On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 08:46:04AM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote: > On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 2:28 AM, Peter Zijlstra <peterz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > On Wed, Aug 29, 2018 at 01:11:46AM -0700, Nadav Amit wrote: > > >> + pte_clear(poking_mm, poking_addr, ptep); > >> + > >> + /* > >> + * __flush_tlb_one_user() performs a redundant TLB flush when PTI is on, > >> + * as it also flushes the corresponding "user" address spaces, which > >> + * does not exist. > >> + * > >> + * Poking, however, is already very inefficient since it does not try to > >> + * batch updates, so we ignore this problem for the time being. > >> + * > >> + * Since the PTEs do not exist in other kernel address-spaces, we do > >> + * not use __flush_tlb_one_kernel(), which when PTI is on would cause > >> + * more unwarranted TLB flushes. > >> + */ > > > > yuck :-), but yeah. > > I'm sure we covered this ad nauseum when PTI was being developed, but > we were kind of in a rush, so: > > Why do we do INVPCID at all? The fallback path for non-INVPCID > systems uses invalidate_user_asid(), which should be faster than the > invpcid path. And doesn't do a redundant flush in this case. I don't remember; and you forgot to (re)add dhansen. Logically INVPCID_SINGLE should be faster since it pokes out a single translation in another PCID instead of killing all user translations. Is it just a matter of (current) chips implementing INVLPCID_SINGLE inefficient, or something else?