3201de46a2
Yan Zhai says:
====================
Report RCU QS for busy network kthreads
This changeset fixes a common problem for busy networking kthreads.
These threads, e.g. NAPI threads, typically will do:
* polling a batch of packets
* if there are more work, call cond_resched() to allow scheduling
* continue to poll more packets when rx queue is not empty
We observed this being a problem in production, since it can block RCU
tasks from making progress under heavy load. Investigation indicates
that just calling cond_resched() is insufficient for RCU tasks to reach
quiescent states. This also has the side effect of frequently clearing
the TIF_NEED_RESCHED flag on voluntary preempt kernels. As a result,
schedule() will not be called in these circumstances, despite schedule()
in fact provides required quiescent states. This at least affects NAPI
threads, napi_busy_loop, and also cpumap kthread.
By reporting RCU QSes in these kthreads periodically before cond_resched, the
blocked RCU waiters can correctly progress. Instead of just reporting QS for
RCU tasks, these code share the same concern as noted in the commit
d28139c4e967 ("rcu: Apply RCU-bh QSes to RCU-sched and RCU-preempt when safe").
So report a consolidated QS for safety.
It is worth noting that, although this problem is reproducible in
napi_busy_loop, it only shows up when setting the polling interval to as high
as 2ms, which is far larger than recommended 50us-100us in the documentation.
So napi_busy_loop is left untouched.
Lastly, this does not affect RT kernels, which does not enter the scheduler
through cond_resched(). Without the mentioned side effect, schedule() will
be called time by time, and clear the RCU task holdouts.
V4: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/cover.1710525524.git.yan@cloudflare.com/
V3: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20240314145459.7b3aedf1@kernel.org/t/
V2: https://lore.kernel.org/bpf/ZeFPz4D121TgvCje@debian.debian/
V1: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/Zd4DXTyCf17lcTfq@debian.debian/#t
====================
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/cover.1710877680.git.yan@cloudflare.com
Signed-off-by: Jakub Kicinski <kuba@kernel.org>
Linux kernel
============
There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.
In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``. The formatted documentation can also be read online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/
There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the ReStructured Text markup notation.
Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.