linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] Hyper-V: fix for unwanted manipulation of sched

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Message-ID: <20210713131756.GD4170@worktop.programming.kicks-ass.net>
Date:   Tue, 13 Jul 2021 15:17:56 +0200
From:   Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To:     Wei Liu <wei.liu@...nel.org>
Cc:     Ani Sinha <ani@...sinha.ca>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        anirban.sinha@...ia.com, mikelley@...rosoft.com,
        "K. Y. Srinivasan" <kys@...rosoft.com>,
        Haiyang Zhang <haiyangz@...rosoft.com>,
        Stephen Hemminger <sthemmin@...rosoft.com>,
        Dexuan Cui <decui@...rosoft.com>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        x86@...nel.org, "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        linux-hyperv@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Hyper-V: fix for unwanted manipulation of sched_clock
 when TSC marked unstable

On Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 01:04:46PM +0000, Wei Liu wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 13, 2021 at 08:35:21AM +0530, Ani Sinha wrote:
> > Marking TSC as unstable has a side effect of marking sched_clock as
> > unstable when TSC is still being used as the sched_clock. This is not
> > desirable. Hyper-V ultimately uses a paravirtualized clock source that
> > provides a stable scheduler clock even on systems without TscInvariant
> > CPU capability. Hence, mark_tsc_unstable() call should be called _after_
> > scheduler clock has been changed to the paravirtualized clocksource. This
> > will prevent any unwanted manipulation of the sched_clock. Only TSC will
> > be correctly marked as unstable.
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong, what you're trying to address is that
> sched_clock remains marked as unstable even after Linux has switched to
> a stable clock source.
> 
> I think a better approach will be to mark the sched_clock as stable when
> we switch to the paravirtualized clock source.

No.. unstable->stable transitions are unsound. You get to switch to your
paravirt clock earlier.