Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S933412AbYB2VsT (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:48:19 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1760300AbYB2VsF (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:48:05 -0500 Received: from host36-195-149-62.serverdedicati.aruba.it ([62.149.195.36]:36510 "EHLO mx.cpushare.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1760156AbYB2VsD (ORCPT ); Fri, 29 Feb 2008 16:48:03 -0500 Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 22:48:00 +0100 From: Andrea Arcangeli To: Christoph Lameter Cc: Nick Piggin , akpm@linux-foundation.org, Robin Holt , Avi Kivity , Izik Eidus , kvm-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, Peter Zijlstra , general@lists.openfabrics.org, Steve Wise , Roland Dreier , Kanoj Sarcar , steiner@sgi.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, daniel.blueman@quadrics.com Subject: Re: [patch 2/6] mmu_notifier: Callbacks to invalidate address ranges Message-ID: <20080229214800.GD8091@v2.random> References: <20080228011020.GG8091@v2.random> <20080229005530.GO8091@v2.random> <20080229131302.GT8091@v2.random> <20080229201744.GB8091@v2.random> <20080229212327.GC8091@v2.random> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2229 Lines: 50 On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 01:34:34PM -0800, Christoph Lameter wrote: > On Fri, 29 Feb 2008, Andrea Arcangeli wrote: > > > On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 01:03:16PM -0800, Christoph Lameter wrote: > > > That means we need both the anon_vma locks and the i_mmap_lock to become > > > semaphores. I think semaphores are better than mutexes. Rik and Lee saw > > > some performance improvements because list can be traversed in parallel > > > when the anon_vma lock is switched to be a rw lock. > > > > The improvement was with a rw spinlock IIRC, so I don't see how it's > > related to this. > > AFAICT The rw semaphore fastpath is similar in performance to a rw > spinlock. read side is taken in the slow path. write side is taken in the fast path. pagefault is fast path, VM during swapping is slow path. > > Perhaps the rwlock spinlock can be changed to a rw semaphore without > > measurable overscheduling in the fast path. However theoretically > > Overscheduling? You mean overhead? The only possible overhead that a rw semaphore could ever generate vs a rw lock is overscheduling. > > speaking the rw_lock spinlock is more efficient than a rw semaphore in > > case of a little contention during the page fault fast path because > > the critical section is just a list_add so it'd be overkill to > > schedule while waiting. That's why currently it's a spinlock (or rw > > spinlock). > > On the other hand a semaphore puts the process to sleep and may actually > improve performance because there is less time spend in a busy loop. > Other processes may do something useful and we stay off the contended > cacheline reducing traffic on the interconnect. Yes, that's the positive side, the negative side is that you'll put the task in uninterruptible sleep and call schedule() and require a wakeup, because a list_add taking <1usec is running in the other cpu. No other downside. But that's the only reason it's a spinlock right now, infact there can't be any other reason. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/