docs: dma-api: replace consistent with coherent

For consistency, always use the term "coherent" when talking about memory
that is not subject to CPU caching effects. The term "consistent" is a
relic of a long-removed PCI DMA API (pci_alloc_consistent() and
pci_free_consistent() functions).

Signed-off-by: Petr Tesarik <ptesarik@suse.com>
Tested-by: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Acked-by: Marek Szyprowski <m.szyprowski@samsung.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250627101015.1600042-3-ptesarik@suse.com
This commit is contained in:
Petr Tesarik
2025-06-27 12:10:09 +02:00
committed by Jonathan Corbet
parent 7362b6ba17
commit 4d3c6bc11b
3 changed files with 28 additions and 28 deletions

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@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ a device with limitations, it needs to be decreased.
Special note about PCI: PCI-X specification requires PCI-X devices to support
64-bit addressing (DAC) for all transactions. And at least one platform (SGI
SN2) requires 64-bit consistent allocations to operate correctly when the IO
SN2) requires 64-bit coherent allocations to operate correctly when the IO
bus is in PCI-X mode.
For correct operation, you must set the DMA mask to inform the kernel about
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ used instead:
int dma_set_mask(struct device *dev, u64 mask);
The setup for consistent allocations is performed via a call
The setup for coherent allocations is performed via a call
to dma_set_coherent_mask()::
int dma_set_coherent_mask(struct device *dev, u64 mask);
@@ -241,7 +241,7 @@ it would look like this::
The coherent mask will always be able to set the same or a smaller mask as
the streaming mask. However for the rare case that a device driver only
uses consistent allocations, one would have to check the return value from
uses coherent allocations, one would have to check the return value from
dma_set_coherent_mask().
Finally, if your device can only drive the low 24-bits of
@@ -298,20 +298,20 @@ Types of DMA mappings
There are two types of DMA mappings:
- Consistent DMA mappings which are usually mapped at driver
- Coherent DMA mappings which are usually mapped at driver
initialization, unmapped at the end and for which the hardware should
guarantee that the device and the CPU can access the data
in parallel and will see updates made by each other without any
explicit software flushing.
Think of "consistent" as "synchronous" or "coherent".
Think of "coherent" as "synchronous".
The current default is to return consistent memory in the low 32
The current default is to return coherent memory in the low 32
bits of the DMA space. However, for future compatibility you should
set the consistent mask even if this default is fine for your
set the coherent mask even if this default is fine for your
driver.
Good examples of what to use consistent mappings for are:
Good examples of what to use coherent mappings for are:
- Network card DMA ring descriptors.
- SCSI adapter mailbox command data structures.
@@ -320,13 +320,13 @@ There are two types of DMA mappings:
The invariant these examples all require is that any CPU store
to memory is immediately visible to the device, and vice
versa. Consistent mappings guarantee this.
versa. Coherent mappings guarantee this.
.. important::
Consistent DMA memory does not preclude the usage of
Coherent DMA memory does not preclude the usage of
proper memory barriers. The CPU may reorder stores to
consistent memory just as it may normal memory. Example:
coherent memory just as it may normal memory. Example:
if it is important for the device to see the first word
of a descriptor updated before the second, you must do
something like::
@@ -365,10 +365,10 @@ Also, systems with caches that aren't DMA-coherent will work better
when the underlying buffers don't share cache lines with other data.
Using Consistent DMA mappings
=============================
Using Coherent DMA mappings
===========================
To allocate and map large (PAGE_SIZE or so) consistent DMA regions,
To allocate and map large (PAGE_SIZE or so) coherent DMA regions,
you should do::
dma_addr_t dma_handle;
@@ -385,10 +385,10 @@ __get_free_pages() (but takes size instead of a page order). If your
driver needs regions sized smaller than a page, you may prefer using
the dma_pool interface, described below.
The consistent DMA mapping interfaces, will by default return a DMA address
The coherent DMA mapping interfaces, will by default return a DMA address
which is 32-bit addressable. Even if the device indicates (via the DMA mask)
that it may address the upper 32-bits, consistent allocation will only
return > 32-bit addresses for DMA if the consistent DMA mask has been
that it may address the upper 32-bits, coherent allocation will only
return > 32-bit addresses for DMA if the coherent DMA mask has been
explicitly changed via dma_set_coherent_mask(). This is true of the
dma_pool interface as well.
@@ -497,7 +497,7 @@ program address space. Such platforms can and do report errors in the
kernel logs when the DMA controller hardware detects violation of the
permission setting.
Only streaming mappings specify a direction, consistent mappings
Only streaming mappings specify a direction, coherent mappings
implicitly have a direction attribute setting of
DMA_BIDIRECTIONAL.

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@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@ This document describes the DMA API. For a more gentle introduction
of the API (and actual examples), see Documentation/core-api/dma-api-howto.rst.
This API is split into two pieces. Part I describes the basic API.
Part II describes extensions for supporting non-consistent memory
Part II describes extensions for supporting non-coherent memory
machines. Unless you know that your driver absolutely has to support
non-consistent platforms (this is usually only legacy platforms) you
non-coherent platforms (this is usually only legacy platforms) you
should only use the API described in part I.
Part I - DMA API
@@ -33,13 +33,13 @@ Part Ia - Using large DMA-coherent buffers
dma_alloc_coherent(struct device *dev, size_t size,
dma_addr_t *dma_handle, gfp_t flag)
Consistent memory is memory for which a write by either the device or
Coherent memory is memory for which a write by either the device or
the processor can immediately be read by the processor or device
without having to worry about caching effects. (You may however need
to make sure to flush the processor's write buffers before telling
devices to read that memory.)
This routine allocates a region of <size> bytes of consistent memory.
This routine allocates a region of <size> bytes of coherent memory.
It returns a pointer to the allocated region (in the processor's virtual
address space) or NULL if the allocation failed.
@@ -48,9 +48,9 @@ It also returns a <dma_handle> which may be cast to an unsigned integer the
same width as the bus and given to the device as the DMA address base of
the region.
Note: consistent memory can be expensive on some platforms, and the
Note: coherent memory can be expensive on some platforms, and the
minimum allocation length may be as big as a page, so you should
consolidate your requests for consistent memory as much as possible.
consolidate your requests for coherent memory as much as possible.
The simplest way to do that is to use the dma_pool calls (see below).
The flag parameter (dma_alloc_coherent() only) allows the caller to
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ the returned memory, like GFP_DMA).
dma_free_coherent(struct device *dev, size_t size, void *cpu_addr,
dma_addr_t dma_handle)
Free a region of consistent memory you previously allocated. dev,
Free a region of coherent memory you previously allocated. dev,
size and dma_handle must all be the same as those passed into
dma_alloc_coherent(). cpu_addr must be the virtual address returned by
the dma_alloc_coherent().

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@@ -200,7 +200,7 @@ static void pool_block_push(struct dma_pool *pool, struct dma_block *block,
/**
* dma_pool_create_node - Creates a pool of consistent memory blocks, for dma.
* dma_pool_create_node - Creates a pool of coherent DMA memory blocks.
* @name: name of pool, for diagnostics
* @dev: device that will be doing the DMA
* @size: size of the blocks in this pool.
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@ static void pool_block_push(struct dma_pool *pool, struct dma_block *block,
* Context: not in_interrupt()
*
* Given one of these pools, dma_pool_alloc()
* may be used to allocate memory. Such memory will all have "consistent"
* may be used to allocate memory. Such memory will all have coherent
* DMA mappings, accessible by the device and its driver without using
* cache flushing primitives. The actual size of blocks allocated may be
* larger than requested because of alignment.
@@ -395,7 +395,7 @@ void dma_pool_destroy(struct dma_pool *pool)
EXPORT_SYMBOL(dma_pool_destroy);
/**
* dma_pool_alloc - get a block of consistent memory
* dma_pool_alloc - get a block of coherent memory
* @pool: dma pool that will produce the block
* @mem_flags: GFP_* bitmask
* @handle: pointer to dma address of block