linux-stable/kernel/sched
Eric W. Biederman 5311a98fef tasks, sched/core: RCUify the assignment of rq->curr
The current task on the runqueue is currently read with rcu_dereference().

To obtain ordinary RCU semantics for an rcu_dereference() of rq->curr it needs
to be paired with rcu_assign_pointer() of rq->curr.  Which provides the
memory barrier necessary to order assignments to the task_struct
and the assignment to rq->curr.

Unfortunately the assignment of rq->curr in __schedule is a hot path,
and it has already been show that additional barriers in that code
will reduce the performance of the scheduler.  So I will attempt to
describe below why you can effectively have ordinary RCU semantics
without any additional barriers.

The assignment of rq->curr in init_idle is a slow path called once
per cpu and that can use rcu_assign_pointer() without any concerns.

As I write this there are effectively two users of rcu_dereference() on
rq->curr.  There is the membarrier code in kernel/sched/membarrier.c
that only looks at "->mm" after the rcu_dereference().  Then there is
task_numa_compare() in kernel/sched/fair.c.  My best reading of the
code shows that task_numa_compare only access: "->flags",
"->cpus_ptr", "->numa_group", "->numa_faults[]",
"->total_numa_faults", and "->se.cfs_rq".

The code in __schedule() essentially does:
	rq_lock(...);
	smp_mb__after_spinlock();

	next = pick_next_task(...);
	rq->curr = next;

	context_switch(prev, next);

At the start of the function the rq_lock/smp_mb__after_spinlock
pair provides a full memory barrier.  Further there is a full memory barrier
in context_switch().

This means that any task that has already run and modified itself (the
common case) has already seen two memory barriers before __schedule()
runs and begins executing.  A task that modifies itself then sees a
third full memory barrier pair with the rq_lock();

For a brand new task that is enqueued with wake_up_new_task() there
are the memory barriers present from the taking and release the
pi_lock and the rq_lock as the processes is enqueued as well as the
full memory barrier at the start of __schedule() assuming __schedule()
happens on the same cpu.

This means that by the time we reach the assignment of rq->curr
except for values on the task struct modified in pick_next_task
the code has the same guarantees as if it used rcu_assign_pointer().

Reading through all of the implementations of pick_next_task it
appears pick_next_task is limited to modifying the task_struct fields
"->se", "->rt", "->dl".  These fields are the sched_entity structures
of the varies schedulers.

Further "->se.cfs_rq" is only changed in cgroup attach/move operations
initialized by userspace.

Unless I have missed something this means that in practice that the
users of "rcu_dereference(rq->curr)" get normal RCU semantics of
rcu_dereference() for the fields the care about, despite the
assignment of rq->curr in __schedule() ot using rcu_assign_pointer.

Signed-off-by: Eric W. Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Chris Metcalf <cmetcalf@ezchip.com>
Cc: Christoph Lameter <cl@linux.com>
Cc: Davidlohr Bueso <dave@stgolabs.net>
Cc: Kirill Tkhai <tkhai@yandex.ru>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Cc: Mike Galbraith <efault@gmx.de>
Cc: Oleg Nesterov <oleg@redhat.com>
Cc: Paul E. McKenney <paulmck@kernel.org>
Cc: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@infradead.org>
Cc: Russell King - ARM Linux admin <linux@armlinux.org.uk>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20190903200603.GW2349@hirez.programming.kicks-ass.net
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
2019-09-25 17:42:29 +02:00
..
autogroup.c sched/autogroup: Make autogroup_path() always available 2019-06-24 19:23:40 +02:00
autogroup.h
clock.c treewide: Add SPDX license identifier for missed files 2019-05-21 10:50:45 +02:00
completion.c sched/Documentation: Update wake_up() & co. memory-barrier guarantees 2018-07-17 09:30:34 +02:00
core.c tasks, sched/core: RCUify the assignment of rq->curr 2019-09-25 17:42:29 +02:00
cpuacct.c
cpudeadline.c Linux 5.2-rc5 2019-06-17 12:12:27 +02:00
cpudeadline.h
cpufreq.c sched/cpufreq: Annotate cpufreq_update_util_data pointer with __rcu 2019-04-03 12:34:31 +02:00
cpufreq_schedutil.c Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2019-09-16 17:25:49 -07:00
cpupri.c Linux 5.2-rc5 2019-06-17 12:12:27 +02:00
cpupri.h
cputime.c treewide: Add SPDX license identifier for missed files 2019-05-21 10:50:45 +02:00
deadline.c Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2019-09-16 17:25:49 -07:00
debug.c Linux 5.2-rc6 2019-06-24 19:19:53 +02:00
fair.c tasks, sched/core: With a grace period after finish_task_switch(), remove unnecessary code 2019-09-25 17:42:29 +02:00
features.h sched/fair: Replace source_load() & target_load() with weighted_cpuload() 2019-06-03 11:49:39 +02:00
idle.c Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2019-09-16 17:25:49 -07:00
isolation.c sched/isolation: Prefer housekeeping CPU in local node 2019-07-25 15:51:55 +02:00
loadavg.c sched: loadavg: make calc_load_n() public 2018-10-26 16:26:32 -07:00
Makefile psi: pressure stall information for CPU, memory, and IO 2018-10-26 16:26:32 -07:00
membarrier.c tasks, sched/core: With a grace period after finish_task_switch(), remove unnecessary code 2019-09-25 17:42:29 +02:00
pelt.c sched/debug: Add new tracepoint to track PELT at se level 2019-06-24 19:23:42 +02:00
pelt.h sched/topology: Remove unused 'sd' parameter from arch_scale_cpu_capacity() 2019-06-24 19:23:39 +02:00
psi.c Merge branch 'sched-core-for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/tip 2019-09-16 17:25:49 -07:00
rt.c sched: Rework pick_next_task() slow-path 2019-08-08 09:09:31 +02:00
sched-pelt.h sched/fair: Fix "runnable_avg_yN_inv" not used warnings 2019-06-17 12:15:58 +02:00
sched.h Merge branch 'sched/rt' into sched/core, to pick up -rt changes 2019-09-16 14:05:04 +02:00
stats.c
stats.h sched/stats: Fix unlikely() use of sched_info_on() 2019-07-25 15:51:55 +02:00
stop_task.c sched: Rework pick_next_task() slow-path 2019-08-08 09:09:31 +02:00
swait.c kernel/sched/: remove caller signal_pending branch predictions 2019-01-04 13:13:48 -08:00
topology.c sched/topology: Improve load balancing on AMD EPYC systems 2019-09-03 09:17:37 +02:00
wait.c sched/wait: Deduplicate code with do-while 2019-06-24 19:23:40 +02:00
wait_bit.c treewide: Add SPDX license identifier for missed files 2019-05-21 10:50:45 +02:00