This feature enables the kernel to prove that all locking
that occurs in the kernel runtime is mathematically
correct: that under no circumstance could an arbitrary (and
not yet triggered) combination of observed locking
sequences (on an arbitrary number of CPUs, running an
arbitrary number of tasks and interrupt contexts) cause a
deadlock.

In short, this feature enables the kernel to report locking
related deadlocks before they actually occur.

The proof does not depend on how hard and complex a
deadlock scenario would be to trigger: how many
participant CPUs, tasks and irq-contexts would be needed
for it to trigger. The proof also does not depend on
timing: if a race and a resulting deadlock is possible
theoretically (no matter how unlikely the race scenario
is), it will be proven so and will immediately be
reported by the kernel (once the event is observed that
makes the deadlock theoretically possible).

If a deadlock is impossible (i.e. the locking rules, as
observed by the kernel, are mathematically correct), the
kernel reports nothing.

NOTE: this feature can also be enabled for rwlocks, mutexes
and rwsems - in which case all dependencies between these
different locking variants are observed and mapped too, and
the proof of observed correctness is also maintained for an
arbitrary combination of these separate locking variants.

For more details, see

kernel/spinlock.c