linux-kernel - RE: [PATCH 2/3] arm: introduce IRQ stacks

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Date:   Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:16:53 +0530
From:   Vaneet Narang <v.narang@...sung.com>
To:     Russell King - ARM Linux admin <linux@...linux.org.uk>,
        Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...nel.org>
CC:     AMIT SAHRAWAT <a.sahrawat@...sung.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Marc Zyngier <maz@...nel.org>,
        Sebastian Andrzej Siewior <bigeasy@...utronix.de>,
        Vincent Whitchurch <vincent.whitchurch@...s.com>,
        Nick Desaulniers <ndesaulniers@...gle.com>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Valentin Schneider <valentin.schneider@....com>,
        Dmitry Safonov <0x7f454c46@...il.com>,
        Maninder Singh <maninder1.s@...sung.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Nathan Huckleberry <nhuck@...gle.com>,
        Will Deacon <will@...nel.org>, Jian Cai <caij2003@...il.com>,
        Linux ARM <linux-arm-kernel@...ts.infradead.org>
Subject: RE: [PATCH 2/3] arm: introduce IRQ stacks

Hi Russel & Arnd,

> > > - define 'current' as 'this_cpu_read_stable(current_task);'
> > > - convert to CONFIG_THREAD_INFO_IN_TASK
> 
unlike ARM64 ARM doesn't suport dedicated register like "sp_el0", so 
arm still stores thread info on stack and fetches using current task using
stack pointer (SP) so CONFIG_THREAD_INFO_IN_TASK is not supported on ARM. 
To implement solution inline with current ARM design, we have used indirection.

> That means we need to also code that up in assembly - remember, we
> need to access thread_info from assembly code.

> Note also that there is a circular dependency involved. If you make
> thread_info accessible via per-cpu, then:

> "We don't do it because we don't have a separate register to be able
> to store the thread_info pointer, and copying that lump between the
> SVC and IRQ stack will add massively to IRQ latency, especially for
> older machines."

We tried to minimize latency in switching between SVC stack and IRQ stack
by just copying extra thread info pointer to IRQ stack. Apart from this, 
Most of the code of SVC to IRQ switching is similar to ARM64 implementation.

Also We tried to minimize latency of get_current() by introducting self pointer in
SVC stack to avoid if check to determine, is current is called from SVC context
or IRQ context. This way will always do one extra indirection in get_current, 
irrespective get_current is called from SVC or IRQ context.

Yes we agree still there will be minor additional latency on accessing current
task and SVC to IRQ switching  which might be significant for older machines,
So this is the reason why we kept this sol. under kconfig. This solution
provides extra stack to kernel developers for further development,instead of increasing
stack size to 16KB or spending time on debugging stack overflow issues.

PS: We have debugged and resolved stack overflow issue but we still implemented this sol. to avoid
debugging such issues in future also it gives us flexibility for kernel enhancement on ARM.

Thanks & Regards,
Vaneet Narang