1 files changed, 41 insertions, 23 deletions
diff --git a/include/linux/stop_machine.h b/include/linux/stop_machine.h
index 3132262a404d..72820503514c 100644
--- a/include/linux/stop_machine.h
+++ b/include/linux/stop_machine.h
@@ -88,55 +88,73 @@ static inline void print_stop_info(const char *log_lvl, struct task_struct *task
 #endif	/* CONFIG_SMP */
 
 /*
- * stop_machine "Bogolock": stop the entire machine, disable
- * interrupts.  This is a very heavy lock, which is equivalent to
- * grabbing every spinlock (and more).  So the "read" side to such a
- * lock is anything which disables preemption.
+ * stop_machine "Bogolock": stop the entire machine, disable interrupts.
+ * This is a very heavy lock, which is equivalent to grabbing every raw
+ * spinlock (and more).  So the "read" side to such a lock is anything
+ * which disables preemption.
  */
 #if defined(CONFIG_SMP) || defined(CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU)
 
 /**
  * stop_machine: freeze the machine on all CPUs and run this function
  * @fn: the function to run
- * @data: the data ptr for the @fn()
- * @cpus: the cpus to run the @fn() on (NULL = any online cpu)
+ * @data: the data ptr to pass to @fn()
+ * @cpus: the cpus to run @fn() on (NULL = run on each online CPU)
  *
- * Description: This causes a thread to be scheduled on every cpu,
- * each of which disables interrupts.  The result is that no one is
- * holding a spinlock or inside any other preempt-disabled region when
- * @fn() runs.
+ * Description: This causes a thread to be scheduled on every CPU, which
+ * will run with interrupts disabled.  Each CPU specified by @cpus will
+ * run @fn.  While @fn is executing, there will no other CPUs holding
+ * a raw spinlock or running within any other type of preempt-disabled
+ * region of code.
  *
- * This can be thought of as a very heavy write lock, equivalent to
- * grabbing every spinlock in the kernel.
+ * When @cpus specifies only a single CPU, this can be thought of as
+ * a reader-writer lock where readers disable preemption (for example,
+ * by holding a raw spinlock) and where the insanely heavy writers run
+ * @fn while also preventing any other CPU from doing any useful work.
+ * These writers can also be thought of as having implicitly grabbed every
+ * raw spinlock in the kernel.
  *
- * Protects against CPU hotplug.
+ * When @fn is a no-op, this can be thought of as an RCU implementation
+ * where readers again disable preemption and writers use stop_machine()
+ * in place of synchronize_rcu(), albeit with orders of magnitude more
+ * disruption than even that of synchronize_rcu_expedited().
+ *
+ * Although only one stop_machine() operation can proceed at a time,
+ * the possibility of blocking in cpus_read_lock() means that the caller
+ * cannot usefully rely on this serialization.
+ *
+ * Return: 0 if all invocations of @fn return zero.  Otherwise, the
+ * value returned by an arbitrarily chosen member of the set of calls to
+ * @fn that returned non-zero.
  */
 int stop_machine(cpu_stop_fn_t fn, void *data, const struct cpumask *cpus);
 
 /**
  * stop_machine_cpuslocked: freeze the machine on all CPUs and run this function
  * @fn: the function to run
- * @data: the data ptr for the @fn()
- * @cpus: the cpus to run the @fn() on (NULL = any online cpu)
+ * @data: the data ptr to pass to @fn()
+ * @cpus: the cpus to run @fn() on (NULL = run on each online CPU)
+ *
+ * Same as above.  Avoids nested calls to cpus_read_lock().
  *
- * Same as above. Must be called from with in a cpus_read_lock() protected
- * region. Avoids nested calls to cpus_read_lock().
+ * Context: Must be called from within a cpus_read_lock() protected region.
  */
 int stop_machine_cpuslocked(cpu_stop_fn_t fn, void *data, const struct cpumask *cpus);
 
 /**
  * stop_core_cpuslocked: - stop all threads on just one core
  * @cpu: any cpu in the targeted core
- * @fn: the function to run
- * @data: the data ptr for @fn()
+ * @fn: the function to run on each CPU in the core containing @cpu
+ * @data: the data ptr to pass to @fn()
  *
- * Same as above, but instead of every CPU, only the logical CPUs of a
- * single core are affected.
+ * Same as above, but instead of every CPU, only the logical CPUs of the
+ * single core containing @cpu are affected.
  *
  * Context: Must be called from within a cpus_read_lock() protected region.
  *
- * Return: 0 if all executions of @fn returned 0, any non zero return
- * value if any returned non zero.
+ * Return: 0 if all invocations of @fn return zero.  Otherwise, the
+ * value returned by an arbitrarily chosen member of the set of calls to
+ * @fn that returned non-zero.
  */
 int stop_core_cpuslocked(unsigned int cpu, cpu_stop_fn_t fn, void *data);