From: Yu Kuai <yukuai3@xxxxxxxxxx> The lifetime of rdev: 1. md_import_device() generate a rdev based on underlying disk; mddev_lock() rdev = kzalloc(); rdev->bdev = blkdev_get_by_dev(); mddev_unlock() 2. bind_rdev_to_array() add this rdev to mddev->disks; mddev_lock() kobject_add(&rdev->kobj, &mddev->kobj, ...); list_add_rcu(&rdev->same_set, &mddev->disks); mddev_unlock() 3. remove_and_add_spares() add this rdev to conf; mddev_lock() rdev_addable(); pers->hot_add_disk(); rcu_assign_pointer(conf->rdev, rdev); mddev_unlock() 4. Use this array with rdev; 5. remove_and_add_spares() remove rdev from conf; mddev_lock() // triggered by sysfs/ioctl rdev_removeable(); pers->hot_remove_disk(); rcu_assign_pointer(conf->rdev, NULL); synchronize_rcu(); mddev_unlock() // triggered by daemon mddev_lock() rdev_removeable(); synchronize_rcu(); -> this can't protect accessing rdev from conf pers->hot_remove_disk(); rcu_assign_pointer(conf->rdev, NULL); mddev_unlock() 6. md_kick_rdev_from_array() remove rdev from mddev->disks; mddev_lock() list_del_rcu(&rdev->same_set); synchronize_rcu(); list_add(&rdev->same_set, &mddev->deleting) mddev_unlock() export_rdev There are two separate rcu protection for rdev, and this pathset remove the protection of conf(step 3 and 5), because it's safe to access rdev from conf in following cases: - If 'reconfig_mutex' is held, because rdev can't be added or rmoved to conf; - If there is normal IO inflight, because mddev_suspend() will wait for IO to be done and prevent rdev to be added or removed to conf; - If sync thread is running, because remove_and_add_spares() can only be called from daemon thread when sync thread is done, and 'MD_RECOVERY_RUNNING' is also checked for ioctl/sysfs; - if any spinlock or rcu_read_lock() is held, because synchronize_rcu() from step 6 prevent rdev to be freed until spinlock is released or rcu_read_unlock(); Yu Kuai (6): md: remove useless debug code to print configuration md: remove flag RemoveSynchronized md/raid1: remove rcu protection to access rdev from conf md/raid10: remove rcu protection to access rdev from conf md/raid5: remove rcu protection to access rdev from conf md/md-multipath: remove rcu protection to access rdev from conf drivers/md/md-multipath.c | 29 ++--- drivers/md/md.c | 37 +----- drivers/md/raid1.c | 94 ++++----------- drivers/md/raid10.c | 248 +++++++++----------------------------- drivers/md/raid5-cache.c | 11 +- drivers/md/raid5-ppl.c | 16 +-- drivers/md/raid5.c | 225 ++++++++++------------------------ drivers/md/raid5.h | 4 +- 8 files changed, 163 insertions(+), 501 deletions(-) -- 2.39.2