linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 1/4] x86/clear_page: extend clear

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Message-ID: <87cyddxkgl.fsf@oracle.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2025 13:01:46 -0700
From: Ankur Arora <ankur.a.arora@...cle.com>
To: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@...il.com>
Cc: Ankur Arora <ankur.a.arora@...cle.com>,
        Peter Zijlstra
 <peterz@...radead.org>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-mm@...ck.org, x86@...nel.org,
        torvalds@...ux-foundation.org, akpm@...ux-foundation.org, bp@...en8.de,
        dave.hansen@...ux.intel.com, hpa@...or.com, mingo@...hat.com,
        luto@...nel.org, paulmck@...nel.org, rostedt@...dmis.org,
        tglx@...utronix.de, willy@...radead.org, jon.grimm@....com,
        bharata@....com, raghavendra.kt@....com, boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com,
        konrad.wilk@...cle.com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/4] x86/clear_page: extend clear_page*() for
 multi-page clearing


Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@...il.com> writes:

> On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 8:14 AM Ankur Arora <ankur.a.arora@...cle.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@...il.com> writes:
>> > With that sucker out of the way, an optional quest is to figure out if
>> > rep stosq vs rep stosb makes any difference for pages -- for all I know
>> > rep stosq is the way. This would require testing on quite a few uarchs
>> > and I'm not going to blame anyone for not being interested.
>>
>> IIRC some recent AMD models (Rome?) did expose REP_GOOD but not ERMS.
>>
>
> The uarch does not have it or the bit magically fails to show up?
> Worst case, should rep stosb be faster on that uarch, the kernel can
> pretend the bit is set.

It's a synthetic bit so the uarch has both. I think REP STOSB is optimized
post FSRS (AIUI Zen3)

        if (c->x86 >= 0x10)
                set_cpu_cap(c, X86_FEATURE_REP_GOOD);

        /* AMD FSRM also implies FSRS */
        if (cpu_has(c, X86_FEATURE_FSRM))
                set_cpu_cap(c, X86_FEATURE_FSRS);


>> > Let's say nobody bothered OR rep stosb provides a win. In that case this
>> > can trivially ALTERNATIVE between rep stosb and rep stosq based on ERMS,
>> > no func calls necessary.
>>
>> We shouldn't need any function calls for ERMS and REP_GOOD.
>>
>> I think something like this untested code should work:
>>
>>         asm volatile(
>>             ALTERNATIVE_2("call clear_pages_orig",
>>                           "rep stosb", X86_FEATURE_REP_GOOD,
>>                           "shrl $3,%ecx; rep stosq", X86_FEATURE_ERMS,
>>                           : "+c" (size), "+D" (addr), ASM_CALL_CONSTRAINT
>>                           : "a" (0)))
>>
>
> That's what I'm suggesting, with one difference: whack
> clear_pages_orig altogether.

What do we gain by getting rid of it? Maybe there's old hardware with
unoptimized rep; stos*.

--
ankur