On Fri, Mar 29, 2019 at 11:26:34AM -0700, Paul E. McKenney wrote:
> When RCU core processing is offloaded from RCU_SOFTIRQ to the rcuc
> kthreads, a full and unconditional wakeup is required to initiate RCU
> core processing. In contrast, when RCU core processing is carried
> out by RCU_SOFTIRQ, a raise_softirq() suffices. Of course, there are
> situations where raise_softirq() does a full wakeup, but these do not
> occur with normal usage of rcu_read_unlock().
Do we have a comment somewhere explaining why?
> The initial solution to this problem was to use set_tsk_need_resched() and
> set_preempt_need_resched() to force a future context switch, which allows
> rcu_preempt_note_context_switch() to report the deferred quiescent state
> to RCU's core processing. Unfortunately for expedited grace periods,
> there can be a significant delay between the call for a context switch
> and the actual context switch.
This is all PREEMPT=y kernels, right? Where is the latency coming from?
Because PREEMPT=y _should_ react quite quickly.
> This commit therefore introduces a ->deferred_qs flag to the task_struct
> structure's rcu_special structure. This flag is initially false, and
> is set to true by the first call to rcu_read_unlock() requiring special
> attention, then finally reset back to false when the quiescent state is
> finally reported. Then rcu_read_unlock() attempts full wakeups only when
> ->deferred_qs is false, that is, on the first rcu_read_unlock() requiring
> special attention. Note that a chain of RCU readers linked by some other
> sort of reader may find that a later rcu_read_unlock() is once again able
> to do a full wakeup, courtesy of an intervening preemption:
>
> rcu_read_lock();
> /* preempted */
> local_irq_disable();
> rcu_read_unlock(); /* Can do full wakeup, sets ->deferred_qs. */
> rcu_read_lock();
> local_irq_enable();
> preempt_disable()
> rcu_read_unlock(); /* Cannot do full wakeup, ->deferred_qs set. */
> rcu_read_lock();
> preempt_enable();
> /* preempted, >deferred_qs reset. */
As it would have without ->deferred_sq and just having done the above
which was deemed insufficient.
So I'm really puzzled by the need for all this.
> local_irq_disable();
> rcu_read_unlock(); /* Can again do full wakeup, sets ->deferred_qs. */
>
> Such linked RCU readers do not yet seem to appear in the Linux kernel, and
> it is probably best if they don't. However, RCU needs to handle them, and
> some variations on this theme could make even raise_softirq() unsafe due to
> the possibility of its doing a full wakeup. This commit therefore also
> avoids invoking raise_softirq() when the ->deferred_qs set flag is set.
>
> Signed-off-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> include/linux/sched.h | 2 +-
> kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h | 19 ++++++++++++++-----
> 2 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/include/linux/sched.h b/include/linux/sched.h
> index 1549584a1538..3164b6798fe5 100644
> --- a/include/linux/sched.h
> +++ b/include/linux/sched.h
> @@ -566,7 +566,7 @@ union rcu_special {
> u8 blocked;
> u8 need_qs;
> u8 exp_hint; /* Hint for performance. */
> - u8 pad; /* No garbage from compiler! */
> + u8 deferred_qs;
> } b; /* Bits. */
> u32 s; /* Set of bits. */
> };
> diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h b/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
> index 21611862e083..75110ea75d01 100644
> --- a/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
> +++ b/kernel/rcu/tree_plugin.h
> @@ -455,6 +455,7 @@ rcu_preempt_deferred_qs_irqrestore(struct task_struct *t, unsigned long flags)
> local_irq_restore(flags);
> return;
> }
> + t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.deferred_qs = false;
> if (special.b.need_qs) {
> rcu_qs();
> t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.need_qs = false;
> @@ -605,16 +606,24 @@ static void rcu_read_unlock_special(struct task_struct *t)
> local_irq_save(flags);
> irqs_were_disabled = irqs_disabled_flags(flags);
> if (preempt_bh_were_disabled || irqs_were_disabled) {
> - WRITE_ONCE(t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.exp_hint, false);
> - /* Need to defer quiescent state until everything is enabled. */
> - if (irqs_were_disabled && use_softirq) {
> - /* Enabling irqs does not reschedule, so... */
> + t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.exp_hint = false;
> + // Need to defer quiescent state until everything is enabled.
> + if (irqs_were_disabled && use_softirq &&
> + (in_irq() || !t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.deferred_qs)) {
> + // Using softirq, safe to awaken, and we get
> + // no help from enabling irqs, unlike bh/preempt.
> raise_softirq_irqoff(RCU_SOFTIRQ);
> + } else if (irqs_were_disabled && !use_softirq &&
> + !t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.deferred_qs) {
> + // Safe to awaken and we get no help from enabling
> + // irqs, unlike bh/preempt.
> + invoke_rcu_core();
> } else {
> - /* Enabling BH or preempt does reschedule, so... */
> + // Enabling BH or preempt does reschedule, so...
> set_tsk_need_resched(current);
> set_preempt_need_resched();
> }
> + t->rcu_read_unlock_special.b.deferred_qs = true;
> local_irq_restore(flags);
> return;
> }
That is all quite horrible and begging for sane solution. Would not
something like:
static void rcu_force_resched(struct irq_work *work)
{
set_tsk_need_resched(current);
set_preempt_need_resched();
}
if (irqs_were_disabled)
irq_work_queue(&t->irq_work, rcu_force_resched);
Solve the whole thing?
