include/linux/cache.h: expand documentation over __read_mostly

__read_mostly can easily be misused by folks, its not meant for just
read-only data.  There are performance reasons for using it, but we also
don't provide any guidance about its use.  Provide a bit more guidance
over its use.

Signed-off-by: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Acked-by: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux.com>
Acked-by: Rafael Aquini <aquini@redhat.com>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@arndb.de>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200507161424.2584-1-mcgrof@kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

diff --git a/include/linux/cache.h b/include/linux/cache.h
index 750621e41d1c1ccaab7f8a1b1dcca4bd7d6f289a..1aa8009f6d06df72cd75a736bc858243229066c7 100644 (file)
--- a/include/linux/cache.h
+++ b/include/linux/cache.h
@@ -15,8 +15,14 @@
 
 /*
  * __read_mostly is used to keep rarely changing variables out of frequently
- * updated cachelines. If an architecture doesn't support it, ignore the
- * hint.
+ * updated cachelines. Its use should be reserved for data that is used
+ * frequently in hot paths. Performance traces can help decide when to use
+ * this. You want __read_mostly data to be tightly packed, so that in the
+ * best case multiple frequently read variables for a hot path will be next
+ * to each other in order to reduce the number of cachelines needed to
+ * execute a critical path. We should be mindful and selective of its use.
+ * ie: if you're going to use it please supply a *good* justification in your
+ * commit log
  */
 #ifndef __read_mostly
 #define __read_mostly