- Guard from remove if not yet.
-Locking Internals
-=================
-
-When adding/removing memory that uses memory block devices (i.e. ordinary RAM),
-the device_hotplug_lock should be held to:
-
-- synchronize against online/offline requests (e.g. via sysfs). This way, memory
- block devices can only be accessed (.online/.state attributes) by user
- space once memory has been fully added. And when removing memory, we
- know nobody is in critical sections.
-- synchronize against CPU hotplug and similar (e.g. relevant for ACPI and PPC)
-
-Especially, there is a possible lock inversion that is avoided using
-device_hotplug_lock when adding memory and user space tries to online that
-memory faster than expected:
-
-- device_online() will first take the device_lock(), followed by
- mem_hotplug_lock
-- add_memory_resource() will first take the mem_hotplug_lock, followed by
- the device_lock() (while creating the devices, during bus_add_device()).
-
-As the device is visible to user space before taking the device_lock(), this
-can result in a lock inversion.
-
-onlining/offlining of memory should be done via device_online()/
-device_offline() - to make sure it is properly synchronized to actions
-via sysfs. Holding device_hotplug_lock is advised (to e.g. protect online_type)
-
-When adding/removing/onlining/offlining memory or adding/removing
-heterogeneous/device memory, we should always hold the mem_hotplug_lock in
-write mode to serialise memory hotplug (e.g. access to global/zone
-variables).
-
-In addition, mem_hotplug_lock (in contrast to device_hotplug_lock) in read
-mode allows for a quite efficient get_online_mems/put_online_mems
-implementation, so code accessing memory can protect from that memory
-vanishing.
-
-
Future Work
===========