Re: [RFC PATCH 1/2] locking: add mutex_lock_nospin()

[David Laight]

On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 15:57:42 -0500
Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On Wed, 4 Mar 2026 09:54:15 +0000
> David Laight <david.laight.linux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > That might still be an issue if a high priority process is spinning.
> > But a %sys spike doesn't imply a latency spike.
> > 
> > Is this using the osq_lock.c code?
> > That will have problems on overprovisioned VMs, it tries to find out
> > whether the hypervisor has switched out - but ISTR that is flawed.
> > 
> > In reality a spin lock shouldn't be held for long enough to cause
> > any kind latency issue.
> > So something in the code that reads the list of filter functions
> > needs to be done differently so that the lock isn't held for as long.  
> 
> It's not a spinlock, it's an adaptive mutex which spins while the owner of
> the mutex is also still running on the CPU. If the spinner CPU triggers a
> NEED_RESCHED or the owner goes to sleep, the spinner stops spinning and
> goes to sleep too.

I think half my brain knew that - otherwise I wouldn't have mentioned
the osq_lock.c code.
That all reminded me I've a patch that optimises that code a bit.
But I do remember thinking it ought to have a 'I been spinning long
enough, time to sleep' path.

	David 

> 
> Honestly, this still looks like a non-issue or a corner case that I don't
> think requires these changes.
> 
> This looks like one of those "Patient: Doctor it hurts me when I do this.
> Doctor: Then don't do that." cases.
> 
> Why is a production system having multiple users cat
> avaliable_filter_functions to begin with?
> 
> -- Steve