linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH resend] x86,kvm: Add a kernel parameter to disable PV spinlock

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Message-ID: <20170904222157.GD17982@linux-80c1.suse>
Date:   Mon, 4 Sep 2017 15:21:57 -0700
From:   Davidlohr Bueso <dave@...olabs.net>
To:     Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Cc:     Oscar Salvador <osalvador@...e.de>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        "H . Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, Waiman Long <longman@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH resend] x86,kvm: Add a kernel parameter to disable PV
 spinlock

On Mon, 04 Sep 2017, Peter Zijlstra wrote:

>For testing its trivial to hack your kernel and I don't feel this is
>something an Admin can make reasonable decisions about.
>
>So why? In general less knobs is better.

+1.

Also, note how b8fa70b51aa (xen, pvticketlocks: Add xen_nopvspin parameter
to disable xen pv ticketlocks) has no justification as to why its wanted
in the first place. The only thing I could find was from 15a3eac0784
(xen/spinlock: Document the xen_nopvspin parameter):

"Useful for diagnosing issues and comparing benchmarks in over-commit CPU scenarios."

So I vote for no additional knobs, specially for such core code.

Thanks,
Davidlohr