2009-11-22 06:06:33

by André Goddard Rosa

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH] pid: tighten pidmap_lock critical section

Avoid calling kfree() under pidmap_lock and doing unnecessary work.
It doesn't change behavior.

It decreases code size by 16 bytes on my gcc 4.4.1 on Core 2:
text data bss dec hex filename
4314 2216 8 6538 198a kernel/pid.o-BEFORE
4298 2216 8 6522 197a kernel/pid.o-AFTER

Signed-off-by: André Goddard Rosa <[email protected]>
---
kernel/pid.c | 16 ++++++++--------
1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/pid.c b/kernel/pid.c
index d3f722d..ec06912 100644
--- a/kernel/pid.c
+++ b/kernel/pid.c
@@ -141,11 +141,12 @@ static int alloc_pidmap(struct pid_namespace *pid_ns)
* installing it:
*/
spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
- if (map->page)
- kfree(page);
- else
+ if (!map->page) {
map->page = page;
+ page = NULL;
+ }
spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
+ kfree(page);
if (unlikely(!map->page))
break;
}
@@ -225,11 +226,11 @@ static void delayed_put_pid(struct rcu_head *rhp)
void free_pid(struct pid *pid)
{
/* We can be called with write_lock_irq(&tasklist_lock) held */
- int i;
+ int i = 0;
unsigned long flags;

spin_lock_irqsave(&pidmap_lock, flags);
- for (i = 0; i <= pid->level; i++)
+ for ( ; i <= pid->level; i++)
hlist_del_rcu(&pid->numbers[i].pid_chain);
spin_unlock_irqrestore(&pidmap_lock, flags);

@@ -268,12 +269,11 @@ struct pid *alloc_pid(struct pid_namespace *ns)
for (type = 0; type < PIDTYPE_MAX; ++type)
INIT_HLIST_HEAD(&pid->tasks[type]);

+ upid = pid->numbers + ns->level;
spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
- for (i = ns->level; i >= 0; i--) {
- upid = &pid->numbers[i];
+ for ( ; upid >= pid->numbers; --upid)
hlist_add_head_rcu(&upid->pid_chain,
&pid_hash[pid_hashfn(upid->nr, upid->ns)]);
- }
spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);

out:
--
1.6.5.3.148.g785c5


2009-11-22 09:17:42

by Pekka Enberg

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] pid: tighten pidmap_lock critical section

Hi Andre,

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 8:04 AM, Andr? Goddard Rosa
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Avoid calling kfree() under pidmap_lock and doing unnecessary work.
> It doesn't change behavior.
>
> It decreases code size by 16 bytes on my gcc 4.4.1 on Core 2:
> ? text ? ?data ? ? bss ? ? dec ? ? hex filename
> ? 4314 ? ?2216 ? ? ? 8 ? ?6538 ? ?198a kernel/pid.o-BEFORE
> ? 4298 ? ?2216 ? ? ? 8 ? ?6522 ? ?197a kernel/pid.o-AFTER
>
> Signed-off-by: Andr? Goddard Rosa <[email protected]>

This patch is doing a lot more than the changelog above says it does.
What exactly is the purpose of this patch? What's the upside?

> ---
> ?kernel/pid.c | ? 16 ++++++++--------
> ?1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/kernel/pid.c b/kernel/pid.c
> index d3f722d..ec06912 100644
> --- a/kernel/pid.c
> +++ b/kernel/pid.c
> @@ -141,11 +141,12 @@ static int alloc_pidmap(struct pid_namespace *pid_ns)
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? * installing it:
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? */
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if (map->page)
> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? kfree(page);
> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? else
> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if (!map->page) {
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?map->page = page;
> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? page = NULL;
> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? }
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? kfree(page);

OK, maybe. The upside seem rather small and the resulting code is IMHO
slightly less readable.

> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?if (unlikely(!map->page))
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?break;
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?}
> @@ -225,11 +226,11 @@ static void delayed_put_pid(struct rcu_head *rhp)
> ?void free_pid(struct pid *pid)
> ?{
> ? ? ? ?/* We can be called with write_lock_irq(&tasklist_lock) held */
> - ? ? ? int i;
> + ? ? ? int i = 0;
> ? ? ? ?unsigned long flags;
>
> ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irqsave(&pidmap_lock, flags);
> - ? ? ? for (i = 0; i <= pid->level; i++)
> + ? ? ? for ( ; i <= pid->level; i++)
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?hlist_del_rcu(&pid->numbers[i].pid_chain);
> ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irqrestore(&pidmap_lock, flags);

This has nothing to do with kfree(). AFAICT, it just obfuscates the
code as the initial assignment to zero is lost in the noise anyway.

> @@ -268,12 +269,11 @@ struct pid *alloc_pid(struct pid_namespace *ns)
> ? ? ? ?for (type = 0; type < PIDTYPE_MAX; ++type)
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?INIT_HLIST_HEAD(&pid->tasks[type]);
>
> + ? ? ? upid = pid->numbers + ns->level;
> ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
> - ? ? ? for (i = ns->level; i >= 0; i--) {
> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? upid = &pid->numbers[i];
> + ? ? ? for ( ; upid >= pid->numbers; --upid)
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?hlist_add_head_rcu(&upid->pid_chain,
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?&pid_hash[pid_hashfn(upid->nr, upid->ns)]);
> - ? ? ? }
> ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);

Again, this has nothing to do with kfree(). I suspect this is where
most of the 16 byte text savings come from. I'm not convinced it's
worth the hit in readability, though.

Pekka

2009-11-22 10:53:07

by André Goddard Rosa

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] pid: tighten pidmap_lock critical section

Hi, Pekka!

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 7:17 AM, Pekka Enberg <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Andre,
>
> On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 8:04 AM, Andr? Goddard Rosa
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Avoid calling kfree() under pidmap_lock and doing unnecessary work.
>> It doesn't change behavior.
>>
>> It decreases code size by 16 bytes on my gcc 4.4.1 on Core 2:
>> ? text ? ?data ? ? bss ? ? dec ? ? hex filename
>> ? 4314 ? ?2216 ? ? ? 8 ? ?6538 ? ?198a kernel/pid.o-BEFORE
>> ? 4298 ? ?2216 ? ? ? 8 ? ?6522 ? ?197a kernel/pid.o-AFTER
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Andr? Goddard Rosa <[email protected]>
>
> This patch is doing a lot more than the changelog above says it does.
> What exactly is the purpose of this patch? What's the upside?

Purpose is to make the spinlock critical section tighter by removing
unnecessary instructions from under pidmap_lock.

I was getting to learn about pid.c and noticed a slightly decrease in
the amount of work done with the spinlock held by checking the
generated assembly before/after the changes.

So I had a question: while these are very small changes, they make the
code under the critical section smaller, coming at a slightly decrease
in legibility (initializing variables outside the lock), but still not
complex compared to other kernel code.

In all kernel code I can see postponing assignments until the time
it's really necessary to do it. So I thought that perhaps anticipating
the assignment to make it just outside of the critical section could
make a small improvement in the cases where code was contending for
that lock because the critical section would be smaller by a small
bit, but still.

>> ---
>> ?kernel/pid.c | ? 16 ++++++++--------
>> ?1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>>
>> diff --git a/kernel/pid.c b/kernel/pid.c
>> index d3f722d..ec06912 100644
>> --- a/kernel/pid.c
>> +++ b/kernel/pid.c
>> @@ -141,11 +141,12 @@ static int alloc_pidmap(struct pid_namespace *pid_ns)
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? * installing it:
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? */
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if (map->page)
>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? kfree(page);
>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? else
>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if (!map->page) {
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?map->page = page;
>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? page = NULL;
>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? }
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? kfree(page);
>
> OK, maybe. The upside seem rather small and the resulting code is IMHO
> slightly less readable.

Motivation is that normally I don't see many other places in the
kernel where allocation/release of memory is made under spinlocks.

In fact there's no need why that page is freed (somewhat complex
operation) under the spinlock, so I realized that it could be
postponed to just after releasing the lock, which seemed a good idea.

>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?if (unlikely(!map->page))
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?break;
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?}
>> @@ -225,11 +226,11 @@ static void delayed_put_pid(struct rcu_head *rhp)
>> ?void free_pid(struct pid *pid)
>> ?{
>> ? ? ? ?/* We can be called with write_lock_irq(&tasklist_lock) held */
>> - ? ? ? int i;
>> + ? ? ? int i = 0;
>> ? ? ? ?unsigned long flags;
>>
>> ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irqsave(&pidmap_lock, flags);
>> - ? ? ? for (i = 0; i <= pid->level; i++)
>> + ? ? ? for ( ; i <= pid->level; i++)
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?hlist_del_rcu(&pid->numbers[i].pid_chain);
>> ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irqrestore(&pidmap_lock, flags);
>
> This has nothing to do with kfree(). AFAICT, it just obfuscates the
> code as the initial assignment to zero is lost in the noise anyway.

See comments above.
If you really thinks so but agree with the other explanation, I can
remove this part.

>> @@ -268,12 +269,11 @@ struct pid *alloc_pid(struct pid_namespace *ns)
>> ? ? ? ?for (type = 0; type < PIDTYPE_MAX; ++type)
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?INIT_HLIST_HEAD(&pid->tasks[type]);
>>
>> + ? ? ? upid = pid->numbers + ns->level;
>> ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>> - ? ? ? for (i = ns->level; i >= 0; i--) {
>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? upid = &pid->numbers[i];
>> + ? ? ? for ( ; upid >= pid->numbers; --upid)
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?hlist_add_head_rcu(&upid->pid_chain,
>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?&pid_hash[pid_hashfn(upid->nr, upid->ns)]);
>> - ? ? ? }
>> ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>
> Again, this has nothing to do with kfree(). I suspect this is where
> most of the 16 byte text savings come from. I'm not convinced it's
> worth the hit in readability, though.

Yes, you're right, this is where the size reduction comes indeed.
As you can see, it's a trade-off, but while kernel keeps getting
bigger, there's still possibility to make it smaller sometimes.

Thanks for your feedback,
Andr?

2009-11-22 11:10:11

by Pekka Enberg

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] pid: tighten pidmap_lock critical section

Hi Andre,

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Andr? Goddard Rosa
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi, Pekka!
>
> On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 7:17 AM, Pekka Enberg <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Hi Andre,
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 8:04 AM, Andr? Goddard Rosa
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Avoid calling kfree() under pidmap_lock and doing unnecessary work.
>>> It doesn't change behavior.
>>>
>>> It decreases code size by 16 bytes on my gcc 4.4.1 on Core 2:
>>> ? text ? ?data ? ? bss ? ? dec ? ? hex filename
>>> ? 4314 ? ?2216 ? ? ? 8 ? ?6538 ? ?198a kernel/pid.o-BEFORE
>>> ? 4298 ? ?2216 ? ? ? 8 ? ?6522 ? ?197a kernel/pid.o-AFTER
>>>
>>> Signed-off-by: Andr? Goddard Rosa <[email protected]>
>>
>> This patch is doing a lot more than the changelog above says it does.
>> What exactly is the purpose of this patch? What's the upside?
>
> Purpose is to make the spinlock critical section tighter by removing
> unnecessary instructions from under pidmap_lock.
>
> I was getting to learn about pid.c and noticed a slightly decrease in
> the amount of work done with the spinlock held by checking the
> generated assembly before/after the changes.
>
> So I had a question: while these are very small changes, they make the
> code under the critical section smaller, coming at a slightly decrease
> in legibility (initializing variables outside the lock), but still not
> complex compared to other kernel code.
>
> In all kernel code I can see postponing assignments until the time
> it's really necessary to do it. So I thought that perhaps anticipating
> the assignment to make it just outside of the critical section could
> make a small improvement in the cases where code was contending for
> that lock because the critical section would be smaller by a small
> bit, but still.
>
>>> ---
>>> ?kernel/pid.c | ? 16 ++++++++--------
>>> ?1 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)
>>>
>>> diff --git a/kernel/pid.c b/kernel/pid.c
>>> index d3f722d..ec06912 100644
>>> --- a/kernel/pid.c
>>> +++ b/kernel/pid.c
>>> @@ -141,11 +141,12 @@ static int alloc_pidmap(struct pid_namespace *pid_ns)
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? * installing it:
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? */
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if (map->page)
>>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? kfree(page);
>>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? else
>>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? if (!map->page) {
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?map->page = page;
>>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? page = NULL;
>>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? }
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>>> + ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? kfree(page);
>>
>> OK, maybe. The upside seem rather small and the resulting code is IMHO
>> slightly less readable.
>
> Motivation is that normally I don't see many other places in the
> kernel where allocation/release of memory is made under spinlocks.
>
> In fact there's no need why that page is freed (somewhat complex
> operation) under the spinlock, so I realized that it could be
> postponed to just after releasing the lock, which seemed a good idea.

Actually, the kfree() above will not result in a page free most of the
time with any of the current slab allocators. Instead the kfree()'d
object is put back in the cache which is pretty fast operation. But
anyway, I don't have huge objections to the above hunk as long as it's
a standalone patch.

>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?if (unlikely(!map->page))
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?break;
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?}
>>> @@ -225,11 +226,11 @@ static void delayed_put_pid(struct rcu_head *rhp)
>>> ?void free_pid(struct pid *pid)
>>> ?{
>>> ? ? ? ?/* We can be called with write_lock_irq(&tasklist_lock) held */
>>> - ? ? ? int i;
>>> + ? ? ? int i = 0;
>>> ? ? ? ?unsigned long flags;
>>>
>>> ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irqsave(&pidmap_lock, flags);
>>> - ? ? ? for (i = 0; i <= pid->level; i++)
>>> + ? ? ? for ( ; i <= pid->level; i++)
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?hlist_del_rcu(&pid->numbers[i].pid_chain);
>>> ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irqrestore(&pidmap_lock, flags);
>>
>> This has nothing to do with kfree(). AFAICT, it just obfuscates the
>> code as the initial assignment to zero is lost in the noise anyway.
>
> See comments above.
> If you really thinks so but agree with the other explanation, I can
> remove this part.

I think this part needs to go away completely.

>>> @@ -268,12 +269,11 @@ struct pid *alloc_pid(struct pid_namespace *ns)
>>> ? ? ? ?for (type = 0; type < PIDTYPE_MAX; ++type)
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?INIT_HLIST_HEAD(&pid->tasks[type]);
>>>
>>> + ? ? ? upid = pid->numbers + ns->level;
>>> ? ? ? ?spin_lock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>>> - ? ? ? for (i = ns->level; i >= 0; i--) {
>>> - ? ? ? ? ? ? ? upid = &pid->numbers[i];
>>> + ? ? ? for ( ; upid >= pid->numbers; --upid)
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?hlist_add_head_rcu(&upid->pid_chain,
>>> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?&pid_hash[pid_hashfn(upid->nr, upid->ns)]);
>>> - ? ? ? }
>>> ? ? ? ?spin_unlock_irq(&pidmap_lock);
>>
>> Again, this has nothing to do with kfree(). I suspect this is where
>> most of the 16 byte text savings come from. I'm not convinced it's
>> worth the hit in readability, though.
>
> Yes, you're right, this is where the size reduction comes indeed.
> As you can see, it's a trade-off, but while kernel keeps getting
> bigger, there's still possibility to make it smaller sometimes.

Yeah, put this in a separate patch and lets see if Andrew picks it up.

Pekka