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authorDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2013-12-18 16:42:06 -0500
committerDavid S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>2013-12-18 16:42:06 -0500
commit143c9054949436cb05e468439dc5e46231f33d09 (patch)
treec2e972d8188fb1b36368e9acb5b6b59466c9d903 /kernel/time/tick-common.c
parent0b6807034791160d5e584138943d2daea765436d (diff)
parent35eecf052250f663f07a4cded7d3503fd1b50729 (diff)
Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net
Conflicts: drivers/net/ethernet/intel/i40e/i40e_main.c drivers/net/macvtap.c Both minor merge hassles, simple overlapping changes. Signed-off-by: David S. Miller <davem@davemloft.net>
Diffstat (limited to 'kernel/time/tick-common.c')
-rw-r--r--kernel/time/tick-common.c15
1 files changed, 15 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/kernel/time/tick-common.c b/kernel/time/tick-common.c
index 64522ecdfe0e..162b03ab0ad2 100644
--- a/kernel/time/tick-common.c
+++ b/kernel/time/tick-common.c
@@ -33,6 +33,21 @@ DEFINE_PER_CPU(struct tick_device, tick_cpu_device);
*/
ktime_t tick_next_period;
ktime_t tick_period;
+
+/*
+ * tick_do_timer_cpu is a timer core internal variable which holds the CPU NR
+ * which is responsible for calling do_timer(), i.e. the timekeeping stuff. This
+ * variable has two functions:
+ *
+ * 1) Prevent a thundering herd issue of a gazillion of CPUs trying to grab the
+ * timekeeping lock all at once. Only the CPU which is assigned to do the
+ * update is handling it.
+ *
+ * 2) Hand off the duty in the NOHZ idle case by setting the value to
+ * TICK_DO_TIMER_NONE, i.e. a non existing CPU. So the next cpu which looks
+ * at it will take over and keep the time keeping alive. The handover
+ * procedure also covers cpu hotplug.
+ */
int tick_do_timer_cpu __read_mostly = TICK_DO_TIMER_BOOT;
/*