[1/7] sched/balancing: Switch the 'DEFINE_SPINLOCK(balancing)' spinlock into an 'atomic_t sched_balance_running' flag
Commit Message
The 'balancing' spinlock added in:
08c183f31bdb ("[PATCH] sched: add option to serialize load balancing")
.. is taken when the SD_SERIALIZE flag is set in a domain, but in reality it
is a glorified global atomic flag serializing the load-balancing of
those domains.
It doesn't have any explicit locking semantics per se: we just
spin_trylock() it.
Turn it into a ... global atomic flag. This makes it more
clear what is going on here, and reduces overhead and code
size a bit:
# kernel/sched/fair.o: [x86-64 defconfig]
text data bss dec hex filename
60730 2721 104 63555 f843 fair.o.before
60718 2721 104 63543 f837 fair.o.after
Also document the flag a bit.
No change in functionality intended.
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Vincent Guittot <vincent.guittot@linaro.org>
Cc: Dietmar Eggemann <dietmar.eggemann@arm.com>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Valentin Schneider <vschneid@redhat.com>
---
kernel/sched/fair.c | 19 ++++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
Comments
On 3/1/24 4:39 PM, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> The 'balancing' spinlock added in:
Hi Ingo.
>
> 08c183f31bdb ("[PATCH] sched: add option to serialize load balancing")
>
[...]
>
> need_serialize = sd->flags & SD_SERIALIZE;
> if (need_serialize) {
> - if (!spin_trylock(&balancing))
> + if (atomic_cmpxchg_acquire(&sched_balance_running, 0, 1))
Thinking from very little I know, I may be completely wrong.
Is it possible that arch_spin_trylock, which would be called from spin_trylock is
faster in some architectures? Maybe in contended case?
For example, in powerpc, queued_spin_trylock, uses more optimal ll/sc style access patterns
rather than cmpxchg.
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20221126095932.1234527-4-npiggin@gmail.com/
+nick
> goto out;
> }
>
> @@ -11729,7 +11742,7 @@ static void rebalance_domains(struct rq *rq, enum cpu_idle_type idle)
> interval = get_sd_balance_interval(sd, busy);
> }
> if (need_serialize)
> - spin_unlock(&balancing);
> + atomic_set_release(&sched_balance_running, 0);
> out:
> if (time_after(next_balance, sd->last_balance + interval)) {
> next_balance = sd->last_balance + interval;
* Shrikanth Hegde <sshegde@linux.ibm.com> wrote:
>
>
> On 3/1/24 4:39 PM, Ingo Molnar wrote:
> > The 'balancing' spinlock added in:
>
> Hi Ingo.
>
> >
> > 08c183f31bdb ("[PATCH] sched: add option to serialize load balancing")
> >
>
>
> [...]
>
> >
> > need_serialize = sd->flags & SD_SERIALIZE;
> > if (need_serialize) {
> > - if (!spin_trylock(&balancing))
> > + if (atomic_cmpxchg_acquire(&sched_balance_running, 0, 1))
>
> Thinking from very little I know, I may be completely wrong.
>
> Is it possible that arch_spin_trylock, which would be called from spin_trylock is
> faster in some architectures? Maybe in contended case?
This code path should never really be 'contended': SD_SERIALIZE is only set
for the outermost, largest domains (NUMA and up) that get balanced
infrequently. This change is more for the sake of readability: a flag
disguised as a spinlock.
Thanks,
Ingo
@@ -11633,7 +11633,20 @@ static int active_load_balance_cpu_stop(void *data)
return 0;
}
-static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(balancing);
+/*
+ * This flag serializes load-balancing passes over large domains
+ * (such as SD_NUMA) - only once load-balancing instance may run
+ * at a time, to reduce overhead on very large systems with lots
+ * of CPUs and large NUMA distances.
+ *
+ * - Note that load-balancing passes triggered while another one
+ * is executing are skipped and not re-tried.
+ *
+ * - Also note that this does not serialize sched_balance_domains()
+ * execution, as non-SD_SERIALIZE domains will still be
+ * load-balanced in parallel.
+ */
+static atomic_t sched_balance_running = ATOMIC_INIT(0);
/*
* Scale the max load_balance interval with the number of CPUs in the system.
@@ -11711,7 +11724,7 @@ static void rebalance_domains(struct rq *rq, enum cpu_idle_type idle)
need_serialize = sd->flags & SD_SERIALIZE;
if (need_serialize) {
- if (!spin_trylock(&balancing))
+ if (atomic_cmpxchg_acquire(&sched_balance_running, 0, 1))
goto out;
}
@@ -11729,7 +11742,7 @@ static void rebalance_domains(struct rq *rq, enum cpu_idle_type idle)
interval = get_sd_balance_interval(sd, busy);
}
if (need_serialize)
- spin_unlock(&balancing);
+ atomic_set_release(&sched_balance_running, 0);
out:
if (time_after(next_balance, sd->last_balance + interval)) {
next_balance = sd->last_balance + interval;