Subject: [PATCH 1/2] docs: mm/gup: pin_user_pages.rst: add a "case 5"

From: John Hubbard <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 29 May 2020 16:43:08 -0700

There are four cases listed in pin_user_pages.rst. These are
intended to help developers figure out whether to use
get_user_pages*(), or pin_user_pages*(). However, the four cases
do not cover all the situations. For example, drivers/vhost/vhost.c
has a "pin, write to page, set page dirty, unpin" case.

Add a fifth case, to help explain that there is a general pattern
that requires pin_user_pages*() API calls.

Cc: Vlastimil Babka <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jan Kara <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jérôme Glisse <[email-masked]>
Cc: Dave Chinner <[email-masked]>
Cc: Jonathan Corbet <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked]
Signed-off-by: John Hubbard <[email-masked]>
---
 Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 20 insertions(+)

diff --git a/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst b/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst
index 4675b04e8829..b9f2688a2c67 100644
--- a/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst
+++ b/Documentation/core-api/pin_user_pages.rst
@@ -171,6 +171,26 @@ If only struct page data (as opposed to the actual memory contents that a page
 is tracking) is affected, then normal GUP calls are sufficient, and neither flag
 needs to be set.
 
+CASE 5: Pinning in order to write to the data within the page
+-------------------------------------------------------------
+Even though neither DMA nor Direct IO is involved, just a simple case of "pin,
+access page's data, unpin" can cause a problem. Case 5 may be considered a
+superset of Case 1, plus Case 2, plus anything that invokes that pattern. In
+other words, if the code is neither Case 1 nor Case 2, it may still require
+FOLL_PIN, for patterns like this:
+
+Correct (uses FOLL_PIN calls):
+    pin_user_pages()
+    access the data within the pages
+    set_page_dirty_lock()
+    unpin_user_pages()
+
+INCORRECT (uses FOLL_GET calls):
+    get_user_pages()
+    access the data within the pages
+    set_page_dirty_lock()
+    put_page()
+
 page_maybe_dma_pinned(): the whole point of pinning
 ===================================================
 
-- 
2.26.2