linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2] tick/sched: Limit non-timekeeper CPUs calling jiffies update

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Message-ID: <32315105-af88-4894-8d45-35f8700df534@linux.ibm.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:52:37 +0530
From: Shrikanth Hegde <sshegde@...ux.ibm.com>
To: Steve Wahl <steve.wahl@....com>
Cc: Russ Anderson <rja@....com>, Dimitri Sivanich <sivanich@....com>,
        Kyle Meyer <kyle.meyer@....com>,
        Anna-Maria Behnsen <anna-maria@...utronix.de>,
        Frederic Weisbecker <frederic@...nel.org>,
        Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>, Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2] tick/sched: Limit non-timekeeper CPUs calling jiffies
 update



On 10/28/25 7:54 PM, Steve Wahl wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 28, 2025 at 11:39:30AM +0530, Shrikanth Hegde wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 10/28/25 12:04 AM, Steve Wahl wrote:
>>> On large NUMA systems, while running a test program that saturates the
>>> inter-processor and inter-NUMA links, acquiring the jiffies_lock can
>>> be very expensive.  If the cpu designated to do jiffies updates
>>> (tick_do_timer_cpu) gets delayed and other cpus decide to do the
>>> jiffies update themselves, a large number of them decide to do so at
>>> the same time.  The inexpensive check against tick_next_period is far
>>> quicker than actually acquiring the lock, so most of these get in line
>>> to obtain the lock.  If obtaining the lock is slow enough, this
>>> spirals into the vast majority of CPUs continuously being stuck
>>> waiting for this lock, just to obtain it and find out that time has
>>> already been updated by another cpu. For example, on one random entry
>>> to kdb by manually-injected NMI, I saw 2912 of 3840 cpus stuck here.
>>>
>>> To avoid this, allow only one non-timekeeper CPU to call
>>> tick_do_update_jiffies64() at any given time, resetting ts->stalled
>>> jiffies only if the jiffies update function is actually called.
>>>
>>> With this change, manually interrupting the test I find at most two
>>> CPUs in the tick_do_update_jiffies64 function (the timekeeper and one
>>> other).
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Steve Wahl <steve.wahl@....com>
>>> ---
>>>
>>> v2: Rewritten to use an atomic to gate non-timekeeping cpus calling the
>>>       jiffies update, as suggested by tglx. Title of patch has changed
>>>       since trylock is no longer used.
>>>
>>> v1 discussion:
>>> https://lore.kernel.org/all/20251013150959.298288-1-steve.wahl@hpe.com/
>>>
>>>    kernel/time/tick-sched.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
>>>    1 file changed, 26 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/kernel/time/tick-sched.c b/kernel/time/tick-sched.c
>>> index c527b421c865..3ff3eb1f90d0 100644
>>> --- a/kernel/time/tick-sched.c
>>> +++ b/kernel/time/tick-sched.c
>>> @@ -201,6 +201,27 @@ static inline void tick_sched_flag_clear(struct tick_sched *ts,
>>>    	ts->flags &= ~flag;
>>>    }
>>> +/*
>>> + * Allow only one non-timekeeper CPU at a time update jiffies from
>>> + * the timer tick.
>>> + *
>>> + * Returns true if update was run.
>>> + */
>>> +static bool tick_limited_update_jiffies64(struct tick_sched *ts, ktime_t now)
>>> +{
>>> +	static atomic_t in_progress;
>>> +	int inp;
>>> +
>>> +	inp = atomic_read(&in_progress);
>>> +	if (inp || !atomic_try_cmpxchg(&in_progress, &inp, 1))
>>> +		return false;
>>> +
>>
>> You come here if (ts->last_tick_jiffies == jiffies). So it may be not necessary to check again.
> 
> TGLX had this in his rewrite suggestion, and I looked pretty intensely
> at this test.
> 
> The situation I'm looking to resolve is caused by inter-NUMA links
> being abnormally swamped with traffic.  Especially for writes, access
> to shared memory locations, such as the atomic operations to
> in_progress right above this, take longer than one usually would
> expect.  So to me it makes sense that things may have changed since
> the atomic_try_cmpxchg was initiated, and so I left the check in
> place.
> 

I see, one possibility is

- if it runs in parallel by that time on tick_cpu.( which always updates it)

>>> +	if (ts->last_tick_jiffies == jiffies)
>>> +		tick_do_update_jiffies64(now);
>>> +	atomic_set(&in_progress, 0);
>>> +	return true;
>>> +}
>>> +
>>>    #define MAX_STALLED_JIFFIES 5
>>>    static void tick_sched_do_timer(struct tick_sched *ts, ktime_t now)
>>> @@ -239,10 +260,11 @@ static void tick_sched_do_timer(struct tick_sched *ts, ktime_t now)
>>>    		ts->stalled_jiffies = 0;
>>>    		ts->last_tick_jiffies = READ_ONCE(jiffies);
>>>    	} else {
>>> -		if (++ts->stalled_jiffies == MAX_STALLED_JIFFIES) {
>>> -			tick_do_update_jiffies64(now);
>>> -			ts->stalled_jiffies = 0;
>>> -			ts->last_tick_jiffies = READ_ONCE(jiffies);
>>> +		if (++ts->stalled_jiffies >= MAX_STALLED_JIFFIES) {
>>> +			if (tick_limited_update_jiffies64(ts, now)) {
>>> +				ts->stalled_jiffies = 0;
>>> +				ts->last_tick_jiffies = READ_ONCE(jiffies);
>>> +			}
>>>    		}
>>>    	}
>>
>>
>> Yes. This could help large systems.
>>
>> Acked-by: Shrikanth Hegde <sshegde@...ux.ibm.com>
> 
> Thanks for your time reviewing!
> 
> --> Steve Wahl
>