linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v12 09/11] pvqspinlock, x86: Add para-virtualization support

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Message-ID: <544ABC47.2000700@hp.com>
Date:	Fri, 24 Oct 2014 16:53:27 -0400
From:	Waiman Long <waiman.long@...com>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
CC:	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, linux-arch@...r.kernel.org,
	x86@...nel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org,
	xen-devel@...ts.xenproject.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
	Paolo Bonzini <paolo.bonzini@...il.com>,
	Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>,
	Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com>,
	"Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Raghavendra K T <raghavendra.kt@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	David Vrabel <david.vrabel@...rix.com>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	Scott J Norton <scott.norton@...com>,
	Douglas Hatch <doug.hatch@...com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v12 09/11] pvqspinlock, x86: Add para-virtualization support

On 10/24/2014 04:47 AM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 02:10:38PM -0400, Waiman Long wrote:
>> +static inline void pv_init_node(struct mcs_spinlock *node)
>> +{
>> +	struct pv_qnode *pn = (struct pv_qnode *)node;
>> +
>> +	BUILD_BUG_ON(sizeof(struct pv_qnode)>  5*sizeof(struct mcs_spinlock));
>> +
>> +	if (!pv_enabled())
>> +		return;
>> +
>> +	pn->cpustate = PV_CPU_ACTIVE;
>> +	pn->mayhalt  = false;
>> +	pn->mycpu    = smp_processor_id();
>> +	pn->head     = PV_INVALID_HEAD;
>> +}
>
>> @@ -333,6 +393,7 @@ queue:
>>   	node += idx;
>>   	node->locked = 0;
>>   	node->next = NULL;
>> +	pv_init_node(node);
>>
>>   	/*
>>   	 * We touched a (possibly) cold cacheline in the per-cpu queue node;
>
> So even if !pv_enabled() the compiler will still have to emit the code
> for that inline, which will generate additional register pressure,
> icache pressure and lovely stuff like that.
>
> The patch I had used pv-ops for these things that would turn into NOPs
> in the regular case and callee-saved function calls for the PV case.
>
> That still does not entirely eliminate cost, but does reduce it
> significant. Please consider using that.

The additional register pressure may just cause a few more register 
moves which should be negligible in the overall performance . The 
additional icache pressure, however, may have some impact on 
performance. I was trying to balance the performance of the pv and 
non-pv versions so that we won't penalize the pv code too much for a bit 
more performance in the non-pv code. Doing it your way will add a lot of 
function call and register saving/restoring to the pv code.

Another alternative that I can think of is to generate 2 versions of the 
slowpath code - one pv and one non-pv out of the same source code. The 
non-pv code will call into the pv code once if pv is enabled. In this 
way, it won't increase the icache and register pressure of the non-pv 
code. However, this may make the source code a bit harder to read.

Please let me know your thought on this alternate approach.

-Longman


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