Re: [PATCH] tracing: Cleanup the convoluted softirq tracepoints

From: Thomas Gleixner
Date: Tue Oct 19 2010 - 15:50:41 EST


On Tue, 19 Oct 2010, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
> * Thomas Gleixner (tglx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> > On Tue, 19 Oct 2010, Steven Rostedt wrote:
> as an excuse for adding extra performance impact to kernel code, because when it
> will be replaced by asm gotos, all that will be left is the performance impact
> inappropriately justified as insignificant compared to the impact of the old
> tracepoint scheme.

Can you at one point just stop your tracing lectures and look at the
facts ?

The impact of a sensible tracepoint design on the code in question
before kstat_incr_softirqs_this_cpu() was added would have been a mere
_FIVE_ bytes of text. But the original tracepoint code itself is
_TWENTY_ bytes of text larger.

So we trade horrible code plus 20 bytes text against 5 bytes of text
in the hotpath. And you tell me that these _FIVE_ bytes are impacting
performance so much that it's significant.

Now with kstat_incr_softirqs_this_cpu() the impact is zero, it even
removes code.

And talking about non impact of disabled trace points. The tracepoint
in question which made me look at the code results in deinlining
__raise_softirq_irqsoff() in net/dev/core.c. There goes your theory.

So no, you _cannot_ tell what impact a tracepoint has in reality
except by looking at the assembly output.

And what scares me way more is the size of a single tracepoint in a
code file.

Just adding "trace_softirq_entry(nr);" adds 88 bytes of text. So
that's optimized tracing code ?

All it's supposed to do is:

if (enabled)
trace_foo(nr);

Replace "if (enabled)" with your favourite code patching jump label
whatever magic. The above stupid version takes about 28, but the
"optimized" tracing code makes that 88. Brilliant. That's inlining
utter shite for no good reason. WTF is it necessary to inline all that
gunk ?

Please spare me the "jump label will make this less intrusive"
lecture. I'm not interested at all.

Let's instead look at some more facts:

#include <linux/interrupt.h>
#include <linux/module.h>

#include <trace/events/irq.h>

static struct softirq_action softirq_vec[NR_SOFTIRQS];

void test(struct softirq_action *h)
{
trace_softirq_entry(h - softirq_vec);

h->action(h);
}

Compile this code with GCC 4.5 with and without jump labels (zap the
select HAVE_ARCH_JUMP_LABEL line in arch/x86/Kconfig)

So now the !jumplabel case gives us:

../build/kernel/soft.o: file format elf64-x86-64

Disassembly of section .text:

0000000000000000 <test>:
0: 55 push %rbp
1: 48 89 e5 mov %rsp,%rbp
4: 41 55 push %r13
6: 49 89 fd mov %rdi,%r13
9: 49 81 ed 00 00 00 00 sub $0x0,%r13
10: 41 54 push %r12
12: 49 c1 ed 03 shr $0x3,%r13
16: 49 89 fc mov %rdi,%r12
19: 53 push %rbx
1a: 48 83 ec 08 sub $0x8,%rsp
1e: 83 3d 00 00 00 00 00 cmpl $0x0,0x0(%rip) # 25 <test+0x25>
25: 74 4d je 74 <test+0x74>
27: 65 48 8b 04 25 00 00 mov %gs:0x0,%rax
2e: 00 00
30: ff 80 44 e0 ff ff incl -0x1fbc(%rax)
36: 48 8b 1d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rbx # 3d <test+0x3d>
3d: 48 85 db test %rbx,%rbx
40: 74 13 je 55 <test+0x55>
42: 48 8b 7b 08 mov 0x8(%rbx),%rdi
46: 44 89 ee mov %r13d,%esi
49: ff 13 callq *(%rbx)
4b: 48 83 c3 10 add $0x10,%rbx
4f: 48 83 3b 00 cmpq $0x0,(%rbx)
53: eb eb jmp 40 <test+0x40>
55: 65 48 8b 04 25 00 00 mov %gs:0x0,%rax
5c: 00 00
5e: ff 88 44 e0 ff ff decl -0x1fbc(%rax)
64: 48 8b 80 38 e0 ff ff mov -0x1fc8(%rax),%rax
6b: a8 08 test $0x8,%al
6d: 74 05 je 74 <test+0x74>
6f: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 74 <test+0x74>
74: 4c 89 e7 mov %r12,%rdi
77: 41 ff 14 24 callq *(%r12)
7b: 58 pop %rax
7c: 5b pop %rbx
7d: 41 5c pop %r12
7f: 41 5d pop %r13
81: c9 leaveq
82: c3 retq

The jumplabel=y case gives:

../build/kernel/soft.o: file format elf64-x86-64

Disassembly of section .text:

0000000000000000 <test>:
0: 55 push %rbp
1: 48 89 e5 mov %rsp,%rbp
4: 41 55 push %r13
6: 49 89 fd mov %rdi,%r13
9: 49 81 ed 00 00 00 00 sub $0x0,%r13
10: 41 54 push %r12
12: 49 c1 ed 03 shr $0x3,%r13
16: 49 89 fc mov %rdi,%r12
19: 53 push %rbx
1a: 48 83 ec 08 sub $0x8,%rsp
1e: e9 00 00 00 00 jmpq 23 <test+0x23>
23: eb 4d jmp 72 <test+0x72>
25: 65 48 8b 04 25 00 00 mov %gs:0x0,%rax
2c: 00 00
2e: ff 80 44 e0 ff ff incl -0x1fbc(%rax)
34: 48 8b 1d 00 00 00 00 mov 0x0(%rip),%rbx # 3b <test+0x3b>
3b: 48 85 db test %rbx,%rbx
3e: 74 13 je 53 <test+0x53>
40: 48 8b 7b 08 mov 0x8(%rbx),%rdi
44: 44 89 ee mov %r13d,%esi
47: ff 13 callq *(%rbx)
49: 48 83 c3 10 add $0x10,%rbx
4d: 48 83 3b 00 cmpq $0x0,(%rbx)
51: eb eb jmp 3e <test+0x3e>
53: 65 48 8b 04 25 00 00 mov %gs:0x0,%rax
5a: 00 00
5c: ff 88 44 e0 ff ff decl -0x1fbc(%rax)
62: 48 8b 80 38 e0 ff ff mov -0x1fc8(%rax),%rax
69: a8 08 test $0x8,%al
6b: 74 05 je 72 <test+0x72>
6d: e8 00 00 00 00 callq 72 <test+0x72>
72: 4c 89 e7 mov %r12,%rdi
75: 41 ff 14 24 callq *(%r12)
79: 58 pop %rax
7a: 5b pop %rbx
7b: 41 5c pop %r12
7d: 41 5d pop %r13
7f: c9 leaveq
80: c3 retq

So that saves _TWO_ bytes of text and replaces:

- 1e: 83 3d 00 00 00 00 00 cmpl $0x0,0x0(%rip) # 25 <test+0x25>
- 25: 74 4d je 74 <test+0x74>
+ 1e: e9 00 00 00 00 jmpq 23 <test+0x23>
+ 23: eb 4d jmp 72 <test+0x72>

So it trades a conditional vs. two jumps ? WTF ??

I thought that jumplabel magic was supposed to get rid of the jump
over the tracing code ? In fact it adds another jump. Whatfor ?

Now even worse, when you NOP out the jmpq then your tracepoint is
still not enabled. Brilliant !

Did you guys ever look at the assembly output of that insane shite you
are advertising with lengthy explanations ?

Obviously _NOT_

Come back when you can show me a clean imlementation of all this crap
which reproduces with my jumplabel enabled stock compiler. And please
just send me a patch w/o the blurb.

And sane looks like:

jmpq 2f <---- This gets noped out
1:
mov %r12,%rdi
callq *(%r12)
[whatever cleanup it takes ]
leaveq
retq

2f:
[tracing gunk]
jmp 1b

And further I want to see the tracing gunk in a minimal size so the
net/core/dev.c deinlining does not happen.

Thanks,

tglx

P.S.: It might be helpful and polite if you'd take off your tracing
blinkers from time to time.
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