Hi Frederic and Marcelo, The only change since RFC v1 [1] is an alternative approach to hopefully resolve the second scenario [2] without disturbing the workload via an interrupt. Any feedback/or testing would be appreciated. Thanks! [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220203214339.1889971-1-atomlin@xxxxxxxxxx/ [2]: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20220217163205.GA748087@lothringen/ In the context of the idle task and an adaptive-tick mode/or a nohz_full CPU, quiet_vmstat() can be called: before stopping the idle tick, entering an idle state and on exit. In particular, for the latter case, when the idle task is required to reschedule, the idle tick can remain stopped and the timer expiration time endless i.e., KTIME_MAX. Now, indeed before a nohz_full CPU enters an idle state, CPU-specific vmstat counters should be processed to ensure the respective values have been reset and folded into the zone specific 'vm_stat[]'. That being said, it can only occur when: the idle tick was previously stopped, and reprogramming of the timer is not required. A customer provided some evidence which indicates that the idle tick was stopped; albeit, CPU-specific vmstat counters still remained populated. Thus one can only assume quiet_vmstat() was not invoked on return to the idle loop. If I understand correctly, I suspect this divergence might erroneously prevent a reclaim attempt by kswapd. If the number of zone specific free pages are below their per-cpu drift value then zone_page_state_snapshot() is used to compute a more accurate view of the aforementioned statistic. Thus any task blocked on the NUMA node specific pfmemalloc_wait queue will be unable to make significant progress via direct reclaim unless it is killed after being woken up by kswapd (see throttle_direct_reclaim()). Consider the following theoretical scenario: 1. CPU Y migrated running task A to CPU X that was in an idle state i.e. waiting for an IRQ - not polling; marked the current task on CPU X to need/or require a reschedule i.e., set TIF_NEED_RESCHED and invoked a reschedule IPI to CPU X (see sched_move_task()) 2. CPU X acknowledged the reschedule IPI from CPU Y; generic idle loop code noticed the TIF_NEED_RESCHED flag against the idle task and attempts to exit of the loop and calls the main scheduler function i.e. __schedule(). Since the idle tick was previously stopped no scheduling-clock tick would occur. So, no deferred timers would be handled 3. Post transition to kernel execution Task A running on CPU Y, indirectly released a few pages (e.g. see __free_one_page()); CPU Y's 'vm_stat_diff[NR_FREE_PAGES]' was updated and zone specific 'vm_stat[]' update was deferred as per the CPU-specific stat threshold 4. Task A does invoke exit(2) and the kernel does remove the task from the run-queue; the idle task was selected to execute next since there are no other runnable tasks assigned to the given CPU (see pick_next_task() and pick_next_task_idle()) 5. On return to the idle loop since the idle tick was already stopped and can remain so (see [1] below) e.g. no pending soft IRQs, no attempt is made to zero and fold CPU Y's vmstat counters since reprogramming of the scheduling-clock tick is not required/or needed (see [2]) ... do_idle { __current_set_polling() tick_nohz_idle_enter() while (!need_resched()) { local_irq_disable() ... /* No polling or broadcast event */ cpuidle_idle_call() { if (cpuidle_not_available(drv, dev)) { tick_nohz_idle_stop_tick() __tick_nohz_idle_stop_tick(this_cpu_ptr(&tick_cpu_sched)) { int cpu = smp_processor_id() if (ts->timer_expires_base) expires = ts->timer_expires else if (can_stop_idle_tick(cpu, ts)) (1) -------> expires = tick_nohz_next_event(ts, cpu) else return ts->idle_calls++ if (expires > 0LL) { tick_nohz_stop_tick(ts, cpu) { if (ts->tick_stopped && (expires == ts->next_tick)) { (2) -------> if (tick == KTIME_MAX || ts->next_tick == hrtimer_get_expires(&ts->sched_timer)) return } ... } So the idea of this patch is to ensure refresh_cpu_vm_stats(false) is called (when it is appropriate) on return to the idle loop when the idle tick was previously stopped too. Additionally, when the scheduling-tick is stopped and a task in kernel-mode, modifies the CPU-specific 'vm_stat_diff[]' and goes to user-mode for a long time. Signed-off-by: Aaron Tomlin <atomlin@xxxxxxxxxx> --- include/linux/tick.h | 9 ++++++++- kernel/time/tick-sched.c | 4 +++- 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/include/linux/tick.h b/include/linux/tick.h index bfd571f18cfd..7bd25266712c 100644 --- a/include/linux/tick.h +++ b/include/linux/tick.h @@ -307,8 +307,15 @@ static inline void tick_nohz_task_switch(void) static inline void tick_nohz_user_enter_prepare(void) { - if (tick_nohz_full_cpu(smp_processor_id())) + struct tick_sched *ts; + + if (tick_nohz_full_cpu(smp_processor_id())) { + ts = this_cpu_ptr(&tick_cpu_sched); + + if (ts->tick_stopped) + quiet_vmstat(); rcu_nocb_flush_deferred_wakeup(); + } } #endif diff --git a/kernel/time/tick-sched.c b/kernel/time/tick-sched.c index d257721c68b8..56d86d9371b7 100644 --- a/kernel/time/tick-sched.c +++ b/kernel/time/tick-sched.c @@ -891,6 +891,9 @@ static void tick_nohz_stop_tick(struct tick_sched *ts, int cpu) ts->do_timer_last = 0; } + /* Attempt to fold when the idle tick is stopped or not */ + quiet_vmstat(); + /* Skip reprogram of event if its not changed */ if (ts->tick_stopped && (expires == ts->next_tick)) { /* Sanity check: make sure clockevent is actually programmed */ @@ -912,7 +915,6 @@ static void tick_nohz_stop_tick(struct tick_sched *ts, int cpu) */ if (!ts->tick_stopped) { calc_load_nohz_start(); - quiet_vmstat(); ts->last_tick = hrtimer_get_expires(&ts->sched_timer); ts->tick_stopped = 1; -- 2.34.1
