Date:   Fri, 6 Mar 2020 07:16:44 +0100
From:   Jiri Pirko <jiri@...nulli.us>
To:     Jacob Keller <jacob.e.keller@...el.com>
Cc:     netdev@...r.kernel.org, valex@...lanox.com, linyunsheng@...wei.com,
        lihong.yang@...el.com, kuba@...nel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v2 14/22] devlink: implement DEVLINK_CMD_REGION_NEW

Thu, Mar 05, 2020 at 11:33:17PM CET, jacob.e.keller@...el.com wrote:
>
>
>On 3/4/2020 10:41 PM, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>> Wed, Mar 04, 2020 at 06:43:02PM CET, jacob.e.keller@...el.com wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> On 3/4/2020 3:58 AM, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>>>> Tue, Mar 03, 2020 at 06:51:37PM CET, jacob.e.keller@...el.com wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Hm. The flow here was about supporting both with and without snapshot
>>>>> IDs. That will be gone in the next revision and should make the code clear.
>>>>>
>>>>> The IDs are stored in the IDR with either a NULL, or a pointer to a
>>>>> refcount of the number of snapshots currently using them.
>>>>>
>>>>> On devlink_region_snapshot_create, the id must have been allocated by
>>>>> the devlink_region_snapshot_id_get ahead of time by the driver.
>>>>>
>>>>> When devlink_region_snapshot_id_get is called, a NULL is inserted into
>>>>> the IDR at a suitable ID number (i.e. one that does not yet have a
>>>>> refcount).
>>>>>
>>>>> On devlink_region_snapshot_new, the callback for the new command, the ID
>>>>> must be specified by userspace.
>>>>>
>>>>> Both cases, the ID is confirmed to not be in use for that region by
>>>>> looping over all snapshots and checking to see if one can be found that
>>>>> has the ID.
>>>>>
>>>>> In __devlink_region_snapshot_create, the IDR is checked to see if it is
>>>>> already used. If so, the refcount is incremented. If there is no
>>>>> refcount (i.e. the IDR returns NULL), a new refcount is created, set to
>>>>> 1, and inserted.
>>>>>
>>>>> The basic idea is the refcount is "how many snapshots are actually using
>>>>> this ID". Use of devlink_region_snapshot_id_get can "pre-allocate" an ID
>>>>> value so that future calls to devlink_region_id_get won't re-use the
>>>>> same ID number even if no snapshot with that ID has yet been created.
>>>>>
>>>>> The refcount isn't actually incremented until the snapshot is created
>>>>> with that ID.
>>>>>
>>>>> Userspace never uses devlink_region_snapshot_id_get now, since it always
>>>>> requires an ID to be chosen.
>>>>>
>>>>> On snapshot delete, the id refcount is reduced, and when it hits zero
>>>>> the ID is released from the IDR. This way, IDs can be re-used as long as
>>>>> no remaining snapshots on any region point to them.
>>>>>
>>>>> This system enables userspace to simply treat snapshot ids as unique to
>>>>> each region, and to provide their own values on the command line. It
>>>>> also preserves the behavior that devlink_region_snapshot_id_get will
>>>>> never select an ID that is used by any region on that devlink, so that
>>>>> the id can be safely used for multiple snapshots triggered at the same time.
>>>>>
>>>>> This will hopefully be more clear in the next revision.
>>>>
>>>> Okay, I see. The code is a bit harder to follow.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I'm open to suggestions for better alternatives, or ways to improve code
>>> legibility.
>>>
>>> I want to preserve the following properties:
>>>
>>> * devlink_region_snapshot_id_get must choose IDs globally for the whole
>>> devlink, so that the ID can safely be re-used across multiple regions.
>>>
>>> * IDs must be reusable once all snapshots associated with the IDs have
>>> been removed
>>>
>>> * the new DEVLINK_CMD_REGION_NEW must allow userspace to select IDs
>>>
>>> * selecting IDs via DEVLINK_CMD_REGION_NEW should not really require the
>>> user to check more than the current interested snapshot
>>>
>>> * userspace should be able to re-use the same ID across multiple regions
>>> just like devlink_region_snapshot_id_get and driver triggered snapshots
>> 
>> Nope. I believe this is not desired. The point of having the same id for
>> the multiple regions is that the driver can obtain multiple region
>> snapshots during single FW event. For user, that it not the case.
>> For user, it would be 2 separate snapshots in 2 separate times. They
>> should not have the same ID.
>> 
>
>So users would have to pick an ID that's unique across all regions. Ok.
>
>I think we still need a reference count of how many snapshots are using
>an ID (so that it can be released once all region snapshots using that
>ID are destroyed).
>
>We basically add this complexity even in cases where regions are totally
>independent and never taken together.
>
>One alternative would be to instead create some sort of grouping system,
>but that has even more complication.
>
>Ok. So I think we still need to track IDs using something like the IDR
>with a reference count or similar structure.

I agree.

>
>Using only an IDA doesn't give us the ability to release previously used
>IDs. Because on snapshot delete it has no idea whether another region
>used that ID, so it can't remove it.
>
>Maybe something like IDR with a refcount.. but we'd really like
>something that can exist for some time with a refcount of zero. That's
>what I basically used the NULL trick for in this version.
>
>We can first check if the IDR has the ID when responding to
>DEVLINK_CMD_REGION_NEW, and bail if so. That would enforce that users
>must specify IDs which are unused by any region on the device.

Yes, that I believe is the correct behaviour.


>
>Thanks,
>Jake

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