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Message-ID: <aHa9qLUtD3nR3Xl7@mini-arch>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2025 13:44:24 -0700
From: Stanislav Fomichev <stfomichev@...il.com>
To: Jason Xing <kerneljasonxing@...il.com>
Cc: davem@...emloft.net, edumazet@...gle.com, kuba@...nel.org,
	pabeni@...hat.com, bjorn@...nel.org, magnus.karlsson@...el.com,
	maciej.fijalkowski@...el.com, jonathan.lemon@...il.com,
	sdf@...ichev.me, ast@...nel.org, daniel@...earbox.net,
	hawk@...nel.org, john.fastabend@...il.com, joe@...a.to,
	willemdebruijn.kernel@...il.com, bpf@...r.kernel.org,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, Jason Xing <kernelxing@...cent.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next] xsk: skip validating skb list in xmit path

On 07/15, Jason Xing wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 12:03 AM Stanislav Fomichev
> <stfomichev@...il.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 07/13, Jason Xing wrote:
> > > From: Jason Xing <kernelxing@...cent.com>
> > >
> > > For xsk, it's not needed to validate and check the skb in
> > > validate_xmit_skb_list() in copy mode because xsk_build_skb() doesn't
> > > and doesn't need to prepare those requisites to validate. Xsk is just
> > > responsible for delivering raw data from userspace to the driver.
> >
> > So the __dev_direct_xmit was taken out of af_packet in commit 865b03f21162
> > ("dev: packet: make packet_direct_xmit a common function"). And a call
> > to validate_xmit_skb_list was added in 104ba78c9880 ("packet: on direct_xmit,
> > limit tso and csum to supported devices") to support TSO. Since we don't
> > support tso/vlan offloads in xsk_build_skb, removing validate_xmit_skb_list
> > seems fair.
> 
> Right, if you don't mind, I think I will copy&paste your words in the
> next respin.
> 
> >
> > Although, again, if you care about performance, why not use zerocopy
> > mode?
> 
> I attached the performance impact because I'm working on the different
> modes in xsk to see how it really behaves. You can take it as a kind
> of investigation :)
> 
> I like zc mode, but the fact is that:
> 1) with ixgbe driver, my machine could totally lose connection as long
> as the xsk tries to send packets. I'm still debugging it :(
> 2) some customers using virtio_net don't have a supported host, so
> copy mode is the only one choice.
> 
> >
> > > Skipping numerous checks somehow contributes to the transmission
> > > especially in the extremely hot path.
> > >
> > > Performance-wise, I used './xdpsock -i enp2s0f0np0 -t  -S -s 64' to verify
> > > the guess and then measured on the machine with ixgbe driver. It stably
> > > goes up by 5.48%, which can be seen in the shown below:
> > > Before:
> > >  sock0@...2s0f0np0:0 txonly xdp-skb
> > >                    pps            pkts           1.00
> > > rx                 0              0
> > > tx                 1,187,410      3,513,536
> > > After:
> > >  sock0@...2s0f0np0:0 txonly xdp-skb
> > >                    pps            pkts           1.00
> > > rx                 0              0
> > > tx                 1,252,590      2,459,456
> > >
> > > This patch also removes total ~4% consumption which can be observed
> > > by perf:
> > > |--2.97%--validate_xmit_skb
> > > |          |
> > > |           --1.76%--netif_skb_features
> > > |                     |
> > > |                      --0.65%--skb_network_protocol
> > > |
> > > |--1.06%--validate_xmit_xfrm
> >
> > It is a bit surprising that mostly no-op validate_xmit_skb_list takes
> > 4% of the cycles. netif_skb_features taking ~2%? Any idea why? Is
> > it unoptimized kernel? Which driver is it?
> 
> No idea on this one, sorry. I tested with different drivers (like
> i40e) and it turned out to be nearly the same result.

I was trying to follow validate_xmit_skb_list, but too many things
happen in there. Although, without gso/vlan, most of these should
be no-op. Plus you have xfrm compiled in. So still surprising, let's see
if other people have any suggestions.

> One of my machines looks like this:
> # lspci -vv | grep -i ether
> 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller
> 10-Gigabit X540-AT2 (rev 01)
> 02:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Controller
> 10-Gigabit X540-AT2 (rev 01)
> # lscpu
> Architecture:                x86_64
>   CPU op-mode(s):            32-bit, 64-bit
>   Address sizes:             46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
>   Byte Order:                Little Endian
> CPU(s):                      48
>   On-line CPU(s) list:       0-47
> Vendor ID:                   GenuineIntel
>   BIOS Vendor ID:            Intel(R) Corporation
>   Model name:                Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 v3 @ 2.30GHz
>     BIOS Model name:         Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 v3 @ 2.30GHz
>  CPU @ 2.3GHz
>     BIOS CPU family:         179
>     CPU family:              6
>     Model:                   63
>     Thread(s) per core:      2
>     Core(s) per socket:      12
>     Socket(s):               2
>     Stepping:                2
>     CPU(s) scaling MHz:      96%
>     CPU max MHz:             3100.0000
>     CPU min MHz:             1200.0000
>     BogoMIPS:                4589.31
>     Flags:                   fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic
> sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss
> ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_ts
>                              c arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl
> xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor
> ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm p
>                              cid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt
> tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm cpuid_fault
> epb intel_ppin ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow fl
>                              expriority ept vpid ept_ad fsgsbase
> tsc_adjust bmi1 avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid cqm xsaveopt cqm_llc
> cqm_occup_llc dtherm ida arat pln pts vnmi md_clear flush_l
>                              1d
> 
> >
> > > Signed-off-by: Jason Xing <kernelxing@...cent.com>
> > > ---
> > >  include/linux/netdevice.h |  4 ++--
> > >  net/core/dev.c            | 10 ++++++----
> > >  net/xdp/xsk.c             |  2 +-
> > >  3 files changed, 9 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> > >
> > > diff --git a/include/linux/netdevice.h b/include/linux/netdevice.h
> > > index a80d21a14612..2df44c22406c 100644
> > > --- a/include/linux/netdevice.h
> > > +++ b/include/linux/netdevice.h
> > > @@ -3351,7 +3351,7 @@ u16 dev_pick_tx_zero(struct net_device *dev, struct sk_buff *skb,
> > >                    struct net_device *sb_dev);
> > >
> > >  int __dev_queue_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct net_device *sb_dev);
> > > -int __dev_direct_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, u16 queue_id);
> > > +int __dev_direct_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, u16 queue_id, bool validate);
> > >
> > >  static inline int dev_queue_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb)
> > >  {
> > > @@ -3368,7 +3368,7 @@ static inline int dev_direct_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, u16 queue_id)
> > >  {
> > >       int ret;
> > >
> > > -     ret = __dev_direct_xmit(skb, queue_id);
> > > +     ret = __dev_direct_xmit(skb, queue_id, true);
> > >       if (!dev_xmit_complete(ret))
> > >               kfree_skb(skb);
> > >       return ret;
> >
> > Implementation wise, will it be better if we move a call to validate_xmit_skb_list
> > from __dev_direct_xmit to dev_direct_xmit (and a few other callers of
> > __dev_direct_xmit)? This will avoid the new flag.
> 
> __dev_direct_xmit() helper was developed to serve the xsk type a few
> years ago. For now it has only two callers. If we expect to avoid a
> new parameter, we will also move the dev check[1] as below to the
> callers of __dev_direct_xmit(). Then move validate_xmit_skb_list to
> __dev_direct_xmit(). It's not that concise, I assume? I'm not sure if
> I miss your point.
> 
> [1]
> if (unlikely(!netif_running(dev) ||  !netif_carrier_ok(dev)))
>         goto drop;

We can keep the check in its original place. I don't think the order of
the checks matters? I was thinking something along these (untested)
lines. Avoids one conditional in each path (not that it matters)..

diff --git a/include/linux/netdevice.h b/include/linux/netdevice.h
index e6131c529af4..36cdeef6a5e9 100644
--- a/include/linux/netdevice.h
+++ b/include/linux/netdevice.h
@@ -3367,8 +3367,15 @@ static inline int dev_queue_xmit_accel(struct sk_buff *skb,
 
 static inline int dev_direct_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, u16 queue_id)
 {
+	struct sk_buff *orig_skb = skb;
+	bool again = false;
 	int ret;
 
+	skb = validate_xmit_skb_list(skb, dev, &again);
+	if (skb != orig_skb) {
+		/* dropped_inc and kfree */
+	}
+
 	ret = __dev_direct_xmit(skb, queue_id);
 	if (!dev_xmit_complete(ret))
 		kfree_skb(skb);
diff --git a/net/core/dev.c b/net/core/dev.c
index 26253802f6cd..d3b9a75852fd 100644
--- a/net/core/dev.c
+++ b/net/core/dev.c
@@ -4744,19 +4744,13 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(__dev_queue_xmit);
 int __dev_direct_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, u16 queue_id)
 {
 	struct net_device *dev = skb->dev;
-	struct sk_buff *orig_skb = skb;
 	struct netdev_queue *txq;
 	int ret = NETDEV_TX_BUSY;
-	bool again = false;
 
 	if (unlikely(!netif_running(dev) ||
 		     !netif_carrier_ok(dev)))
 		goto drop;
 
-	skb = validate_xmit_skb_list(skb, dev, &again);
-	if (skb != orig_skb)
-		goto drop;
-
 	skb_set_queue_mapping(skb, queue_id);
 	txq = skb_get_tx_queue(dev, skb);
 

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