linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH] srcu: Implement call

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Date:	Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:44:26 +0200
From:	Avi Kivity <avi@...hat.com>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
CC:	paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com, Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@...hat.com>,
	KVM list <kvm@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH] srcu: Implement call_srcu()

On 02/01/2012 12:22 PM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> One of the things I was thinking of is adding a sequence counter in the
> per-cpu data. Using that we could do something like:
>
>   unsigned int seq1 = 0, seq2 = 0, count = 0;
>   int cpu, idx;
>
>   idx = ACCESS_ONCE(sp->completions) & 1;
>
>   for_each_possible_cpu(cpu)
> 	seq1 += per_cpu(sp->per_cpu_ref, cpu)->seq;
>
>   for_each_possible_cpu(cpu)
> 	count += per_cpu(sp->per_cpu_ref, cpu)->c[idx];
>
>   for_each_possible_cpu(cpu)
> 	seq2 += per_cpu(sp->per_cpu_ref, cpu)->seq;
>
>   /*
>    * there's no active references and no activity, we pass
>    */
>   if (seq1 == seq2 && count == 0)
> 	return;
>
>   synchronize_srcu_slow();
>
>
> This would add a fast-path which should catch the case Avi outlined
> where we call sync_srcu() when there's no other SRCU activity.

Sorry, I was inaccurate.  In two of the cases indeed we don't expect
guest activity, and we're okay with waiting a bit if there is guest
activity - when we're altering the guest physical memory map.  But the
third case does have concurrent guest activity with
synchronize_srcu_expedited() and we still need it fast - that's when
userspace reads the dirty bitmap log of a running guest and replaces it
with a new bitmap.

There may be a way to convert it to call_srcu() though.  Without
synchronize_srcu_expedited(), kvm sees both the old and the new bitmaps,
but that's fine, since the dirty bits will go *somewhere*, and we can
pick them up later in call_srcu().  The only problem is if this is the
very last call to kvm_vm_ioctl_get_dirty_log(), and the callback
triggers after it returns - we end up with a bag of bits with not one to
return them to.  Maybe we can detect this conditions (all vcpus ought to
be stopped), and do something like:

   if (all vcpus stopped) {
        /* no activity, this should be fast */
        synchronize_srcu()
        /* collect and return bits */
   } else {
        call_srcu(collect bits)
   }

still a snag - we can't reliably detect that all vcpus are stopped, they
may be just resting in userspace, and restart while synchronize_srcu()
is running.

Marcelo?

-- 
error compiling committee.c: too many arguments to function

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