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

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Message-Id: <20170620214548.6602-3-mcgrof@kernel.org>
Date:   Tue, 20 Jun 2017 14:45:47 -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, boqun.feng@...il.com,
        ebiederm@...ssion.com, dmitry.torokhov@...il.com,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        "Luis R. Rodriguez" <mcgrof@...nel.org>
Subject: [PATCH 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
our goal clear, 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 sysadmins 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.

Acked-by: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>
Tested-by: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <mcgrof@...nel.org>
---
 kernel/rcu/tree.c | 11 +++++------
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/rcu/tree.c b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
index 695fee7cafe0..94ec7455fc46 100644
--- a/kernel/rcu/tree.c
+++ b/kernel/rcu/tree.c
@@ -2052,8 +2052,8 @@ static bool rcu_gp_init(struct rcu_state *rsp)
 }

 /*
- * Helper function for wait_event_interruptible_timeout() wakeup
- * at force-quiescent-state time.
+ * Helper function for swait_event_idle() wakeup at force-quiescent-state
+ * time.
  */
 static bool rcu_gp_fqs_check_wake(struct rcu_state *rsp, int *gfp)
 {
@@ -2191,9 +2191,8 @@ 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,
-						 READ_ONCE(rsp->gp_flags) &
-						 RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT);
+			swait_event_idle(rsp->gp_wq, READ_ONCE(rsp->gp_flags) &
+						     RCU_GP_FLAG_INIT);
 			rsp->gp_state = RCU_GP_DONE_GPS;
 			/* Locking provides needed memory barrier. */
 			if (rcu_gp_init(rsp))
@@ -2224,7 +2223,7 @@ 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