linux-kernel - [RFC v2 2/2] rcu: use idle versions of swait to make idle-hack clear

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:   Thu, 15 Jun 2017 11:48:20 -0700
From:   "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...nel.org>
To:     peterz@...radead.org, paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com, oleg@...hat.com,
        josh@...htriplett.org, rostedt@...dmis.org,
        mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com, jiangshanlai@...il.com
Cc:     paul.gortmaker@...driver.com, ebiederm@...ssion.com,
        dmitry.torokhov@...il.com, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...nel.org>
Subject: [RFC v2 2/2] rcu: use idle versions of swait to make idle-hack clear

These RCU waits were set to use interruptible waits to avoid the kthreads
contributing to system load average, even though they are not interruptible
as they are spawned from a kthread. Use the new TASK_IDLE swaits which makes
it clear our goal, and removes confusion about these paths possibly being
interruptible -- they are not.

When the system is idle the RCU grace-period kthread will spend all its time
blocked inside the swait_event_interruptible(). If the interruptible() was
not used, then this kthread would contribute to the load average. This means
that an idle system would have a load average of 2 (or 3 if PREEMPT=y),
rather than the load average of 0 that almost fifty years of UNIX has
conditioned sysadms to expect.

The same argument applies to swait_event_interruptible_timeout() use. The
RCU grace-period kthread spends its time blocked inside this call while
waiting for grace periods to complete. In particular, if there was only one
busy CPU, but that CPU was frequently invoking call_rcu(), then the RCU
grace-period kthread would spend almost all its time blocked inside the
swait_event_interruptible_timeout(). This would mean that the load average
would be 2 rather than the expected 1 for the single busy CPU.

Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@...nel.org>
---
 kernel/rcu/tree.c | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree.c b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
index 695fee7cafe0..1de8e55636c0 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/tree.c
+++ b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
@@ -2191,7 +2191,7 @@ static int __noreturn rcu_gp_kthread(void *arg)
 					       READ_ONCE(rsp->gpnum),
 					       TPS("reqwait"));
 			rsp->gp_state = RCU_GP_WAIT_GPS;
-			swait_event_interruptible(rsp->gp_wq,
+			swait_event_idle(rsp->gp_wq,
 						 READ_ONCE(rsp->gp_flags) &
 						 RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT);
 			rsp->gp_state = RCU_GP_DONE_GPS;
@@ -2224,7 +2224,7 @@ static int __noreturn rcu_gp_kthread(void *arg)
 					       READ_ONCE(rsp->gpnum),
 					       TPS("fqswait"));
 			rsp->gp_state = RCU_GP_WAIT_FQS;
-			ret = swait_event_interruptible_timeout(rsp->gp_wq,
+			ret = swait_event_idle_timeout(rsp->gp_wq,
 					rcu_gp_fqs_check_wake(rsp, &gf), j);
 			rsp->gp_state = RCU_GP_DOING_FQS;
 			/* Locking provides needed memory barriers. */
-- 
2.11.0