Kernel Synchronization – Part 2

This chapter continues the discussion on the fairly complex topics of kernel synchronization and dealing with concurrency within the kernel in general, from the previous chapter. I suggest that, if you haven’t already, you first read the previous chapter and then continue with this one.

Here, we shall continue our learning with respect to the vast topic of kernel synchronization and handling concurrency when in kernel space. As before, the material is targeted at kernel and/or device driver/module developers. In this chapter, we shall cover the following:

• Using the atomic_t and refcount_t interfaces
• Using the RMW atomic operators
• Using the reader-writer spinlock
• Understanding CPU caching basics, cache effects, and false sharing
• Lock-free programming with per-CPU and RCU
• Lock debugging within the kernel
• Introducing memory barriers