linux-kernel - [PATCH 1/2] sched/fair: Enable scheduler feature NEXT

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Message-ID: <20251021142824.3747201-2-mgorman@techsingularity.net>
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2025 15:28:23 +0100
From: Mel Gorman <mgorman@...hsingularity.net>
To: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	Juri Lelli <juri.lelli@...hat.com>,
	Dietmar Eggemann <dietmar.eggemann@....com>,
	Valentin Schneider <vschneid@...hat.com>,
	Chris Mason <clm@...a.com>,
	Mel Gorman <mgorman@...hsingularity.net>
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] sched/fair: Enable scheduler feature NEXT_BUDDY

The NEXT_BUDDY feature reinforces wakeup preemption to encourage the last
wakee to be scheduled sooner on the assumption that the waker/wakee share
cache-hot data. In CFS, it was paired with LAST_BUDDY to switch back on
the assumption that the pair of tasks still share data but also relied
on START_DEBIT and the exact WAKEUP_PREEMPTION implementation to get
good results.

NEXT_BUDDY has been disabled since commit 0ec9fab3d186 ("sched: Improve
latencies and throughput") and LAST_BUDDY was removed in commit 5e963f2bd465
("sched/fair: Commit to EEVDF"). The reasoning is not clear but as vruntime
spread is mentioned so the expectation is that NEXT_BUDDY had an impact
on overall fairness. It was not noted why LAST_BUDDY was removed but it
is assumed that it's very difficult to reason what LAST_BUDDY's correct
and effective behaviour should be while still respecting EEVDFs goals.

NEXT_BUDDY is easier to reason about given that it's a point-in-time
decision on the wakees deadline and eligibilty relative to the waker. Enable
NEXT_BUDDY as a preparation path to document that the decision to ignore
the current implementation is deliberate. While not presented, the results
were at best neutral and often much more variable.

Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@...hsingularity.net>
---
 kernel/sched/features.h | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/kernel/sched/features.h b/kernel/sched/features.h
index 3c12d9f93331..0607def744af 100644
--- a/kernel/sched/features.h
+++ b/kernel/sched/features.h
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ SCHED_FEAT(PREEMPT_SHORT, true)
  * wakeup-preemption), since its likely going to consume data we
  * touched, increases cache locality.
  */
-SCHED_FEAT(NEXT_BUDDY, false)
+SCHED_FEAT(NEXT_BUDDY, true)

 /*
  * Allow completely ignoring cfs_rq->next; which can be set from various
-- 
2.51.0