Date:	Thu, 11 Oct 2012 20:54:50 +0100
From:	Mel Gorman <mel@....ul.ie>
To:	Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Peter Zijlstra <pzijlstr@...hat.com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>, Hugh Dickins <hughd@...gle.com>,
	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
	Johannes Weiner <hannes@...xchg.org>,
	Hillf Danton <dhillf@...il.com>,
	Andrew Jones <drjones@...hat.com>,
	Dan Smith <danms@...ibm.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Paul Turner <pjt@...gle.com>, Christoph Lameter <cl@...ux.com>,
	Suresh Siddha <suresh.b.siddha@...el.com>,
	Mike Galbraith <efault@....de>,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 05/33] autonuma: pte_numa() and pmd_numa()

On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 06:58:47PM +0200, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 12:15:45PM +0100, Mel Gorman wrote:
> > huh?
> > 
> > #define _PAGE_NUMA     _PAGE_PROTNONE
> > 
> > so this is effective _PAGE_PRESENT | _PAGE_PROTNONE | _PAGE_PROTNONE
> > 
> > I suspect you are doing this because there is no requirement for
> > _PAGE_NUMA == _PAGE_PROTNONE for other architectures and it was best to
> > describe your intent. Is that really the case or did I miss something
> > stupid?
> 
> Exactly.
> 
> It reminds that we need to return true in pte_present when the NUMA
> hinting page fault is on.
> 
> Hardwiring _PAGE_NUMA to _PAGE_PROTNONE conceptually is not necessary
> and it's actually an artificial restrictions. Other archs without a
> bitflag for _PAGE_PROTNONE, may want to use something else and they'll
> have to deal with pte_present too, somehow. So this is a reminder for
> them as well.
> 

That's all very reasonable.

> > >  static inline int pte_hidden(pte_t pte)
> > > @@ -420,7 +421,63 @@ static inline int pmd_present(pmd_t pmd)
> > >  	 * the _PAGE_PSE flag will remain set at all times while the
> > >  	 * _PAGE_PRESENT bit is clear).
> > >  	 */
> > > -	return pmd_flags(pmd) & (_PAGE_PRESENT | _PAGE_PROTNONE | _PAGE_PSE);
> > > +	return pmd_flags(pmd) & (_PAGE_PRESENT | _PAGE_PROTNONE | _PAGE_PSE |
> > > +				 _PAGE_NUMA);
> > > +}
> > > +
> > > +#ifdef CONFIG_AUTONUMA
> > > +/*
> > > + * _PAGE_NUMA works identical to _PAGE_PROTNONE (it's actually the
> > > + * same bit too). It's set only when _PAGE_PRESET is not set and it's
> > 
> > same bit on x86, not necessarily anywhere else.
> 
> Yep. In fact before using _PAGE_PRESENT the two bits were different
> even on x86. But I unified them. If I vary them then they will become
> _PAGE_PTE_NUMA/_PAGE_PMD_NUMA and the above will fail to build without
> risk of errors.
> 

Ok.

> > 
> > _PAGE_PRESENT?
> 
> good eye ;) corrected.
> 
> > > +/*
> > > + * pte/pmd_mknuma sets the _PAGE_ACCESSED bitflag automatically
> > > + * because they're called by the NUMA hinting minor page fault.
> > 
> > automatically or atomically?
> > 
> > I assume you meant atomically but what stops two threads faulting at the
> > same time and doing to the same update? mmap_sem will be insufficient in
> > that case so what is guaranteeing the atomicity. PTL?
> 
> I meant automatically. I explained myself wrong and automatically may
> be the wrong word. It also is atomic of course but it wasn't about the
> atomic part.
> 
> So the thing is: the numa hinting page fault hooking point is this:
> 
> 	if (pte_numa(entry))
> 		return pte_numa_fixup(mm, vma, address, entry, pte, pmd);
> 
> It won't get this far:
> 
> 	entry = pte_mkyoung(entry);
> 	if (ptep_set_access_flags(vma, address, pte, entry, flags & FAULT_FLAG_WRITE)) {
> 
> So if I don't set _PAGE_ACCESSED in pte/pmd_mknuma, the TLB miss
> handler will have to set _PAGE_ACCESSED itself with an additional
> write on the pte/pmd later when userland touches the page. And that
> will slow us down for no good.
> 

All clear now. Letting it fall through to reach that point would be
convulated and messy. This is a better option.

> Because mknuma is only called in the numa hinting page fault context,
> it's optimal to set _PAGE_ACCESSED too, not only _PAGE_PRESENT (and
> clearing _PAGE_NUMA of course).
> 
> The basic idea, is that the numa hinting page fault can only trigger
> if userland touches the page, and after such an event, _PAGE_ACCESSED
> would be set by the hardware no matter if there is a NUMA hinting page
> fault or not (so we can optimize away the hardware action when the NUMA
> hinting page fault triggers).
> 
> I tried to reword it:
> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h
> index cf1d3f0..3dc6a9b 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/pgtable.h
> @@ -449,12 +449,12 @@ static inline int pmd_numa(pmd_t pmd)
>  #endif
>  
>  /*
> - * pte/pmd_mknuma sets the _PAGE_ACCESSED bitflag automatically
> - * because they're called by the NUMA hinting minor page fault. If we
> - * wouldn't set the _PAGE_ACCESSED bitflag here, the TLB miss handler
> - * would be forced to set it later while filling the TLB after we
> - * return to userland. That would trigger a second write to memory
> - * that we optimize away by setting _PAGE_ACCESSED here.
> + * pte/pmd_mknuma sets the _PAGE_ACCESSED bitflag too because they're
> + * only called by the NUMA hinting minor page fault. If we wouldn't
> + * set the _PAGE_ACCESSED bitflag here, the TLB miss handler would be
> + * forced to set it later while filling the TLB after we return to
> + * userland. That would trigger a second write to memory that we
> + * optimize away by setting _PAGE_ACCESSED here.
>   */
>  static inline pte_t pte_mknonnuma(pte_t pte)
>  {
> 

Much better.

-- 
Mel Gorman
SUSE Labs
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