locktorture: Add documentation

Just like Documentation/RCU/torture.txt, begin a document for the
locktorture module. This module is still pretty green, so I have
just added some specific sections to the doc (general desc, params,
usage, etc.). Further development should update the file.

Signed-off-by: Davidlohr Bueso <dbueso@suse.de>
[ paulmck: Apply Randy Dunlap review comments. ]
Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@linux.vnet.ibm.com>

1 files changed, 130 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt b/Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3eb9b81
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/locking/locktorture.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+Kernel Lock Torture Test Operation
+
+CONFIG_LOCK_TORTURE_TEST
+
+The CONFIG LOCK_TORTURE_TEST config option provides a kernel module
+that runs torture tests on core kernel locking primitives. The kernel
+module, 'locktorture', may be built after the fact on the running
+kernel to be tested, if desired. The tests periodically output status
+messages via printk(), which can be examined via the dmesg (perhaps
+grepping for "torture").  The test is started when the module is loaded,
+and stops when the module is unloaded. This program is based on how RCU
+is tortured, via rcutorture.
+
+This torture test consists of creating a number of kernel threads which
+acquire the lock and hold it for specific amount of time, thus simulating
+different critical region behaviors. The amount of contention on the lock
+can be simulated by either enlarging this critical region hold time and/or
+creating more kthreads.
+
+
+MODULE PARAMETERS
+
+This module has the following parameters:
+
+
+	    ** Locktorture-specific **
+
+nwriters_stress   Number of kernel threads that will stress exclusive lock
+		  ownership (writers). The default value is twice the number
+		  of online CPUs.
+
+torture_type	  Type of lock to torture. By default, only spinlocks will
+		  be tortured. This module can torture the following locks,
+		  with string values as follows:
+
+		     o "lock_busted": Simulates a buggy lock implementation.
+
+		     o "spin_lock": spin_lock() and spin_unlock() pairs.
+
+		     o "spin_lock_irq": spin_lock_irq() and spin_unlock_irq()
+					pairs.
+
+torture_runnable  Start locktorture at boot time in the case where the
+		  module is built into the kernel, otherwise wait for
+		  torture_runnable to be set via sysfs before starting.
+		  By default it will begin once the module is loaded.
+
+
+	    ** Torture-framework (RCU + locking) **
+
+shutdown_secs	  The number of seconds to run the test before terminating
+		  the test and powering off the system.  The default is
+		  zero, which disables test termination and system shutdown.
+		  This capability is useful for automated testing.
+
+onoff_interval	  The number of seconds between each attempt to execute a
+		  randomly selected CPU-hotplug operation.  Defaults
+		  to zero, which disables CPU hotplugging.  In
+		  CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU=n kernels, locktorture will silently
+		  refuse to do any CPU-hotplug operations regardless of
+		  what value is specified for onoff_interval.
+
+onoff_holdoff	  The number of seconds to wait until starting CPU-hotplug
+		  operations.  This would normally only be used when
+		  locktorture was built into the kernel and started
+		  automatically at boot time, in which case it is useful
+		  in order to avoid confusing boot-time code with CPUs
+		  coming and going. This parameter is only useful if
+		  CONFIG_HOTPLUG_CPU is enabled.
+
+stat_interval	  Number of seconds between statistics-related printk()s.
+		  By default, locktorture will report stats every 60 seconds.
+		  Setting the interval to zero causes the statistics to
+		  be printed -only- when the module is unloaded, and this
+		  is the default.
+
+stutter		  The length of time to run the test before pausing for this
+		  same period of time.  Defaults to "stutter=5", so as
+		  to run and pause for (roughly) five-second intervals.
+		  Specifying "stutter=0" causes the test to run continuously
+		  without pausing, which is the old default behavior.
+
+shuffle_interval  The number of seconds to keep the test threads affinitied
+		  to a particular subset of the CPUs, defaults to 3 seconds.
+		  Used in conjunction with test_no_idle_hz.
+
+verbose		  Enable verbose debugging printing, via printk(). Enabled
+		  by default. This extra information is mostly related to
+		  high-level errors and reports from the main 'torture'
+		  framework.
+
+
+STATISTICS
+
+Statistics are printed in the following format:
+
+spin_lock-torture: Writes:  Total: 93746064  Max/Min: 0/0   Fail: 0
+   (A)				   (B)		  (C)	       (D)
+
+(A): Lock type that is being tortured -- torture_type parameter.
+
+(B): Number of times the lock was acquired.
+
+(C): Min and max number of times threads failed to acquire the lock.
+
+(D): true/false values if there were errors acquiring the lock. This should
+     -only- be positive if there is a bug in the locking primitive's
+     implementation. Otherwise a lock should never fail (i.e., spin_lock()).
+     Of course, the same applies for (C), above. A dummy example of this is
+     the "lock_busted" type.
+
+USAGE
+
+The following script may be used to torture locks:
+
+	#!/bin/sh
+
+	modprobe locktorture
+	sleep 3600
+	rmmod locktorture
+	dmesg | grep torture:
+
+The output can be manually inspected for the error flag of "!!!".
+One could of course create a more elaborate script that automatically
+checked for such errors.  The "rmmod" command forces a "SUCCESS",
+"FAILURE", or "RCU_HOTPLUG" indication to be printk()ed.  The first
+two are self-explanatory, while the last indicates that while there
+were no locking failures, CPU-hotplug problems were detected.
+
+Also see: Documentation/RCU/torture.txt