linux-kernel - Re: [REPORT] cfs-v4 vs sd-0.44

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Date:	Tue, 24 Apr 2007 03:00:07 -0400
From:	Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@...il.com>
To:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>
Cc:	Peter Williams <pwil3058@...pond.net.au>,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...radead.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Nick Piggin <npiggin@...e.de>,
	Juliusz Chroboczek <jch@....jussieu.fr>,
	Con Kolivas <kernel@...ivas.org>, ck list <ck@....kolivas.org>,
	Bill Davidsen <davidsen@....com>, Willy Tarreau <w@....eu>,
	William Lee Irwin III <wli@...omorphy.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Mike Galbraith <efault@....de>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>, caglar@...dus.org.tr
Subject: Re: [REPORT] cfs-v4 vs sd-0.44

On Tuesday 24 April 2007, Ingo Molnar wrote:
>* Peter Williams <pwil3058@...pond.net.au> wrote:
>> > The cases are fundamentally different in behavior, because in the
>> > first case, X hardly consumes the time it would get in any scheme,
>> > while in the second case X really is CPU bound and will happily
>> > consume any CPU time it can get.
>>
>> Which still doesn't justify an elaborate "points" sharing scheme.
>> Whichever way you look at that that's just another way of giving X
>> more CPU bandwidth and there are simpler ways to give X more CPU if it
>> needs it.  However, I think there's something seriously wrong if it
>> needs the -19 nice that I've heard mentioned.
>
>Gene has done some testing under CFS with X reniced to +10 and the
>desktop still worked smoothly for him.

As a data point here, and probably nothing to do with X, but I did manage to 
lock it up, solid, reset button time tonight, by wanting 'smart' to get done 
with an update session after amanda had started.  I took both smart processes 
I could see in htop all the way to -19, but when it was about done about 3 
minutes later, everything came to an instant, frozen, reset button required 
lockup.  I should have stopped at -17 I guess. :(

>So CFS does not 'need' a reniced 
>X. There are simply advantages to negative nice levels: for example
>screen refreshes are smoother on any scheduler i tried. BUT, there is a
>caveat: on non-CFS schedulers i tried X is much more prone to get into
>'overscheduling' scenarios that visibly hurt X's performance, while on
>CFS there's a max of 1000-1500 context switches a second at nice -10.
>(which, considering the cost of a context switch is well under 1%
>overhead.)
>
>So, my point is, the nice level of X for desktop users should not be set
>lower than a low limit suggested by that particular scheduler's author.
>That limit is scheduler-specific. Con i think recommends a nice level of
>-1 for X when using SD [Con, can you confirm?], while my tests show that
>if you want you can go as low as -10 under CFS, without any bad
>side-effects. (-19 was a bit too much)
>
>> [...]  You might as well just run it as a real time process.
>
>hm, that would be a bad idea under any scheduler (including CFS),
>because real time processes can starve other processes indefinitely.
>
>	Ingo



-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable
to sit still in a room.
		-- Blaise Pascal
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