Understanding the Linux Kernel

Chapter 11. Kernel Synchronization

You could think of the kernel as a server that answers requests; these requests can come either from a process running on a CPU or an external device issuing an interrupt request. We make this analogy to underscore that parts of the kernel are not run serially but in an interleaved way. Thus, they can give rise to race conditions, which must be controlled through proper synchronization techniques. A general introduction to these topics can be found in Section 1.6 in Chapter 1.

We start this chapter by reviewing when, and to what extent, kernel requests are executed in an interleaved fashion. We then introduce four basic synchronization techniques implemented by the kernel and illustrate how they are applied by means of examples.

The next two sections deal with the extension of the Linux kernel to multiprocessor architectures. The first describes some hardware features of the Symmetric Multiprocessor (SMP) architecture, while the second discusses additional mutual exclusion techniques adopted by the SMP version of the Linux kernel.