On Mon, Apr 27, 2009 at 05:26:39AM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote: > > * Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 10:22:55PM +0200, Ingo Molnar wrote: > > > > > > * Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > > > * Ingo Molnar (mingo@xxxxxxx) wrote: > > > > > > > > > > * Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > Second cut of "big hammer" expedited RCU grace periods, but only > > > > > > for rcu_bh. This creates another softirq vector, so that entering > > > > > > this softirq vector will have forced an rcu_bh quiescent state (as > > > > > > noted by Dave Miller). Use smp_call_function() to invoke > > > > > > raise_softirq() on all CPUs in order to cause this to happen. > > > > > > Track the CPUs that have passed through a quiescent state (or gone > > > > > > offline) with a cpumask. > > > > > > > > > > hm, i'm still asking whether doing this would be simpler via a > > > > > reschedule vector - which not only is an existing facility but also > > > > > forces all RCU domains through a quiescent state - not just bh-RCU > > > > > participants. > > > > > > > > > > Triggering a new softirq is in no way simpler that doing an SMP > > > > > cross-call - in fact softirqs are a finite resource so using some > > > > > other facility would be preferred. > > > > > > > > > > Am i missing something? > > > > > > > > > > > > > I think the reason for this whole thread is that waiting for rcu > > > > quiescent state, when called many times e.g. in multiple iptables > > > > invokations, takes too longs (5 seconds to load the netfilter > > > > rules at boot). [...] > > > > > > I'm aware of the problem space. > > > > > > I was suggesting that to trigger the quiescent state and to wait for > > > it to propagate it would be enough to reuse the reschedule > > > mechanism. > > > > > > It would be relatively straightforward: first a send-reschedule then > > > do a wait_task_context_switch() on rq->curr - both are existing > > > primitives. (a task reference has to be taken but that's pretty much > > > all) > > > > Well, one reason I didn't take this approach was that I didn't > > happen to think of it. ;-) > > > > Also that I hadn't heard of wait_task_context_switch(). > > > > Hmmm... Looking for wait_task_context_switch(). OK, found it. > > > > It looks to me that this primitive won't return until the > > scheduler actually decides to run something else. We instead need > > to have something that stops waiting once the CPU enters the > > scheduler, hence the previous thought of making rcu_qsctr_inc() do > > a bit of extra work. > > > > This would be a way of making an expedited RCU-sched across all > > RCU implementations. As noted in the earlier email, it would not > > handle RCU or RCU-bh in a -rt kernel. > > > > > By the time wait_task_context_switch() returns from the last CPU > > > we know that the quiescent state has passed. > > > > We would want to wait for all of the CPUs in parallel, though, > > wouldn't we? Seems that we would not want to wait for the last > > CPU to do another trip through the scheduler if it had already > > passed through the scheduler while we were waiting on the earlier > > CPUs. > > > > So it seems like we would still want a two-pass approach -- one > > pass to capture the current state, the second pass to wait for the > > state to change. > > I think waiting in parallel is still possible (first kick all tasks, > then make sure all tasks have left the CPU at least once). > > The busy-waiting in wait_task_context_switch() is indeed a problem - > but perhaps that could be refactored to be a migration-thread driven > wait_for_completion() + complete() cycle? It could be driven by > preempt notifiers perhaps - and become zero-cost. Hmmm... It would need to be informed of the quiescent state even if that quiescent state did not result in a preemption. But you are right -- I do need to expedite RCU, not just RCU-bh, especially given that the boot-speed guys are starting to see grace periods as a measureable fraction of the boot time. I will take another pass at this. Thanx, Paul -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe netfilter-devel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
