linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 10/35] mm: add per-mm mmap sequence counter for speculative page fault handling.

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Date:   Thu, 25 Aug 2022 16:53:34 +0530
From:   Pavan Kondeti <quic_pkondeti@...cinc.com>
To:     Michel Lespinasse <michel@...pinasse.org>
CC:     Linux-MM <linux-mm@...ck.org>, <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        <kernel-team@...com>, Laurent Dufour <ldufour@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Jerome Glisse <jglisse@...gle.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Michal Hocko <mhocko@...e.com>,
        Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@...e.cz>,
        Davidlohr Bueso <dave@...olabs.net>,
        Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>,
        Liam Howlett <liam.howlett@...cle.com>,
        Rik van Riel <riel@...riel.com>,
        Paul McKenney <paulmck@...nel.org>,
        Song Liu <songliubraving@...com>,
        Suren Baghdasaryan <surenb@...gle.com>,
        Minchan Kim <minchan@...gle.com>,
        Joel Fernandes <joelaf@...gle.com>,
        David Rientjes <rientjes@...gle.com>,
        Axel Rasmussen <axelrasmussen@...gle.com>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 10/35] mm: add per-mm mmap sequence counter for
 speculative page fault handling.

On Fri, Jan 28, 2022 at 05:09:41AM -0800, Michel Lespinasse wrote:
> The counter's write side is hooked into the existing mmap locking API:
> mmap_write_lock() increments the counter to the next (odd) value, and
> mmap_write_unlock() increments it again to the next (even) value.
> 
> The counter's speculative read side is supposed to be used as follows:
> 
> seq = mmap_seq_read_start(mm);
> if (seq & 1)
> 	goto fail;
> .... speculative handling here ....
> if (!mmap_seq_read_check(mm, seq)
> 	goto fail;
> 
> This API guarantees that, if none of the "fail" tests abort
> speculative execution, the speculative code section did not run
> concurrently with any mmap writer.
> 
> This is very similar to a seqlock, but both the writer and speculative
> readers are allowed to block. In the fail case, the speculative reader
> does not spin on the sequence counter; instead it should fall back to
> a different mechanism such as grabbing the mmap lock read side.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Michel Lespinasse <michel@...pinasse.org>
> ---
>  include/linux/mm_types.h  |  4 +++
>  include/linux/mmap_lock.h | 58 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>  2 files changed, 60 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/include/linux/mm_types.h b/include/linux/mm_types.h
> index 0ae3bf854aad..e4965a6f34f2 100644
> --- a/include/linux/mm_types.h
> +++ b/include/linux/mm_types.h
> @@ -523,6 +523,10 @@ struct mm_struct {
>  		 * cacheline.
>  		 */
>  		struct rw_semaphore mmap_lock;
> +#ifdef CONFIG_SPECULATIVE_PAGE_FAULT
> +		unsigned long mmap_seq;
> +#endif
> +
>  

The previous version of patches [1] had maintained this sequence counter
per-vma which is more granualar. Can you please share the rationale behind
this? I guess, this is more maintainable as we did not scatter the write side
changes but nicely hooked into the mmap write lock API.

I have tested ebizzy test with per-mm and per-vma sequence counter on x86 QEMU
and aarch64 platforms. The results indicate that we are taking classic page
fault route 5% more with per-mm sequence counter but it did not showed up in
the end results (how much time it takes to do fixed number of operations). So
I am asking this only to understand the reasoning behind this change.

[1]
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/1523975611-15978-9-git-send-email-ldufour@linux.vnet.ibm.com/