry_safe(anchor, tmp, &mdev->anchor_list[channel],
>                                list) {
>               struct urb *urb = anchor->urb;
> 
>               spin_unlock_irqrestore(&mdev->anchor_list_lock[channel], flags);
>               if (likely(urb)) {
>                       mbo = urb->context;
>                       if (!irqs_disabled()) {
>                               usb_kill_urb(urb);
>                       } else {
>                               usb_unlink_urb(urb);
>                               wait_for_completion(&anchor->urb_compl);
>                       }
>                       if ((mbo) && (mbo->complete)) {
>                               mbo->status = MBO_E_CLOSE;
>                               mbo->processed_length = 0;
>                               mbo->complete(mbo);
>                       }
>                       usb_free_urb(urb);
>               }
>               spin_lock_irqsave(&mdev->anchor_list_lock[channel], flags);
>               list_del(&anchor->list);
>               cancel_work_sync(&anchor->clear_work_obj);
>               kfree(anchor);
>       }
>       spin_unlock_irqrestore(&mdev->anchor_list_lock[channel], flags);
> }
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> To my questions:
> 
> #1: What is the intention of locking a whole function with a Mutex and then
>     using spinlocks inside the function? Wouldn't it be sufficient to use
>     one locking technique?
> #2: Why is the spinlock not just locking the whole list_for_each_entry part or
>     just the list_del(&anchor->list)?

Why not ask the authors and maintainers of these files?  They would be
the best to answer them, don't you think?

thanks,

greg k-h

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