netdev - Re: [PATCH v2 0/9] Remove spin_unlock

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Date:   Sat, 8 Jul 2017 10:35:43 +0200
From:   Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>
To:     Manfred Spraul <manfred@...orfullife.com>
Cc:     Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>,
        "Paul E. McKenney" <paulmck@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        David Laight <David.Laight@...LAB.COM>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "netfilter-devel@...r.kernel.org" <netfilter-devel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        "oleg@...hat.com" <oleg@...hat.com>,
        "akpm@...ux-foundation.org" <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
        "mingo@...hat.com" <mingo@...hat.com>,
        "dave@...olabs.net" <dave@...olabs.net>,
        "tj@...nel.org" <tj@...nel.org>, "arnd@...db.de" <arnd@...db.de>,
        "linux-arch@...r.kernel.org" <linux-arch@...r.kernel.org>,
        "will.deacon@....com" <will.deacon@....com>,
        "stern@...land.harvard.edu" <stern@...land.harvard.edu>,
        "parri.andrea@...il.com" <parri.andrea@...il.com>,
        "torvalds@...ux-foundation.org" <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 0/9] Remove spin_unlock_wait()


* Manfred Spraul <manfred@...orfullife.com> wrote:

> Hi Ingo,
> 
> On 07/07/2017 10:31 AM, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > 
> > There's another, probably just as significant advantage: queued_spin_unlock_wait()
> > is 'read-only', while spin_lock()+spin_unlock() dirties the lock cache line. On
> > any bigger system this should make a very measurable difference - if
> > spin_unlock_wait() is ever used in a performance critical code path.
> At least for ipc/sem:
> Dirtying the cacheline (in the slow path) allows to remove a smp_mb() in the
> hot path.
> So for sem_lock(), I either need a primitive that dirties the cacheline or
> sem_lock() must continue to use spin_lock()/spin_unlock().

Technically you could use spin_trylock()+spin_unlock() and avoid the lock acquire 
spinning on spin_unlock() and get very close to the slow path performance of a 
pure cacheline-dirtying behavior.

But adding something like spin_barrier(), which purely dirties the lock cacheline, 
would be even faster, right?

Thanks,

	Ingo