Reader-to-updater upgrade?

1. Indeed, the upgrade-to-update change would be visible to the remainder of the RCU read-side
critical section.  However, in a surprisingly large number of cases, there is no need for
additional verification steps (though verification can be used when needed).  This is a key
difference between RCU and non-blocking synchronization (NBS) -- NBS would absolutely require
the validation steps in order to avoid memory corruption.

2. Good point -- although rcu_assign_pointer(head, NULL) is superfluous, it is good practice,
and there is no performance penalty.

3. Good eyes!!!