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Message-ID: <xhsmhtttsru2s.mognet@vschneid.remote.csb>
Date:   Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:36:59 +0100
From:   Valentin Schneider <vschneid@...hat.com>
To:     Joel Fernandes <joel@...lfernandes.org>
Cc:     linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-trace-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-doc@...r.kernel.org, kvm@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org,
        bpf@...r.kernel.org, x86@...nel.org, rcu@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kselftest@...r.kernel.org,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Nicolas Saenz Julienne <nsaenzju@...hat.com>,
        Steven Rostedt <rostedt@...dmis.org>,
        Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@...nel.org>,
        Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
        Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>,
        "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
        Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@...hat.com>,
        Wanpeng Li <wanpengli@...cent.com>,
        Vitaly Kuznetsov <vkuznets@...hat.com>,
        Andy Lutomirski <luto@...nel.org>,
        Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@...nel.org>,
        "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...nel.org>,
        Neeraj Upadhyay <quic_neeraju@...cinc.com>,
        Josh Triplett <josh@...htriplett.org>,
        Boqun Feng <boqun.feng@...il.com>,
        Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@...icios.com>,
        Lai Jiangshan <jiangshanlai@...il.com>,
        Zqiang <qiang.zhang1211@...il.com>,
        Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Uladzislau Rezki <urezki@...il.com>,
        Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
        Lorenzo Stoakes <lstoakes@...il.com>,
        Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...nel.org>,
        Jason Baron <jbaron@...mai.com>,
        Kees Cook <keescook@...omium.org>,
        Sami Tolvanen <samitolvanen@...gle.com>,
        Ard Biesheuvel <ardb@...nel.org>,
        Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        Juerg Haefliger <juerg.haefliger@...onical.com>,
        Nicolas Saenz Julienne <nsaenz@...nel.org>,
        "Kirill A. Shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@...ux.intel.com>,
        Nadav Amit <namit@...are.com>,
        Dan Carpenter <error27@...il.com>,
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        Yang Jihong <yangjihong1@...wei.com>,
        Petr Mladek <pmladek@...e.com>,
        "Jason A. Donenfeld" <Jason@...c4.com>, Song Liu <song@...nel.org>,
        Julian Pidancet <julian.pidancet@...cle.com>,
        Tom Lendacky <thomas.lendacky@....com>,
        Dionna Glaze <dionnaglaze@...gle.com>,
        Thomas Weißschuh <linux@...ssschuh.net>,
        Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@...hat.com>,
        Daniel Bristot de Oliveira <bristot@...hat.com>,
        Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@...hat.com>,
        Yair Podemsky <ypodemsk@...hat.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v2 18/20] context_tracking,x86: Defer kernel text
 patching IPIs

On 25/07/23 06:49, Joel Fernandes wrote:
> Interesting series Valentin. Some high-level question/comments on this one:
>
>> On Jul 20, 2023, at 12:34 PM, Valentin Schneider <vschneid@...hat.com> wrote:
>>
>> text_poke_bp_batch() sends IPIs to all online CPUs to synchronize
>> them vs the newly patched instruction. CPUs that are executing in userspace
>> do not need this synchronization to happen immediately, and this is
>> actually harmful interference for NOHZ_FULL CPUs.
>
> Does the amount of harm not correspond to practical frequency of text_poke?
> How often does instruction patching really happen? If it is very infrequent
> then I am not sure if it is that harmful.
>

Being pushed over a latency threshold *once* is enough to impact the
latency evaluation of your given system/application.

It's mainly about shielding the isolated, NOHZ_FULL CPUs from whatever the
housekeeping CPUs may be up to (flipping static keys, loading kprobes,
using ftrace...) - frequency of the interference isn't such a big part of
the reasoning.

>>
>> As the synchronization IPIs are sent using a blocking call, returning from
>> text_poke_bp_batch() implies all CPUs will observe the patched
>> instruction(s), and this should be preserved even if the IPI is deferred.
>> In other words, to safely defer this synchronization, any kernel
>> instruction leading to the execution of the deferred instruction
>> sync (ct_work_flush()) must *not* be mutable (patchable) at runtime.
>
> If it is not infrequent, then are you handling the case where userland
> spends multiple seconds before entering the kernel, and all this while
> the blocking call waits? Perhaps in such situation you want the real IPI
> to be sent out instead of the deferred one?
>

The blocking call only waits for CPUs for which it queued a CSD. Deferred
calls do not queue a CSD thus do not impact the waiting at all. See
smp_call_function_many_cond().

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