(1) Accept that we're now going to use mutexes, so don't attempt
to avoid treating them as mutexes. This cleans up locking
accessor function names some.
(2) Rename variables to _mtx, _cv, _count, simplifying the naming.
(3) Add a new form of the _busy() primitive that conditionally
makes the list busy: if there are entries on the list, bump
the busy count. If there are no entries, don't bump the busy
count. Return a boolean indicating whether or not the busy
count was bumped.
(4) Break mac_policy_list into two lists: one with the same name
holding dynamic policies, and a new list, mac_static_policy_list,
which holds policies loaded before mac_late and without the
unload flag set. The static list may be accessed without
holding the busy count, since it can't change at run-time.
(5) In general, prefer making the list busy conditionally, meaning
we pay only one mutex lock per entry point if all modules are
on the static list, rather than two (since we don't have to
lower the busy count when we're done with the framework). For
systems running just Biba or MLS, this will halve the mutex
accesses in the network stack, and may offer a substantial
performance benefits.
(6) Lay the groundwork for a dynamic-free kernel option which
eliminates all locking associated with dynamically loaded or
unloaded policies, for pre-configured systems requiring
maximum performance but less run-time flexibility.
These changes have been running for a few weeks on MAC development
branch systems.
Approved by: re (jhb)
Obtained from: TrustedBSD Project
Sponsored by: DARPA, Network Associates Laboratories
41a17fe326