doc: add a chapter about trylock functions [Bug 9011]

[pandora-kernel.git] / Documentation / DocBook / kernel-locking.tmpl

diff --git a/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl b/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
index 77c42f4..2510763 100644 (file)
--- a/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
+++ b/Documentation/DocBook/kernel-locking.tmpl
@@ -703,6 +703,31 @@
 </sect1>
 </chapter>
 
+<chapter id="trylock-functions">
+ <title>The trylock Functions</title>
+  <para>
+   There are functions that try to acquire a lock only once and immediately
+   return a value telling about success or failure to acquire the lock.
+   They can be used if you need no access to the data protected with the lock
+   when some other thread is holding the lock. You should acquire the lock
+   later if you then need access to the data protected with the lock.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    <function>spin_trylock()</function> does not spin but returns non-zero if
+    it acquires the spinlock on the first try or 0 if not. This function can
+    be used in all contexts like <function>spin_lock</function>: you must have
+    disabled the contexts that might interrupt you and acquire the spin lock.
+  </para>
+
+  <para>
+    <function>mutex_trylock()</function> does not suspend your task
+    but returns non-zero if it could lock the mutex on the first try
+    or 0 if not. This function cannot be safely used in hardware or software
+    interrupt contexts despite not sleeping.
+  </para>
+</chapter>
+
   <chapter id="Examples">
    <title>Common Examples</title>
     <para>