linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] x86/paravirt: Disable virt spinlock on bare metal

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Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 18:34:34 +0300
From: Nikolay Borisov <nik.borisov@...e.com>
To: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@...el.com>
Cc: Dave Hansen <dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com>, Juergen Gross
 <jgross@...e.com>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
 Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...en8.de>,
 Ajay Kaher <ajay.kaher@...adcom.com>, x86@...nel.org,
 "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>, Arnd Bergmann <arnd@...db.de>,
 virtualization@...ts.linux.dev, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
 Qiuxu Zhuo <qiuxu.zhuo@...el.com>, Prem Nath Dey <prem.nath.dey@...el.com>,
 Xiaoping Zhou <xiaoping.zhou@...el.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] x86/paravirt: Disable virt spinlock on bare metal



On 19.06.24 г. 18:25 ч., Chen Yu wrote:
> Hi Nikolay,
> 
> On 2024-06-18 at 11:24:42 +0300, Nikolay Borisov wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 26.05.24 г. 4:58 ч., Chen Yu wrote:
>>> The kernel can change spinlock behavior when running as a guest. But
>>> this guest-friendly behavior causes performance problems on bare metal.
>>> So there's a 'virt_spin_lock_key' static key to switch between the two
>>> modes.
>>>
>>> The static key is always enabled by default (run in guest mode) and
>>> should be disabled for bare metal (and in some guests that want native
>>> behavior).
>>>
>>> Performance drop is reported when running encode/decode workload and
>>> BenchSEE cache sub-workload.
>>> Bisect points to commit ce0a1b608bfc ("x86/paravirt: Silence unused
>>> native_pv_lock_init() function warning"). When CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS
>>> is disabled the virt_spin_lock_key is incorrectly set to true on bare
>>> metal. The qspinlock degenerates to test-and-set spinlock, which
>>> decrease the performance on bare metal.
>>>
>>> Fix this by disabling virt_spin_lock_key if it is on bare metal,
>>> regardless of CONFIG_PARAVIRT_SPINLOCKS.
>>>
>>
>> nit:
>>
>> This bug wouldn't have happened if the key was defined FALSE by default and
>> only enabled in the appropriate case. I think it makes more sense to invert
>> the logic and have the key FALSE by default and only enable it iff the
>> kernel is running under a hypervisor... At worst only the virtualization
>> case would suffer if the lock is falsely not enabled.
> 
> Thank you for your review. I agree, initializing the key to FALSE by default seems
> to be more readable. Could this change be the subsequent adjustment based
> on current fix, which could be more bisectible?

Why can't this change be squashed in the current proposed patch?

> 
> 
> Set the default key to false. If booting in a VM, enable this key. Later during
> the VM initialization, if other high-efficient spinlock is preferred, like
> paravirt-spinlock, the virt_spin_lock_key will be disabled accordingly.

Yep, or simply during the initialization stage the correct flavor will 
be chosen, no need to do the on-off dance. But that's a topic for a 
different discussion.

> 
> diff --git a/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h b/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
> index cde8357bb226..a7d3ba00e70e 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
> +++ b/arch/x86/include/asm/qspinlock.h
> @@ -66,13 +66,13 @@ static inline bool vcpu_is_preempted(long cpu)
>   
>   #ifdef CONFIG_PARAVIRT
>   /*
> - * virt_spin_lock_key - enables (by default) the virt_spin_lock() hijack.
> + * virt_spin_lock_key - disables (by default) the virt_spin_lock() hijack.
>    *
>    * Native (and PV wanting native due to vCPU pinning) should disable this key.
>    * It is done in this backwards fashion to only have a single direction change,
>    * which removes ordering between native_pv_spin_init() and HV setup.
>    */
> -DECLARE_STATIC_KEY_TRUE(virt_spin_lock_key);
> +DECLARE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(virt_spin_lock_key);
>   
>   /*
>    * Shortcut for the queued_spin_lock_slowpath() function that allows
> diff --git a/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt.c b/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt.c
> index c193c9e60a1b..fec381533555 100644
> --- a/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt.c
> +++ b/arch/x86/kernel/paravirt.c
> @@ -51,12 +51,12 @@ DEFINE_ASM_FUNC(pv_native_irq_enable, "sti", .noinstr.text);
>   DEFINE_ASM_FUNC(pv_native_read_cr2, "mov %cr2, %rax", .noinstr.text);
>   #endif
>   
> -DEFINE_STATIC_KEY_TRUE(virt_spin_lock_key);
> +DEFINE_STATIC_KEY_FALSE(virt_spin_lock_key);
>   
>   void __init native_pv_lock_init(void)
>   {
> -	if (!boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_HYPERVISOR))
> -		static_branch_disable(&virt_spin_lock_key);
> +	if (boot_cpu_has(X86_FEATURE_HYPERVISOR))
> +		static_branch_enable(&virt_spin_lock_key);
>   }
>   
>   static void native_tlb_remove_table(struct mmu_gather *tlb, void *table)