linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 0/7] preempt

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Tue, 10 Sep 2013 15:56:36 +0200
From:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Andi Kleen <ak@...ux.intel.com>, Peter Anvin <hpa@...or.com>,
	Mike Galbraith <bitbucket@...ine.de>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Arjan van de Ven <arjan@...ux.intel.com>,
	Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/7] preempt_count rework -v2


* Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org> wrote:

> So what we do in kick_process() is:
> 
>         preempt_disable();
>         cpu = task_cpu(p);
>         if ((cpu != smp_processor_id()) && task_curr(p))
>                 smp_send_reschedule(cpu);
>         preempt_enable();
> 
> The preempt_disable() looks sweet:
> 
> >   ffffffff8106f3f1:       65 ff 04 25 e0 b7 00    incl   %gs:0xb7e0
> >   ffffffff8106f3f8:       00 
> 
> and the '*' you marked is the preempt_enable() portion, which, with your 
> new code, looks like this:
> 
>  #define preempt_check_resched() \
>  do { \
>         if (unlikely(!*preempt_count_ptr())) \
>                 preempt_schedule(); \
>  } while (0)
> 
> Which GCC translates to:
> 
> > * ffffffff8106f42a:       65 ff 0c 25 e0 b7 00    decl   %gs:0xb7e0
> >   ffffffff8106f431:       00 
> > * ffffffff8106f432:       0f 94 c0                sete   %al
> > * ffffffff8106f435:       84 c0                   test   %al,%al
> > * ffffffff8106f437:       75 02                   jne    ffffffff8106f43b <kick_process+0x4b>

Correction, so this comes from the new x86-specific optimization:

+static __always_inline bool __preempt_count_dec_and_test(void)
+{
+       unsigned char c;
+
+       asm ("decl " __percpu_arg(0) "; sete %1"
+                       : "+m" (__preempt_count), "=qm" (c));
+
+       return c != 0;
+}

And that's where the sete and test originates from.

Couldn't it be improved by merging the preempt_schedule() call into a new 
primitive, keeping the call in the regular flow, or using section tricks 
to move it out of line? The scheduling case is a slowpath in most cases.

Thanks,

	Ingo
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@...r.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/