Re: [PATCH v4 4/8] rcu: drop redundant defer_qs_pending clear in irqrestore handler

On 7/15/2026 4:58 PM, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 25, 2026 at 08:42:57PM -0400, Joel Fernandes wrote:
>> With __note_gp_changes() now clearing defer_qs_pending at every
>> per-CPU GP advance, the per-irqrestore clear is redundant.  Remove it.
> 
> Wait...
> 
> Given your patch 2/8 of this series, isn't __note_gp_changes() now
> clearing ->defer_qs_pending on any new-to-this-CPU grace period start
> or end?  If that was a new-to-this-CPU grace period start, is that really
> a one-to-once correspondence to the need for a quiescent state?

The asymmetry my series relies on is: clearing this flag is always
correctness-safe — a clear can only permit an extra arming attempt (softirq
raise and irq_work); only a missed clear is dangerous, because a stale
PENDING suppresses all arming, which is precisely the bug. So the flag
doesn't need one-to-one correspondence with QS needs. It's a re-arm
throttle whose only correctness requirements are: (a) cleared rarely enough
to keep the recursion bound (once per boundary notice preserves it — the
deadloops needed unbounded requeue), and (b) cleared often enough to bound
stuck-time (the CPU noticing the GP is the natural point, so a stale flag
survives at most one noticed GP). Right now it is stuck forever when I run
TREE03.

Put another way, you are right that it is not a one-to-one correspondence,
but merely that the CPU noticing the start/end of a GP is the starting
point for when we'd need to pay attention to ->defer_qs_pending, so we have
to clear it first (in __note_gp_changes()).

We can keep __note_gp_changes as a single point of clearing (except some
special cases) as this series does, which also makes it more robust IMO.
Previously, we've had issues where we forget to clear the
->defer_qs_pending flag.

Did I miss something?

Thanks.


> 
> 							Thanx, Paul
> 
>> Effect: PENDING now stays set from arming until the next per-CPU GP
>> advance, future arming attempts on the same CPU within the same GP are
>> gated by the rcu_read_unlock_special().
>>
>> This serves both as an optimization (should not need new irq_work again
>> this GP - for the compounded section case, we detect and clear it there),
>> and reduces risks of recursion due to clearing too aggressively.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Joel Fernandes <[email protected]>
>> ---
>>  kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h | 2 --
>>  1 file changed, 2 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h b/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
>> index 7768a40677a4..c37d8cfeb714 100644
>> --- a/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
>> +++ b/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
>> @@ -581,8 +581,6 @@ rcu_preempt_deferred_qs_irqrestore(struct task_struct *t, unsigned long flags)
>>  	union rcu_special special;
>>  
>>  	rdp = this_cpu_ptr(&rcu_data);
>> -	if (rdp->defer_qs_pending == DEFER_QS_PENDING)
>> -		rcu_defer_qs_clear(rdp);
>>  
>>  	/*
>>  	 * If RCU core is waiting for this CPU to exit its critical section,
>> -- 
>> 2.34.1
>>