linux-kernel - [PATCH 0/2] Skip offline cores when enabling SMT on PowerPC

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2024 00:20:36 +0530
From: "Nysal Jan K.A." <nysal@...ux.ibm.com>
To: Michael Ellerman <mpe@...erman.id.au>,
        Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>
Cc: Tyrel Datwyler <tyreld@...ux.ibm.com>, Michal Suchanek <msuchanek@...e.de>,
        "Nysal Jan K.A" <nysal@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Nicholas Piggin <npiggin@...il.com>,
        Christophe Leroy <christophe.leroy@...roup.eu>,
        "Naveen N. Rao" <naveen.n.rao@...ux.ibm.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        Laurent Dufour <ldufour@...ux.ibm.com>, linuxppc-dev@...ts.ozlabs.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH 0/2] Skip offline cores when enabling SMT on PowerPC

From: "Nysal Jan K.A" <nysal@...ux.ibm.com>

After the addition of HOTPLUG_SMT support for PowerPC [1] there was a
regression reported [2] when enabling SMT. On a system with at least
one offline core, when enabling SMT, the expectation is that no CPUs
of offline cores are made online.

On a POWER9 system with 4 cores in SMT4 mode:
$ ppc64_cpu --info
Core   0:    0*    1*    2*    3*
Core   1:    4*    5*    6*    7*
Core   2:    8*    9*   10*   11*
Core   3:   12*   13*   14*   15*

Turn only one core on:
$ ppc64_cpu --cores-on=1
$ ppc64_cpu --info
Core   0:    0*    1*    2*    3*
Core   1:    4     5     6     7
Core   2:    8     9    10    11
Core   3:   12    13    14    15

Change the SMT level to 2:
$ ppc64_cpu --smt=2
$ ppc64_cpu --info
Core   0:    0*    1*    2     3
Core   1:    4     5     6     7
Core   2:    8     9    10    11
Core   3:   12    13    14    15

As expected we see only two CPUs of core 0 are online

Change the SMT level to 4:
$ ppc64_cpu --smt=4
$ ppc64_cpu --info
Core   0:    0*    1*    2*    3*
Core   1:    4*    5*    6*    7*
Core   2:    8*    9*   10*   11*
Core   3:   12*   13*   14*   15*

The CPUs of offline cores are made online. If a core is offline then
enabling SMT should not online CPUs of this core. An arch specific
function topology_is_core_online() is proposed to address this.
Another approach is to check the topology_sibling_cpumask() for any
online siblings. This avoids the need for an arch specific function
but is less efficient and more importantly this introduces a change
in existing behaviour on other architectures.

What is the expected behaviour on x86 when enabling SMT and certain cores
are offline? 

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20230705145143.40545-1-ldufour@linux.ibm.com/
[2] https://groups.google.com/g/powerpc-utils-devel/c/wrwVzAAnRlI/m/5KJSoqP4BAAJ

Nysal Jan K.A (2):
  cpu/SMT: Enable SMT only if a core is online
  powerpc/topology: Check if a core is online

 arch/powerpc/include/asm/topology.h | 13 +++++++++++++
 kernel/cpu.c                        | 12 +++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 24 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)


base-commit: c760b3725e52403dc1b28644fb09c47a83cacea6
-- 
2.35.3