h does not change it, there is the following race. hot-remove cpu | _cpu_up() ------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ call acpi_processor_handle_eject() | call cpu_down() | call get_online_cpus() | | call cpu_hotplug_begin() and stop here call arch_unregister_cpu() | call acpi_unmap_lsapic() | call put_online_cpus() | | start and continue _cpu_up() return acpi_processor_remove() | continue hot-remove the cpu | So _cpu_up() can continue to itself. And hot-remove cpu can also continue itself. If the patch changes _cpu_up() logic, the race disappears as below: hot-remove cpu | _cpu_up() ----------------------------------------------------------------------- call acpi_processor_handle_eject() | call cpu_down() | call get_online_cpus() | | call cpu_hotplug_begin() and stop here call arch_unregister_cpu() | call acpi_unmap_lsapic() | cpu's cpu_present is set | to false by set_cpu_present()| call put_online_cpus() | | start _cpu_up() | check cpu_present() and return -EINVAL return acpi_processor_remove() | continue hot-remove the cpu | Signed-off-by: Yasuaki Ishimatsu Reviewed-by: Srivatsa S. Bhat Reviewed-by: Toshi Kani Signed-off-by: Rafael J. Wysocki Þ@µÒ˜#x