netdev - Re: [PATCH v2 net] af_packet: Block execution of tasks waiting for transmit to complete in AF

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Date:   Sun, 23 Jun 2019 10:39:12 -0400
From:   Willem de Bruijn <willemdebruijn.kernel@...il.com>
To:     Neil Horman <nhorman@...driver.com>
Cc:     Network Development <netdev@...r.kernel.org>,
        Matteo Croce <mcroce@...hat.com>,
        "David S. Miller" <davem@...emloft.net>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 net] af_packet: Block execution of tasks waiting for
 transmit to complete in AF_PACKET

On Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 7:40 AM Neil Horman <nhorman@...driver.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 10:21:31PM -0400, Willem de Bruijn wrote:
> > > > -static void __packet_set_status(struct packet_sock *po, void *frame, int status)
> > > > +static void __packet_set_status(struct packet_sock *po, void *frame, int status,
> > > > +                               bool call_complete)
> > > >  {
> > > >         union tpacket_uhdr h;
> > > >
> > > > @@ -381,6 +382,8 @@ static void __packet_set_status(struct packet_sock *po, void *frame, int status)
> > > >                 BUG();
> > > >         }
> > > >
> > > > +       if (po->wait_on_complete && call_complete)
> > > > +               complete(&po->skb_completion);
> > >
> > > This wake need not happen before the barrier. Only one caller of
> > > __packet_set_status passes call_complete (tpacket_destruct_skb).
> > > Moving this branch to the caller avoids a lot of code churn.
> > >
> > > Also, multiple packets may be released before the process is awoken.
> > > The process will block until packet_read_pending drops to zero. Can
> > > defer the wait_on_complete to that one instance.
> >
> > Eh no. The point of having this sleep in the send loop is that
> > additional slots may be released for transmission (flipped to
> > TP_STATUS_SEND_REQUEST) from another thread while this thread is
> > waiting.
> >
> Thats incorrect.  The entirety of tpacket_snd is protected by a mutex. No other
> thread can alter the state of the frames in the vector from the kernel send path
> while this thread is waiting.

I meant another user thread updating the memory mapped ring contents.

> > Else, it would have been much simpler to move the wait below the send
> > loop: send as many packets as possible, then wait for all of them
> > having been released. Much clearer control flow.
> >
> Thats (almost) what happens now.  The only difference is that with this
> implementation, the waiting thread has the opportunity to see if userspace has
> queued more frames for transmission during the wait period.  We could
> potentially change that, but thats outside the scope of this fix.

Agreed. I think the current, more complex, behavior was intentional.
We could still restructure to move it out of the loop and jump back.
But, yes, definitely out of scope for a fix.

> > Where to set and clear the wait_on_complete boolean remains. Integer
> > assignment is fragile, as the compiler and processor may optimize or
> > move simple seemingly independent operations. As complete() takes a
> > spinlock, avoiding that in the DONTWAIT case is worthwhile. But probably
> > still preferable to set when beginning waiting and clear when calling
> > complete.
> We avoid any call to wait_for_complete or complete already, based on the gating
> of the need_wait variable in tpacket_snd.  If the transmitting thread doesn't
> set MSG_DONTWAIT in the flags of the msg structure, we will never set
> wait_for_complete, and so we will never manipulate the completion queue.

But we don't know the state of this at tpacket_destruct_skb time without
wait_for_completion?