Methods and systems for recursively acquiring and releasing a spinlock

An apparatus adapted to provide a recursive spinlock, the apparatus comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• memory storing instructions that, when executed, cause the one or more processors to
• store a recursion level for the recursive spinlock in memory,
• responsive to a request to acquire the recursive spinlock by a process, perform one of (i) acquisition of the recursive spinlock if not presently held by the process and increment the recursion level and (ii) increment the recursion level if the recursive spinlock is presently held by the process, and
• responsive to a request to release the recursive spinlock by the process, decrement the recursion level, release the recursive spinlock if the recursion level is zero, and return success if the recursion level is negative and set the recursion level to zero as the negative recursion level indicates the recursive spinlock was not acquired by the process,
• wherein the recursion level is incremented for each acquisition including initial acquisition of the recursive spinlock by the process and recursive acquisition where the process already holds the recursive spinlock.

A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to perform steps of:

• storing a recursion level for the recursive spinlock in memory;
• responsive to a request to acquire the recursive spinlock by a process, performing one of (i) acquiring the recursive spinlock if not presently held by the process and incrementing the recursion level and (ii) incrementing the recursion level if the recursive spinlock is presently held by the process;
• and
• responsive to a request to release the recursive spinlock by the process, decrementing the recursion level, releasing the recursive spinlock if the recursion level is zero, and returning success if the recursion level is negative and setting the recursion level to zero as the negative recursion level indicates the recursive spinlock was not acquired by the process,
• wherein the recursion level is incremented for each acquisition including initial acquisition of the recursive spinlock by the process and recursive acquisition where the process already holds the recursive spinlock.