linux-kernel - Re: [tip:x86/asm] x86/asm/entry/64: Migrate error and IRQ exit work to C and remove old assembly code

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Date:	Wed, 12 Aug 2015 15:13:04 +0200
From:	Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com>
To:	Andy Lutomirski <luto@...capital.net>
Cc:	Paul McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
	Denys Vlasenko <dvlasenk@...hat.com>,
	Rik van Riel <riel@...hat.com>,
	Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Brian Gerst <brgerst@...il.com>,
	Denys Vlasenko <vda.linux@...glemail.com>,
	Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Oleg Nesterov <oleg@...hat.com>,
	Andrew Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-tip-commits@...r.kernel.org" 
	<linux-tip-commits@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [tip:x86/asm] x86/asm/entry/64: Migrate error and IRQ exit work
 to C and remove old assembly code

On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 03:59:37PM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 3:49 PM, Frederic Weisbecker <fweisbec@...il.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, Aug 11, 2015 at 03:25:04PM -0700, Andy Lutomirski wrote:
> >> Can you explain to me what context tracking does that rcu_irq_enter
> >> and vtime_account_irq_enter don't do that's expensive?  Frankly, I'd
> >> rather drop everything except the context tracking callback.
> >
> > Irqs have their own hooks in the generic code. irq_enter() and irq_exit().
> > And those take care of RCU and time accounting already. So arch code really
> > doesn't need to care about that.
> 
> I'd love to have irq_enter_from_user and irq_enter_from_kernel instead.

I don't get why we need that. Vtime internals already keeps track of where we
are. Again mixing up hard and soft tracking is asking for troubles.

> 
> >
> > context tracking exists for the sole purpose of tracking states that don't
> > have generic hooks. Those are syscalls and exceptions.
> >
> > Besides, rcu_user_exit() is more costly than rcu_irq_enter() which have been
> > designed for the very purpose of providing a fast RCU tracking for non sleepable
> > code (which needs rcu_user_exit()).
> >
> 
> So rcu_user_exit is slower because it's okay to sleep after calling it?
> 
> Would it be possible to defer the overhead until we actually try to
> sleep rather than doing it on entry?  (I have no idea what's going on
> under the hood.)

That's a question for Paul.

> Anyway, irq_enter_from_user would solve this problem completely.

How?

> >
> > I've been thinking about pushing down syscalls and exceptions to generic
> > handlers. It might work for syscalls btw. But many exceptions have only
> > arch handlers, or significant amount of work is done on the arch level
> > which might make use of RCU (eg: breakpoint handlers on x86).
> 
> I'm trying to port the meat of the x86 syscall code to C.  Maybe the
> result will generalize.  The exit code is already in C (in -tip).

But please don't change such semantics along the way, it really doesn't help
to review the x86 low level changes if it's mixed up with fundamental context
tracking changes.
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