A couple more things. On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 06:18:41PM -0700, Kent Overstreet wrote: ... > +/** > + * percpu_ref_put - decrement a dynamic percpu refcount > + * > + * Returns true if the result is 0, otherwise false; only checks for the ref > + * hitting 0 after percpu_ref_kill() has been called. Analagous to > + * atomic_dec_and_test(). > + */ > +static inline int percpu_ref_put(struct percpu_ref *ref) bool? > +{ > + unsigned __percpu *pcpu_count; > + int ret = 0; > + > + preempt_disable(); > + > + pcpu_count = ACCESS_ONCE(ref->pcpu_count); > + > + if (pcpu_count) We probably want likely() here. > + __this_cpu_dec(*pcpu_count); > + else > + ret = atomic_dec_and_test(&ref->count); > + > + preempt_enable(); > + > + return ret; With likely() added, I think the compiler should be able to recognize that the branch on pcpu_count should exclude later branch in the caller to test for the final put in most cases but I'm a bit worried whether that would always be the case and wonder whether ->release based interface would be better. Another concern is that the above interface is likely to encourage its users to put the release implementation in the same function. e.g. void my_put(my_obj) { if (!percpu_ref_put(&my_obj->ref)) return; destroy my_obj; free my_obj; } Which in turn is likely to nudge the developer or compiler towards not inlining the fast path. So, while I do like the simplicity of put() returning %true on the final put, I suspect it's more likely to slowing down fast paths due to its interface compared to having separate ->release function combined with void put(). Any ideas? Thanks. -- tejun -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-fsdevel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html