linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] rwsem: reduce spinlock contention in wakeup code path

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 for Android: free password hash cracker in your pocket

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

Date:	Sun, 29 Sep 2013 18:11:13 -0700
From:	Michel Lespinasse <walken@...gle.com>
To:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Cc:	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>, Waiman Long <Waiman.Long@...com>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
	Peter Hurley <peter@...leysoftware.com>,
	Davidlohr Bueso <davidlohr.bueso@...com>,
	Alex Shi <alex.shi@...el.com>,
	Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@...ux.intel.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	Andrea Arcangeli <aarcange@...hat.com>,
	Matthew R Wilcox <matthew.r.wilcox@...el.com>,
	Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...el.com>,
	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	"Chandramouleeswaran, Aswin" <aswin@...com>,
	"Norton, Scott J" <scott.norton@...com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] rwsem: reduce spinlock contention in wakeup code path

On Sat, Sep 28, 2013 at 11:55 AM, Linus Torvalds
<torvalds@...ux-foundation.org> wrote:
> Btw, I really hate that thing. I think we should turn it back into a
> spinlock. None of what it protects needs a mutex or an rwsem.
>
> Because you guys talk about the regression of turning it into a rwsem,
> but nobody talks about the *original* regression.
>
> And it *used* to be a spinlock, and it was changed into a mutex back
> in 2011 by commit 2b575eb64f7a. That commit doesn't even have a reason
> listed for it, although my dim memory of it is that the reason was
> preemption latency.

I was wondering about that too. Regarding latencies, we used to have
unbounded latencies for anon_vma operations as the AVC chains could
get long under some workloads; now that we index the VMAs matching a
given anon_vma with an interval tree this particular source of
latencies should be gone. So yes, it could be worth trying to go back
to a non-sleeping lock.

That said, I am very scared of using rwlock_t here, and I would much
prefer we choose a fair lock (either spinlock or a new rwlock
implementation which guarantees not to starve any locker thread)

-- 
Michel Lespinasse
A program is never fully debugged until the last user dies.
--
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/